A hearing on crime held by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday took several surprising turns, including when a Democrat criticized New York's response to the city's crime problem.
On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee, led by Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan, held a hearing in New York City to discuss violent crime and District Attorney Alvin Bragg's policies. The hearing was criticized as a politicized response to Bragg's decision to indict former President Donald Trump and turned into a debate about who is to blame for crime in Democrat and Republican cities.
Democratic New York City Council member Robert F. Holden spoke early in the hearing and criticized Bragg's policies.
"On his first day in office, Bragg issued a memo that would decriminalize a broad range of offenses and reduce charges for violent crime," Holden said. "This was a signal for every criminal that it was open season on law-abiding citizens in New York....These failed progressive policies reverse 30 years of law and order delivered to the city by the hardworking men and women of the NYPD and professional prosecutors that put victims' rights ahead of criminals."
New York recorded 488 homicides during 2021, which is indeed an increase from previous years. Murders in New York declined in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, bottoming out in 2017. They again dropped in 2022 to 438. The city also recorded 38,645 violent crimes and 64,096 property crimes, according to New York Police Department data. This equates to roughly 5.76 murders, 456 violent crimes and 757 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2021.
New York City's crime rates have captured a national audience and stores have put products behind locked plastic barriers because of increased theft in stores. However, during Monday's hearing, several people compared New York City's crime rate to other Republican-led cities.
Jim Kessler, the co-founder and senior vice president for policy for Third Way, provided an array of crime stats in New York City and spoke about how they compare to other cities across the nation.
Kessler said that "New York City is not only safer than most large cities in America, it is safer than most cities of any size, and on a per capita basis, New York City is safer than most of the states of the members sitting...on the majority side."
Kessler went on to say that Ohio's murder rate was higher than the rate in New York City in 2020.
Shortly after Kessler read off numerous crime trends in New York City and how they compare to other cities, Representative David Cicilline, a Democratic member of the committee, asked Jordan if the hearing could be moved to Ohio.
Representative Zoe Lofgren, another Democratic member on the committee, also spoke about the witnesses and said she felt they were being "used for a political purpose" by the Republican members, sparking a response from the crowd, which appeared to disagree.
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz also issued a response to Lofgren's comments and asked many of the witnesses if they felt used.
"I'm a willing participant," witness Madeline Brame, the mother of a homicide victim, said in response.
Democratic member Henry Johnson also criticized Jordan and the location of the hearing, which prompted many audience members to speak out in disagreement. Jordan called for order in the hearing and warned that some could be asked to leave if they continued to interrupt. Later on, an individual in the audience was escorted out of the hearing by police officers.
Newsweek previously reached out to Jordan's press secretary for comment via email.
Update: 04/18/23 6:01 p.m. EDT—This article has been updated with additional context.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
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