A Law-and-Order Challenge to Ritchie Torres

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, election is coming up. With us today is Stylo Saposakis, and he’s a cousin, and he’s running for Congress in the northwest district of, I guess, the Bronx. And, Stylo, you know, we go way back with your grandmother and your mother, and tell us why you’re running for Congress, and tell us about the area you’re running in.

0:27 Speaker 2 Okay, well, first off, John, thank you for having me on the show. Yes, I’m running for the Northwest of the Bronx. I am running for District 15th. I’m running as a Republican candidate for the Congressional District. And my opponent, of course, is Congressman Richie Torres, who is a Democrat.

0:44 And my district represents Arlington, Bathgate, Baychester, Belmont, Claremont, Eastchester, Fordham, Highbridge, Melrose, Morrisania, Morris Park, Mott Haven, Norwood, Olinville, Parkchester, Riverdale.

1:02 Speaker 1 That’s a lot of area. Now, Stylos, tell me, why should people vote for you instead of running for, I guess, voting for Richard Torres?

1:13 Speaker 2 Well, because Richard Torres, let’s start from the beginning. Richard Torres, from the very beginning, wanted to defund the police. And I spoke about this the last time when I was running for public office about a year ago when I was on your show the last time. And things still haven’t changed. He wants to defund the police. He advocates

1:30 with the mayor. Mayor Mondami is the same way. He must defund the police. And funny enough, they want to replace police with social workers, which is very absurd. Now, as you know, crime has been staggering. It’s been rising.

1:45 Even as far as racial crimes, it’s been up now 15 percent in the city. And Richard Torres still hasn’t seen that, and he doesn’t seem to understand that, and yet he still wants to defund the police. These are staggering numbers, and I can’t understand why he’s doing anything, plus the fact that the police were at 31,000 on

2:06 the roster right now as we’re speaking, and we’re declining steadily, and we’re at a major deficit for the city, and crime is still coming out of control, and it is, and it’s staggering, as I said. And he’s not doing anything to be so inclined to raise those numbers. Now, for me, if I was a congressman, you would have

2:25 to give 10,000 more additional officers on the roster because we need the additional officers because we’re declining and the city is in disarray with crime as it is.

2:35 Speaker 1 Well, Stylos Sapaskis, you know, I know your grandmother’s name because it was a, but that’s your mother’s married name. Stylo, thank you for calling in, and you’re running for the Northwest District of the Bronx, and that’s the 13th congressional district, and you’re running against Richard Torres, and you feel you’re going to do a much better job. Good luck. Thank

3:00 you for calling in. Thank you, John.