Abby Phillip on NYPD Attack: Whether They Were Migrants or Not, We’d Be Facing the Same Issue with Anyone

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
>> The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, he was asked about this on a radio show. I want to play what he had to say.
>> We need to make sure that judges look over the seriousness of the case. And I don’t believe they should have been released. I do want to make one point. The overwhelming number of immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers, they want to be here and do what’s right. Those violent ones we need to immediately have them removed from our city.
>> There are so many people now making this about, solely about, the migrants. But is that really fair, when it seems like whether they were migrants or not, we might be facing this very same issue with anyone.
>> It could be. But before the way the laws were cited and the way they were done, an individual had to be first identified. We looked and investigated whether they have ties to the community. This could happen to anybody. The fact the migrants were so easily to escape and just released, how do we identify these people? Obviously when they attempt to escape again, they use a false name. This is not normal behavior for individuals who are not into criminal activity. And we’ve seen it by some of the prior arrests some of them have had.
>> Does that have to do with whether or not they’re migrants. Obviously the number of migrants in the city is an issue, but all those things you described could have been done by American citizens.
>> We can’t make this a migrant issue. The situation is the way they’re living, things aren’t perfect. And sometimes people do turn to criminal activity. But as a criminal justice system, we have to look at gang assault and the severity of these crimes. We just can’t say, everyone should be released.
>> It’s a fair point. That’s the question I think so many New Yorkers are asking today.