law enforcement community and our department of violence prevention which brings forth different resources around violence intervention, violence interruption and street outreach. we need to reach those that continue to pick up firearms, but, you know, most difficultly they continue to use those firearms in our community to take people s lives. it really is going to take those that care about people in our community, those that have loved ones that continue to utilize firearms and those that have been victimized, people who have experienced tragedies to come together and say we need to stop the violence in our community, because we all feel unsafe at this point. chief armstrong, my producer an i spent some time with the nypd on patrol and one thing nypd leaders cite is what they call the iron pipeline and that is sort of pipeline of weapons from southern states with liberal gun laws up to new york. and i wonder do you see similar where you are in california and how do they get in, is
your city? what can be done to stop it? first of all, al, we had this discussion the last time i spoke with you. we have seen gun violence peak during the last year, during covid shutdowns. and all of us in cities and towns across america are concerned about the prevalence of guns. we re concerned about repeat offenders using those guns and getting on top of it. the message that i sent and i shared with the president of the united states and the attorney general, and i m very happy that they have been responsive to it is that we need to get our entire criminal justice system up and running. everything this we do as a city to prevent crime from violence interruption to summer jobs programs all of thosenesst things are happening and in person. we also need to make sure, however, that enforcement and accountability systems are also open in person and in place that
violence interruption should be doing which is taking care of stuff. the d.c. police budget cuts $15 million, but the office of neighborhood safety and engagement 2017 was $2.1 million. they are now proposing it go up to $28 million. what happened if they just put that money towards good old law enforcement? that s right. law enforcement departments here have great community policing programs. so i don t understand what that what the problem is from that perspective. it s very important for law enforcement in the communities to know the business owners, the citizens, and most departments across the united states as we know have very positive interactions with the public and their communities. so what we have seen here is basically law enforcement has been sidelined. we know that their responsibilities have been limited. they have been told how to do their jobs by nonsubject matter
which is how we grow public safety. keep people safe by addressing the crisis of mental health in this country. i will give you one example right now, justin wallace, a 10-year-old boy, shot and killed on the far rockaways. one of the most effective tools we ve had at preventing a gun being shot in the first place is community based violence interruption. there were violent interrupters in the community saying they didn t have enough staff, that they need social workers and trauma and mental health response to keep communities safer. that s what we need to be talking about in this race and that s what i m going to do as mayor. we re almost out of time. one last question. elections are all about change. you would be new york city s first female black mayor. on the other hand you used to work for bill de blasio.