Critics Say President Biden's Promises To Invest In Violence Intervention Teams, Police Fall Short
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- President Joe Biden met with violence intervention teams in New York City on Thursday.
He says investing in those teams, along with police departments, is the answer to safer cities, but as CBS2's Ali Bauman reports, critics argue those investments fall short of what New Yorkers need.
Standing in a Queens public school Thursday, Biden met with crisis management teams who detailed their wholistic approach to preventing violence.
"There's an intersectionality around inequity, so education when done wrong is violence. When health needs are not met in a community, that's a form of violence. It contributes to the violence," said K. Bain, founder of Community Capacity Development.
They are one of several Cure Violence groups in the city -- civilians trained to mediate neighborhood conflicts.
"The men and women who have been closest to the problem are the best ones, if you arm them with the resources, to be the ones that have the solution," said Andre Mitchell, with Man Up! Inc.
Biden touted historic levels of funding, for both community-based violence intervention programs, as well as for cities and states to put more cops on the streets.
"We're not about defunding, we're about funding and providing the additional services you need beyond someone with a gun strapped to their shoulders," Biden said.
But soon after the president's visit was over, advocacy groups rallied in Harlem, saying more police does not mean safer streets.
"We want to defund the police and invest in our communities, and we don't want that sentence cut in half," said Celina Trowell, with Vocal-NY.
Trowell says only investing in police and violence interrupters falls short of the demands from protestors in 2020, which include addressing the root causes of violence.
"I think what is being missed, I think what's being ignored is that the Black and brown community for the longest time has been crying for investments of resources. We need access to health care, we need access to education," she said. "We need true, true investments into our communities."
After visiting with Biden, Mayor Eric Adams said getting the city back on track requires both short- and long-term investments.
"The goal is to fix the cycle of poverty and crime, as well as deal with the immediate crime," Adams said.
Adams says he aims to have crisis management teams in every neighborhood that's considered a hot spot for violence and City Hall is already crunching the numbers to figure out how much it will cost to set those up.
