Biden, in NYC, urges Congress to raise funding for local police

President Joe Biden on Thursday, speaking from NYPD headquarters, called on Congress to boost funding for local police and unveiled new steps his administration is taking to crack down on illicit gun trafficking and the use of untraceable "ghost guns."

"The answer is not to defund the police, it’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors," Biden said at the top of a meeting with Mayor Eric Adams, top law enforcement officials and local lawmakers.

Biden also was joined by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who announced the launch of a "National Ghost Gun Enforcement Initiative" aimed at bolstering prosecution of those who commit crimes with the ready-to-assemble guns that are usually purchased online with no oversight.

The Justice Department also said it will boost resources to a series of federal task forces aimed at stopping the illegal flow of guns via what they describe as an "iron pipeline" of guns sold in the South, and transported up the East Coast.

Adams, who previously met with Biden at the White House in July to discuss gun violence reduction strategies, called for more federal support to address the rise of violent crime in New York City and nationwide. Adams said a "9/11-type response" was needed, referring to the collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"We want to break and destroy the iron pipeline that allows southern states in this country to produce weapons that end up on the streets and take the lives of our police officers," Adams said, speaking the day after funeral services were held for fallen NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora. His partner, Officer Jason Rivera, was laid to rest last week after both were killed responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem last month.

At the meeting, Biden paid homage to the fallen officers, saying they "are the who and what law enforcement ought to be," and he praised the response of Officer Sumit Sulan, who fatally shot the gunman.

NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, speaking at the event, noted that she was headed to visit an NYPD officer being released from the hospital after he was shot off-duty on Tuesday night during a robbery attempt. It was the sixth officer shooting since the start of the year.

"We've seen our citizens suffer from this violence — bystanders, unintended targets, babies and people simply trying to do their jobs," Sewell said. "We know this violence is not acceptable against our citizens or our police officers, and we know that it has to be stopped, and we know that it starts here."

Biden and Garland sat in on a meeting of the city’s Gun Violence Strategic Partnership, announcing the Justice Department's plans to expand the initiative to other cities. The panel of federal, state and local law enforcement leaders meets regularly to share intelligence and target repeat gun violence offenders.

Security was extra tight at NYPD headquarters before Biden's visit. Secret Service agents teamed with police to screen all civilian visitors, including those who normally worked in the building. Police sharpshooters were positioned on nearby rooftops and sanitation trucks blocked intersections near the building. Police dogs patrolled the hallways as well.

Biden also revived his call for Congress to pass a spending plan this year that would provide an additional $300 million to cities to boost community policing and $200 million for violence intervention programs. His call came as several Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation participated in the event, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove).

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James also attended the event. Hochul called the uptick in gun violence "not unique to New York," but "an American crisis" and said her proposed state budget boosted funding to local law enforcement.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), the presumptive GOP nominee for governor, in a statement argued that Biden's focus on illegal guns ignored other issues he believed should have been addressed, such as overhauling the state's bail laws, which Republicans have described as too lax.

"When someone is killed by being pushed in front of an oncoming subway train, when someone is beaten up just for being Asian or Jewish, when a small business has to permanently close its doors because of all the looting, we are being constantly reminded all day long that so many crimes have everything to do with entirely different reasons," Zeldin said.

Biden has long distanced himself from calls among some liberal Democrats to "defund the police" — a movement that favors directing government funding to social service programs aimed at addressing the underlying causes of crime. The president, like Adams -- a former police captain who campaigned on a tough-on-crime platform -- has sought over the past year to combat GOP characterizations that Democrats are soft on crime amid an uptick in crime spurred by the pandemic.

The president later visited a public school in Queens — PS 111 — to meet with the organizers of a community violence intervention program that in part teaches youth how to respond to conflicts without violence. Biden has called such programs critical to addressing the root causes of crime and previously proposed $5 billion for violence intervention programs in his Build Back Better social infrastructure package that has so far languished in the Senate.

With Anthony M. DeStefano