Biden visits New York mayor to discuss gun crime

US president and Eric Adams sought to deflect criticism that they are soft on crime

US President Joe Biden spoke at an event on Thursday with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul regarding gun violence strategies. AP

US President Joe Biden visited New York City on Thursday for talks with Mayor Eric Adams about curbing gun violence in an effort to blunt criticism from the right after killings of police officers and residents has rattled the city.

Mr Biden and US Attorney General Merrick Garland made the trip after two police officers were fatally shot while responding to an emergency call and a teenage cashier was killed during a robbery at a fast-food restaurant last month.

The deaths were part of an overall rise in gun violence in US cities including Chicago and Philadelphia, which has been linked to social disarray due to the Covid-19 pandemic and frayed relations between minorities and the police.

"Every day in this country 316 people are shot; 106 are killed," Mr Biden said.

"Enough is enough."

The president called for better tracking of so-called ghost guns and other unregistered weapons. His administration has boosted federal funding for more patrol officers and local anti-violence programmes.

Mr Adams, who calls himself "the Biden of Brooklyn", pushes for tougher policing, more undercover officers, bigger payouts to informers and investment in technology, including facial-recognition programmes and more surveillance cameras.

The two Democrats sought to counter Republican claims that the party is soft on crime before midterm elections this November, while trying not to alienate liberals who seek sweeping reforms to tackle racism in police forces.

New York state Governor Kathy Hochul also attended the event.

"The answer is not to abandon our streets," Mr Biden said. "The answer is not to defund the police. It is to give you the tools, the training, the funding."

Mr Biden visited New York Police headquarters and later went to a school in the borough of Queens to meet community leaders for talks on crime prevention.

A total of 488 people were murdered in New York last year, well below levels in the early 1990s, when the city averaged more than 2,000 killings annually.

Six New York police officers have been shot so far this year. Two of them — Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27 — died from injuries sustained while answering a domestic disturbance call in Harlem, in Upper Manhattan, on January 21.

But New Yorkers were already rattled. On January 9, Kristal Bayron-Nieves, 19, a Puerto Rican cashier at a Burger King in East Harlem, was shot and killed in a late-night robbery at the fast-food restaurant.

A study released last month by the Council on Criminal Justice research group showed murders in 22 American cities grew by 5 per cent last year — and 44 per cent above 2019 levels.

A Gallup opinion poll in early January found that only 24 per cent of voters were very or somewhat satisfied with policies to reduce or control crime, down from 47 per cent against the previous year. Republicans were more concerned than Democrats.

Joe Gamaldi, national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, has been one of a chorus of voices accusing Mr Biden of being soft on crime.

"Our cities are war zones, our country is in turmoil and police officers are being hunted in the streets. Where are you, Mr President?" he asked on Fox News last week.