i can tell you right now we re down about nearly 100 officers in st. paul and we need more cops. as you stated previously, we reached a record number of homicides. we ve had a couple more in the place few days and i clipsed the record by four homicides. you mentioned about the term of reimagining public safety. what s happening right now is not imaginary, it is real. these are real victims of real crimes and we need more cops. it will take a lot of time to get back to a place where our communities feel as safe as they once did. benjamin: james, how would you like to see this money spent? if there is money coming what s the best way for it to be put to use? i think, ben, the money is good. it s a great start. certainly you can hire more police, build agencies that lost so many. you can rehire but as i ve said in my earlier statement, how are you who are you going to recruit? how are you going to retain the
however he framed it. that s an inappropriate response. who speaks for the real victims in our communities and cities? benjamin: james talks about the 1.6 billion that will be distributed to cities and towns and what garland said. it will deliver critical public safety resources helping public safety professionals, local agencies and nonprofit organizations confront these serious challenges. i suppose the irony is that some of these cities have called to defund the police. is this level of funding what cities need? what should be done with that money? good morning, benjamin and thank you for having me. i can tell you from our perspective in st. paul we need that money. d.o.j. allocated enough money to provide us with 30 more police officers. unfortunately our city leadership has not made a decision whether or not we ll accept that money.
experienced police officers that are there? that s the real issue. and then when we talk about violent crime, where are we going to stop just talking about police and hold these progressive judges and d.a.s who are also public servants but they are more political servants who are doing nothing? that s the real issue. unfortunately we don t have enough police chiefs and progressive mayors standing up and holding these folks accountable. let s face it, look at chicago. lori lightfoot. she has been getting a big pass, 911 operator said it best. they are sick and tired of it. they don t feel safe. she needs to be held accountable. accountability looks like this, vote, vote, vote in 2022. put in real leaders and get the political servants out of office. talk to me about the morale among the police where you are.
the president wants the supreme court to overrule the lower court and end the policy saying quote, mpp is not the best tool for deterring unlawful immigration. that mpp exposes my grants to unacceptable risk and yet it detracts from the executive s foreign relations efforts to manage regional migration. the policy requires migrants to remain in mexico will until a u.s. judge hears their asylum claim. it can take months or years exposing migrants to unacceptable risks. these acts of violence are undertaken with the complicity of corrupt officials in mexico with corrupt border agents and corrupt police, national guard and so it continues to be extremely worrying to us. migrants know they are exposed to all the risks when they choose to journey to seek work in the u.s. most are not fleeing persecution, illegal migration fell under mpp until biden
democrats haven t passed any voting rights legislation, raised the minimum wage and any negotiations around police or gun reform have failed. not to mention democrats could not extend a nationwide eviction moratorium or cancel student debt. still haven t worked out how to pass immigration reform. with the mid-terms around the corner the left is feeling a lot of pressure to give the president some much-needed agenda wins starting with build back better. we know there is still work to be done and why we want to pass this important initiative to help families in the ways we have just talked about. also we re pushing ahead with the freedom to vote act. working at a caucus to make sure we get all 50 of our members to find a path to getting this done. and january will be the make or break month for doing that. lots of goals. we ll see if it translates to