Holding City Leaders Accountable for Rising Violence and Public Disorder

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well with us today is Fernando Montel, a businessman, an activist, a political type, ran for mayor a few times in the twenty twenty one primary, and is the founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, spokeswoman, a spokesperson for the Hispanics across the country. Well, Fernando, you’ve done it. You’ve done it all to defend the

0:32 Hispanic community. You’ve done it all to defend business people, whether it’s Bodega’s, whether it’s taxis. Give us an update, New York. Are we in trouble?

0:42 Speaker 2 Well, the first of all, thank god it’s Sunday, because we’ve had a horrible week. And of course, you know, I tried to defend my community as best as I possibly can. John, The problem is is sometimes the community doesn’t want to be a defense. What goes on, the behavior that goes on after parades, the behavior that goes

1:06 on against our law enforcement officers, the behavior that’s taken place in New York City right now is just shameful, and I’m embarrassed at sometimes that the behavior that the communities that I represent take on. It’s been a terrible week.

1:28 A few cab drivers got shot in the face. A twelve year old kid gets killed just riding his bicycle in the Bronx fronting Stor bodega and dies. I mean, things are out of control in New York City. And meantime, our mayor, who does some things good and a lot of things bad, was two blocks away from where this

1:52 kid got shot, but he decided to stay at the parade instead of coming and giving his condolences to the family of Jacob. You know. So it’s been a terrible week for us as an industry, at taxi industry and as a bodega industry, and things need to change.

2:10 Speaker 1 Now, you’re a host on WABC H and every Sunday at six o’clock ain’t gonna be on tonight. Do you know what you’re talking about yet?

2:20 Speaker 2 Well, of course, this week we’re going to be speaking about what’s going on in the city of New York, especially Times Square. Times Square is like the center of the universe, and there’s a lot of disorderly things going on there. So we’ll be speaking with Tom Harris on no excuses, he’s the president of the Times Square Alliance.

2:42 We will be speaking with Councilman James Gennaro about the horse carriage industry that’s unjustly being put out of business or some people want them out of business, and we need to stop that. We need to we need to have a vibrant city. You’ve got to London. There are horse caverage. You got to stain, there are horse carriages.

3:03 You go to France, they are a horse guard. Everywhere around the world there are horse garages. Tell me why we can’t have horse carriages in New York City. We should expand the industry rather than to destroy the industry.

3:16 Speaker 1 Well, somebody. The way I understand that, Fernando, the way I understand it is there’s the guys that owned of the barns where the horses are on the eleventh Avenue. They’re in the real estate business and they’re trying to put the horse people out of business. And they should be investigated to who they made political contributions to and

3:37 how much they made it to.

3:39 Speaker 2 You know, that’s that’s You’re absolutely right. It’s all about political contributions. Who you can put in your pocket because a lot of these elected officials, these politicians are in the pocket of somebody, somebody that wrote them a big check.

3:54 We have enough New York City Parks to be able to put in the store that they need to be able to keep these horses in the city. Central Park itself has plenty of space where these horses can be housed.

4:09 I mean, there’s no excuse to really put these people out of business. And we’re going to be speaking about that. And I’m a proud contributor at WABC. I’m a proud immigrant that was given the opportunity to speak about what’s going on in my community at the radio station that’s the most listened to radio station the nation, and I

4:32 thank you for that. But I’ll tell you one thing. Without WABC, this city would go rogue because right now every radio station is in Mandami’s corner. And why I don’t know. So I’m happy that WABC says the truth and speaks the common sense that we need to hear.

4:55 Speaker 1 Well, I like, you know something, I gotta be truthful because I’m always truthful. You I like Mondamie is a person. I’ve met with him and I like him, but I don’t like some of the proposals that he’s coming up with.

5:09 Speaker 2 I’ve always said if I should meet Mandamie, I will probably like him. I attended one of his press conferences and they were shaken in their boots because I was in the room. They thought I was going to say something to him inappropriate. They thought that I was going to attack him. That’s not who I am. I don’t

5:27 attack people. I speak the truth. I tell them the truth when I have to tell them. And now I have the power of the mic where I’m able to speak the truth and say what is really going on in New York City Because a lot of people just talk, but I’m on the streets. I see what’s going on

5:48 in this city. And through w IBC, I’m able to tell the nation what’s going on in New York City, not just New Yorkers, the nation. And I appreciate the opportunity y’all will do that.

6:01 Speaker 1 You need more time to get your voice to all the people. Thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning. I’ll be listening today on Sunday at six o’clock, I’ll be listening to you talking about more of these same subjects. And God bless you, God bless America.

6:19 Speaker 2 God bless you too. John