The Venezuelan gangs. What should we be doing?

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning with us his Commissioner Bill Bratton, and he has been a law enforcement person nationwide, Los Angeles, Boston, New York. Commission of Bratton. It seems like we have a new crisis approaching us in our country. The new crisis being that the fact is Venezuela’s the gangs. They are here and they are committing some vicious crimes. And

0:34 I was with the a few people the other day. They said, the problem in Brooklyn is getting very bad. Suffolk County, Los Angeles. Uh. The the governor of Texas is uh is up in arms. Uh, give us a give us your evaluation of what the heck is going on.

1:02 Speaker 2 Well, the idea of migrant crime crises is actually not new, John that when I was chief of police in Los Angeles in two thousand and two, we were dealing with the Mexican mafia, Mexican immigrants, number of whom were illegal.

1:20 We were dealing with MS thirteen, the L Salvador and particularly vicious gang that for the last selvie years, particularly out in law in Ireland in Nassau County that’ve been dealing with that gang, many of whom are here illegally.

1:33 More recently here in New York in several other places. As reported around the country, is an issue with Venezuelan gangs, and some of whom are illegally, but most who are here illegally in terms of coming into the country. So there’s no denying that there is a problem. It’s not new in the sense of gang problems migrating in Latin

2:01 and Central America. I had a lot of experience with the Venezuelans iast for two years I consulted in Caracas back in the late nineties, and the gang problems down there were horrendous. So what we’re experiencing is a migration of some of that going forward. Good news is that both at the federal government level and at the NYPD level,

2:23 they’re doing a very good job of focusing on it. The problem I think that New York and other cities are experiencing is the sanctuary status of some of those cities, New York included, where basically government city council in the case of New York and mayor don’t allow the police to interact with federal authorities in terms of when they

2:46 arrest are migrants, and you’re not allowed to ask what their immigrant status is so farm has compounded at this particular time because of that sanctuary city policy. Understood.

3:00 Speaker 2 There’s another element to it also, John that in the case of the Venezuelans, even when the federal government gets their hands on them ice for example, we’re going to put them, the Venezuelan government refuses to take them back.

3:16 Very similar to Cuba. Cuba and that the migrant boat crises of the nineteen eighties, they shipped a lot of the mentally ill and criminals out of Cuba who ended up in Florida and they could not be repatriated back to the home country because they would accept them. So that’s an unresolved issue with the moment as we get

3:36 more and more of these illegal migrants who are creating serious crime, even when federal authorities at their hands on them, they can’t support them. Certainly for serious crime, they’re going to put them in jail. But when they finish their jail sentences, what are you going to do with them?

3:52 That’s an unresolved issue.

3:54 Speaker 1 That definitely is unresolved. Any other ideas, what do you think we should be doing.

4:02 Speaker 2 Well? I think the idea of coordination between local police and the federal officials is very important that is handicapped in the case of the illegal immigrants coming in because of the Sanctuary City partship. But the good news is I’m not sure that the amount of crime is fully known.

4:28 That it certainly gets front page headlines here in New York, for example, or leads the nightly news because of the particular viciousness of it, as well as the fact that it’s new, but we really still don’t know what the full extent of it is. In terms of the larger crime problem in New York City, I don’t think we

4:49 fully have our arms abound how big a problem is it. And we’ll know that over time as the party gets a bit of handle on the problem. Right now, I think a lot of what we’re dealing with is not only a significant amount of crime, but a perception that’s even larger than the actual amount of crime, a fear perception.

5:10 Speaker 1 If you will understood, if you had whoever was president, whoever’s going to be president on November fifth, if you had their ear, what would you advise them?

5:23 Speaker 2 Well, I think it’s quite clear that one both parties have focused on the idea of trying to basically improve border control. The border control situation. So I think the good news is that whoever comes in as a Democratic Republican, I think there’s a recognition that there needs to be stronger enforcement than there’s been over the last number of years,

5:49 and that they’ll do a better job with it. In terms of the idea of what to do with those who are already in the country, we’ll not have to wait and see who gets selected. The former President Trump is s talked about deporting ten to fifteen million people.

6:07 Who luck with that one that in terms of the bureaucracy that was required, Well, we’ll have to wait and see.

6:14 Speaker 1 Commissioner. I advised him of President Trump last time saw him that he shouldn’t talk about ten to fifteen million people, and that he should talk about getting rid of immediately any the criminals.

6:28 Speaker 2 And when he spoke, now, John, you’re right on the money. John’s reality is that a lot of these people here. I spent enough time in Latin America consulting to understand the desperation that people are fleeing in those countries. Many of the people coming in they want to work. They are working here. They’re part of that underground economy. One

6:50 of the other bobs we complained about here in New York, all the messages on the bikes. Those are people basically the vast majority of which are trying to make a living, but the delivery delivery men. But the idea of getting mid of ten fifteen million people. I don’t think mister Trump is doing himself in favor of the Republican Party

7:08 by raising that specter. That just gives too many reminders of what went on in Europe just during before and during World War Two. It’s not something that one is realistic and too focus on. It’s like cancer. You want to focus your radiation, your chemo on the source of the problem. What is the source of fear and concern?

7:32 Right now, it’s the criminal element in that population. And we have the ability to focus on that. And next president should basically be really focusing on like a doctor trying to get to the source of the cancer.

7:46 Speaker 1 Well, Christoper, Bill Bratton, thank you for the update on crime in our city, state, our country actually, and let’s catch up again real.

7:56 Speaker 2 Soo okay, great Charctor and John. Happy Sunday.