Mayor Adams in Washington looking for migrant money.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Governor David Pattison and he is one common sense guy in Days with Us every Sunday for our Cats round Table, and he makes big news every Sunday in all the newspapers. A Governor Pattison, what are we up to today?

0:19 Speaker 2 Well, amid the issues of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and the presidential debates that were held in the Republican Party this week, and just a number of other things that are causing New Yorkers to feel culture. Well, an FBI report I believe that came back came out last Tuesday stating that there has never been a time

0:48 where there has been more possibility of attacks against Americans on American soil. There have been times when there were threats against the Jewish community, and threats against the bloody and you know, just threats against the government itself, but all these things seemed to be happening simultaneously. And it gives me a moment of pause because I remember when

1:12 the ship the coal was attacked, I believed in nineteen ninety eight, and we had a big event in Lower Manhattan about it, and I, you know, obviously was concerned, but I think back right before September eleventh, there were other FBI reports talking about possible infiltration into this country of terrorist forces, and I think a lot of people

1:36 just didn’t listen to it, you know, just didn’t think it was would happen. I at the time of September eleventh really didn’t know that much about Osama bin Laden, and boy, it was at a wake up call for all of us and we sure don’t needed to go through this again.

1:50 Speaker 1 So this is my way that now I didn’t know much about the word Muller’s in Iran because they’re the ones that pushed the button, paid off the Hamas to create the war, and I never knew the word Mueller’s, But now I know it, and they I have renamed them the Yosama bin LUNs of twenty twenty three.

2:14 Speaker 2 Well, that’s exactly what’s happening. And obviously there are tends to get some of those operators into this country and recavoc on our land, and that just can’t happen. And it’s one of those situations where this is one thing we’re all going to have to agree on, Republicans and Democrats in whatever your view is of how the country

2:43 is run and who should be the president and that type of thing. It was a report. It was you know, the national news services, CBS and NBC and ABC. They reported it, but it didn’t seem to go much further than that. And I’m hoping that they will because this is something that we’ve got to be very careful about. Still.

3:03 We have in this country a democratic society. We may dispute elections and that kind of thing, but we all try to come together after they’re over. We had that problem in two thousand with Al Gore running against President George W. Bush, and then we had to get in twenty twenty, of course, with Biden defeating Trump, and a

3:28 lot of people don’t like the results of that. But it cannot be the catalyst for division in this country on this subject. It’s just too serious, it’s too dangerous, and it is obviously an idea that I mean, think about Hamas so they attack Israel fifteent countries in the first two hours from the UN come out telling Israel

3:53 to exercise restraint. It would be is if somebody broke into your house and you start shooting back at them, and then the peacekeeping force tells you to come in and use restraints. I don’t mean to trivialize the comparison, but what I’m just saying is this is really serious and it’s kind of under the radar, and I just

4:12 wanted to use a little time this morning. You didn’t mind John to elevate it in our discussion as we move forward.

4:20 Speaker 1 Well it, thank you for doing that. The other big subjects in New York during the holiday season, it looks like the MTA is moving forward with congestion pricing, which you’ll create more disaster for our city. And you live in the inner city like I do in Manhattan, and we both hit live here, and you know every time

4:42 you come to the work from uptown Manhattan to downtown Manhattan, you’re going to pay a penalty. You know.

4:51 Speaker 2 It’s kind of interesting because I was very supportive of this plan when it was first brought up in two thousand and eight by Mayor Bloomberg. But even at that time, I remember that the mayor wanted to meet with the Assembly members and they wouldn’t meet with them about it, and it sounded all right to me. And obviously we

5:12 need the revenues that the governor says that would garner from this process. But there’s a whole lot of evidence that what may actually happen is it will dissuay people from coming to the city, which is what happened during the pandemic, and that was the revenue generating during the pandemic fell dramatically because people weren’t coming to the city.

5:36 They didn’t want to be around other people. In this case, it would just be people that don’t want to come to the city because they didn’t want to play those types of prices. And while they’re talking about Mayor Adams is talking about ways to allow some entities such as school buses and taxis to be able to have a

5:59 lower price. If they have a lower price, then you have to raise the fifteen dollars price for automobiles, and you might even have to raise the twenty four and thirty six dollars prices for the buses.

6:14 Speaker 1 So there they’re gonna charge, and governor they’re gonna charge a lot of money on the trucks. So every truck that gets delivered to a supermarkets or drug stores, it’s gonna be the consumer is gonna end up paying.

6:27 Speaker 2 Yeah, this is gonna be a difficult thing. I would really hope on this issue that I’m wrong. I’d really hope that it would be a revenue generator for the city. Obviously the city needs the money, Obviously the state needs the money. The MTA will will manage it. I’m not as critical of them as others are. I think they

6:50 know how to manage money. I was on that board for about five or six years. But what I would say is it is a it’s a slip. They made some good arguments. Apparently in London it worked, and some other places there was a great deal of objection and yet it actually was successful. But I think around this

7:13 metropolitan area, with people coming from New Jersey into the city every day and people coming from Connecticut into the city every day regularly, that this is a I really respect the NTA and the governor for moving forward because there’s a great deal of almost hostility to this plan, and you know, I like that they’re fighting for what

7:37 they believe is right. But it is a very slippery.

7:40 Speaker 1 Slope lasting revenue crime. All the politicians are telling people crime is down, arrest are down, but that’s a technicality. The arrest are down because the police officers are not making me arrest. Because it becomes a bureaucratic nightmare. They’re filling out paperwork and the person is not going to jail.

8:09 Speaker 2 I mean this situation that we read about in San Francisco and Chicago where people were going into drug stores and smashing the glass the casings where the supplies were and just walking out, and the police stood by and weren’t able to do anything because they were being told not to interfere. You know, there’s just a general change

8:33 in what we all once believed was the right thing to do. So, for instance, you know when I think the best time for Israel to really going after Hamas was directly after they were attacked. In other words, they should have just emptied the arsenal on Hamas at that time, because the more there was a discussion about it, the

8:54 more they were dissuade it from doing what they needed to do. And similarly, on the lower frequencies, when you think about crime going on in the city right now and in Manhattan, there are drug stores that are now closing.

9:08 You won’t even be able to find a place to fill your prescriptions. This is dangerous, and I think the only way to stop it is a strong presence of law enforcement and an immediate reaction if anybody does anything wrong.

9:25 In other words, you just can’t have this situation where the owners of the stores are just throwing up the hands and you, as a store owner yourself, your time knows what can happen if people start thinking you’re an easy target.

9:39 Speaker 1 Governor. One last question. I mean it’s a commissioner Seal said to us, and I think you might have been there that day where if we took three thousand, three hundred criminals, repeat of criminals off the streets permanently, and some of them are not curable because they have like ten arrests arrest twelve arrest the New York City, you’ll

10:02 be back to the New York City, meaning you love.

10:06 Speaker 2 It’s amazing that it’s actually such a low number of people and this is a good thing. And it’s a low number of people that resort to this type of violence and theft, and you know, individual attacks on New Yorkers.

10:25 And yet these predicate felons, meaning people who’ve committed crimes, have been convicted more than two or three times still somehow find a way to get and commit fourth, fifth, and sixth offense. The people who are being bailed out, who’ve had fifty to one hundred previous offenses. How could you have one hundred? Where would you find the time

10:48 to get arrested one hundred times in the city? And that’s I think really what has to be addressed is that there’s a certain period of time. And I opposed this years ago. I’ll admit that where the Governor Pattacki’s idea of three strikes and you’re out. Look, if we had to compromise, make it five strikes and you’re out,

11:12 we’d be a whole lot better than we are today. Of the overall problem, John, is people are losing their faith that their government and their law enforcement can protect them.

11:27 Speaker 1 One hundred percent correctly, Governor David Patterson, I look forward to continuing this discussion. Thank you for calling in the Sunday morning, and we’ll catch up up again real soon.

11:38 Speaker 2 Thank you, John,