After more than 20 people were shot during another bloody weekend in New York, Andrew Yang, a leading candidate to become the city’s next mayor, stood outside a Bronx housing project and called for an immediate increase in the number of police officers who investigate gun crimes and patrol subways.
A year ago, protests over police brutality and racial injustice rocked cities across the country. Cries of “defund the police” and calls for reform echoed throughout the Democratic Party. But New York's mayoral contest suggests a different political reality is taking hold among Democrats as urban areas nationwide dig out from the coronavirus pandemic.
The election's outcome may provide a window into how voters prioritize issues in a post-pandemic society. That has significant implications for Democrats as they head toward the 2022 elections, when their control of Congress will be at stake — and as they continue to grapple with tensions between the moderate and more liberal voices within the party.
A poll conducted this month by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, found that nearly half of Democratic primary voters rank public safety as their top concern and that just 18% said they want fewer police patrolling their neighborhoods. A recent Emerson College poll also listed public safety as voters' top issue.
Polls have showed them among the top of the field, with progressives such as civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley lagging behind, although the race remains fluid. “There’s guns on the street. There’s increasing shootings. You can’t be blind to that,” Siegel said. “I’m convinced with Eric as mayor we will get a different NYPD.”
Support for the Black Lives Matter movement and dramatic police reform had become a litmus test for some Democrats. President Joe Biden largely side-stepped the issue as a candidate. Other moderate Democrats, even if they had never expressed support for slashing police budgets, found themselves on the defensive anyway.
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