Thousands of NYPD police officers and dignitaries attended funeral Mass for Officer Jason Rivera at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg – who took office on January 1, and has been strongly criticized for announcing liberal policies – was not present
Bragg said that he would not prosecute some crimes, leading to accusations that he was giving criminals in New York City free rein
On Friday, Rivera’s widow Dominique delivered a rousing eulogy and condemned Bragg for his approach to crime, which she said made the city unsafe
Bragg tweeted that he was ‘grieving and praying for Detective Rivera and Officer Mora today and every day, and my thoughts are with their families and the NYPD’
Bragg added: ‘Violence against police officers will never be tolerated, and my office will vigorously prosecute cases of violence against the police’
Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, attended Rivera’s service and met Bragg after, telling him ‘safety and justice must go hand-in-hand’
Rivera, 22, an NYPD rookie, and his partner, Wilbert Mora, 27, were fatally shot last Friday while responding to domestic call in Harlem
Police say career criminal Lashawn McNeil, 47, opened fire on Rivera and Mora, before another officer returned fire and mortally wounded him. Rivera died at the scene; Mora died in a hospital on Tuesday
During Rivera’s funeral, he was posthumously promoted to detective first grade

By HARRIET ALEXANDER and SNEJANA FARBEROV FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 20:15 EST, 28 January 2022 | UPDATED: 03:33 EST, 29 January 2022

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Friday said he was ‘grieving and praying’ for the two NYPD officers murdered last week and would take a tough line on cop killers – despite being condemned by name in the widow’s eulogy.

Jason Rivera, 22, was shot and killed on January 21 alongside his partner Wilbert Mora, 27.On Friday, Rivera’s widow, Dominique, told a packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan that Bragg had failed them all.

Bragg – absent from Friday’s service – tweeted that he will ‘vigorously prosecute cases of violence against police.’

He tweeted: ‘I am grieving and praying for Detective Rivera and Officer Mora today and every day, and my thoughts are with their families and the NYPD.

‘Violence against police officers will never be tolerated, and my office will vigorously prosecute cases of violence against the police.’

Earlier, Rivera told the congregation: ‘This system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore, not even the members of the service.

‘I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.

‘I’m sure all of our blue family is tired, too. But I promise, we promise, that your death won’t be in vain.’

Alvin Bragg, the new Manhattan district attorney, was singled out by Jason Rivera’s widow as being soft on crime. Bragg in a tweet later defended his policies Dominique Rivera spoke about her last interaction with Jason just hours before his death. She said they had an argument and she called an Uber instead of letting him drive her. He told her: 'it might be the last ride I give you' +72View gallery

Dominique Rivera spoke about her last interaction with Jason just hours before his death. She said they had an argument and she called an Uber instead of letting him drive her. He told her: ‘it might be the last ride I give you’Widow of slain NYPD officer gives tearful tribute for husband

+72View gallery

Jason Rivera, 22, was shot and killed last week in Harlem +72View gallery

Jason Rivera, 22, was shot and killed last week in Harlem

After the service, Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, met Bragg in her office and told him that ‘safety and justice must go hand-in-hand,’ her team said.

‘My highest priority is protecting the safety of New Yorkers,’ Hochul said in a prepared statement afterward.

‘I reiterated my belief that safety and justice must go hand-in-hand.’

Hochul also said she would ‘continue to work with all of our District Attorneys, Mayor Adams, the NYPD and every New Yorker who is working to restore our sense of security and enforce our laws.’

Bragg, on taking office, said offenses like marijuana misdemeanors, prostitution, resisting arrest and fare dodging will no longer be prosecuted.

Bragg instructed prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for crimes except for homicides, assaults resulting in serious injury, domestic violence felonies, sex offenses, public corruption, and ‘major economic crimes’.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has unveiled a sweeping new policy to only seek prison sentences for a handful of offenses, and downgrade or dismiss charges for many crimesNew York City is currently experiencing soaring crime rates and an increase in shooting incidents not seen since the mid-2000s

New York’s new DA unveils revised charges for crimes including armed robbery and drug dealing

Among other woke proposals from Bragg’s memo, the DA recommended:

Robbers wielding guns or other deadly weapons to steal from stores and businesses will be prosecuted only for petty larceny – a misdemeanor – provided no victims were injured and there is no ‘genuine risk of physical harm.’ Armed robbery is a class B felony, usually punishable by up to 25 years in jail.

Convicts who are caught with weapons other than guns will have their charges downgraded to misdemeanors, as long as they are not also charged with more serious offenses. The felony would normally see crooks jailed for seven years.

Burglars who loot residential storage areas, parts of homes that are not ‘accessible to a living area’ and businesses located in mixed-use buildings, will be prosecuted for a minor class D felony, where they would normally face class B and class C charges punishable by up to 25 and 15 years in prison respectively.

Drug dealers suspected of ‘acting as a low-level agent of a seller’ will only be charged with misdemeanor possession.

Aside from the same list of offenses, Bragg’s prosecutors have also been told not to seek bail requirements for suspects awaiting trial.

The memo also outlines a number of circumstances in which charges should be downgraded, including certain cases of armed robbery and drug dealing.

Bragg also vowed to stop prosecuting many low-level offenses including subway turnstile jumping, prostitution, and trespassing. He will continue his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr’s policy of declining to prosecute marijuana possession.

Bragg regularly gives speeches about his childhood, recalling that cops and civilians pointed guns at him a half dozen times, and says it’s his hardships growing up in Harlem that make him the right man for the moment.

But critics familiar with his upbringing have told DailyMail.com that he actually enjoyed quite a cushy existence, and should stop distorting his past to justify reforms that would keep all but the most serious felons out of jail.

Bragg, the first black Manhattan DA, grew up in Harlem but on one of the safest blocks around, an upper middle-class enclave of brownstones known as Strivers Row, and since age 4 commuted to the elite Trinity School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side – details he conveniently leaves out when he makes his case.

‘He’s made his biography his moral compass, making it seem like there’s something magic about his life story that gives him the wisdom to establish policies that affect over one million people,’ one insider told DailyMall.com.

‘I’m not saying he hasn’t experienced racism, but there’s lots of privilege he leaves out of his story.’

Bragg painted a far different picture of himself back in 1995, when he was a student at Harvard University and was featured in a college newspaper profile headlined ‘The Anointed One’ that mentioned nothing about the violence he now says he experienced.

In fact, Bragg, who served as president of the Black Students Association, acknowledged his privilege in that article, telling the school paper that others in Harlem ‘wouldn’t have the same kind of potential, walking to P.S. whatever and trying to learn from a teacher who might not be as concerned.’

In the article, Bragg stated that he was well protected by his block and his parents, who sent him away from the city ever summer to stay with relatives in Virginia.

An NYPD detective, who’s worked the streets of Harlem, said Bragg these days is ‘trying to score cool points in the hood, but he’s not Tupac Shakur. More like Baby Face.’

‘He keeps throwing up Harlem, Harlem, Harlem,’ the detective said, ‘but he went to the best schools with a silver spoon in his mouth. When you’re privileged like he is, you don’t go through the troubles that the average kids go through in an urban neighborhood.’

Bragg sparked outrage when he announced his office will stop prosecuting many low-level crimes. He kicked off his introductory 10-page memo with his own hard-knocks story.

‘Growing up in Harlem in the 1980s, I saw every side of the criminal justice system from a young age,’ his first sentence reads. ‘Before I was 21 years old, I had a gun pointed at me six times: three by police officers and three by people who were not police officers. I had a knife to my neck, a semi-automatic gun to my head and a homicide victim on my doorstep.’

Bragg also shared ‘perhaps the most sobering experience of my life: seeing – through the eyes of my children – the aftermath of a shooting directly in front of our home, as we walked together past yellow crime scene tape, seemingly countless shell casings, and a gun, just to get home.’ Bragg is from the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, and grew up on Striver's Row

Bragg is from the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, and grew up on Striver’s Row

He was raised in this brownstone worth $2,100,000 in an upper middle-class enclave+72View gallery

An early photo of the Bragg family. Alvin Sr, Sadie, Alvin Jr and his brother. His mother was a dedicated public school teacher and his father ran homeless shelters

Bragg, 48, a former federal prosecutor, wrote that in large part because of those experiences, he’s dedicated his career to achieving ‘safety and fairness.’ He then proceeded to outline new charging, bail, plea and sentencing guidelines he claimed will meet those goals, while dismissing public safety advocates who argue his more lenient policies will cause a spike in crime.

Bragg made his past a central part of his campaign, helping him beat out seven Democrats primary opponents before defeating Republican Thomas Kenniff in November. He succeeded Cyrus Vance, who did not seek reelection.

Bragg convinced a liberal electorate that he was the right man for the moment because of his urban roots.

‘There wasn’t such a big difference between the candidates on policies, but he was the only Black man running and he distinguished himself by talking about his biography, a lot,’ the insider told DailyMail.com.

But in a campaign that received little press coverage, Bragg curated his own image with little resistance.

He barely mentioned the fact he didn’t have to attend public school or hang out in the projects. Waking up on Strivers Row, he commuted out of Harlem to the now $57,000-a-year Trinity School on West 91st Street, where children have less a chance gaining admission than getting into Harvard. He currently sends his two children to the private school, where legacy students have a decidedly upper hand.

The school boasts of the success of its graduates, who include everyone from Eric Trump to John McEnroe.

His policies have been greeted with dismay by the NYPD.

Earlier on Friday, stunning scenes unfolded outside St Patrick’s Cathedral on a snowy morning as a sea of police officers in their dress blues surged towards the iconic Manhattan church to honor their murdered brother.

Mourners filling the pews of the historic cathedral heard emotional eulogies from Rivera’s family members, including his young wife, who revealed, while choking back tears, that on the day of her husband’s killing, the couple had an argument and she refused to let him drive her – even after Rivera told her, prophetically, that this might be the last ride he gives her.

The widow, wearing a silver pendant in the shape of her husband’s police shield, called her decision ‘the biggest mistake of my life.’

She also used the solemn occasion to vent some of her anger at the city and state’s leaders, many of whom were seated in the audience before her, accusing them of failing to protect her husband and his partner, Officer Wilbert Mora.

Rivera and Mora were fatally wounded by a career criminal who ambushed them in a hallway as they responded to a family dispute in Harlem.

Mora’s funeral is being held next week, also at St. Patrick’s.

Rivera, who had joined the NYPD less than a year ago, was posthumously promoted to detective first grade – the highest rank for a detective.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan presided over Rivera’s service, held in Spanish and English in recognition of his Dominican heritage.

Many of the city’s top leaders were attending, including Mayor Eric Adams, Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Kathy Hochul.

Adams, himself a retired police captain, told those gathered that he saw an echo of himself in the slain officer who had joined a department he had seen as flawed in hopes of improving it.

‘He did it for the right reasons — he wanted to make a difference,’ said Adams.

He went on: ‘there were days when I felt the public did not understand and appreciate the job we were [doing], and I want to tell you officers: They do. They do. These two fine men watered the tree of safety that allows us to sit under the shade from the hot sun of violence.’

Scroll down to read powerful eulogy by slain NYPD officer’s widow New York Police pall bearers carry the casket of Officer Jason Rivera out of St. Patrick's Cathedral after his funeral service in St Patrick's Cathedral. Rivera was shot dead in Harlem on Friday January 21 when he and fellow officer Wilbert Mora, who also died from his injuries, responded to a domestic violence call and were shot by man trying to escape

New York Police pall bearers carry the casket of Officer Jason Rivera out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral after his funeral service in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Rivera was shot dead in Harlem on Friday January 21 when he and fellow officer Wilbert Mora, who also died from his injuries, responded to a domestic violence call and were shot by man trying to escape

A sea of police officers in their finest dress blues stood in tribute outside Manhattan’s iconic St Patrick’s Cathedral to honor their murdered brother Jason Rivera. Rivera, who had joined the NYPD less than a year ago, was posthumously promoted to detective first grade – the highest rank for a detective.

Jason Rivera’s widow Dominique holds the flag from his casket while watching the funeral procession leave St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In her heartbreaking eulogy, the young widow delivered a powerful message condemning the new Manhattan DA’s woke policies and a system that ‘continues to fail us’ Slain cop Jason Rivera's mother clutches a crucifix and blows a kiss to his casket as it's removed from St Patrick's Cathedral Slain cop Jason Rivera’s mother clutches a crucifix and blows a kiss to his casket as it’s removed from St Patrick’s CathedralAn overhead view of Police Officers saluting the hearse of carrying the casket of NYPD Officer Jason Rivera out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral after his funeral service in New York

Hochul, a Democrat, said flags at state buildings would fly at half-staff from sunrise the day of Rivera’s funeral until sunset the day of Mora’s funeral on Wednesday.

The officers came from near and far to honor Rivera, who, at age 22, was recently married and barely into his second year of service on the force.

His wife Dominique, often struggling to speak, recounted her final conversation with her husband the day he died. She said with regret that the two had an argument about Jason’s use of his work cellphone while off duty, and as a result she refused to let him drive her, and instead summoned an Uber – because she did not want to continue arguing.

‘You said it might be the last ride I give you,’ Dominique quoted Jason. ‘I said no … and that was probably the biggest mistake I ever made.’

Hours later, she saw to her horror a Citizen app alert on her phone about two officers being shot in Harlem and then worriedly texting and calling her husband.

Her messages went unanswered, until she got a call summoning her to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

‘I’m still in this nightmare that I wish I never had, full of rage and anger, hurt and sad, torn,’ she said.

‘WE’LL TAKE THE WATCH FROM HERE’: FULL TEXT OF DOMINIQUE RIVERA’S POWERFUL EULOGY

Dominique Rivera delivers a eulogy for her husband, New York City Police Department officer Jason Rivera, during the funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan

Dominique Rivera delivers a eulogy for her husband, New York City Police Department officer Jason Rivera, during the funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan

I would say good morning to you all, but, in fact, that’s the worst morning ever. I can’t believe I’m standing in front of thousands of people in the cathedral we planned to visit later this year. All of this seems so unreal, like I’m having one of those nightmares that you never thought you’d have.

Friday morning, we were together eating breakfast and drinking some Starbucks. Eating was probably our favorite hobby. Maybe that’s why we gained those extra pounds. Friday morning began just like every other morning before work. You were always my ‘big spoon,’ watching Netflix, YouTube law enforcement shorts, read me your emails, and wait for your mom to come home. You packed your bookbag because we had to leave before 2. And really, before 2, sharp, because of your ICO [Integrity Control Officer] sergeant.

You would drive me home and say goodbye with three kisses, all the time, and text me when you were 84. That was our routine. At around 1500, 1515, I received the BRB roll call text. And throughout our day, you told me about your jobs, till it was EOT (End of Tour].

This Friday was different. We had an argument. You know, it’s hard being a cop wife sometimes. It’s hard being patient when plans are canceled, or we would go days without seeing each other, or when you had to write a report that would take forever because you had to vouch on so many things, so you did OT [Overtime]. Or when you had a bad day at work because an EDP drove you nuts. But you always reminded me that it was going to be alright. We were going to get through it.

This Friday, we were arguing because I didn’t want you to use your job phone while we were together. You were so mad that you took the Lebron jersey down, gave me your chain, and put the lotions I gave you for your ashy hands in the bag, and said, ‘Here, take them.’ We left your apartment, and because I didn’t want to continue to argue, I ordered an Uber. You asked me if ‘you are sure that you don’t me to take you home? It might be the last ride I give you.’ I said ‘no,’ and it was probably the biggest mistake I ever made.

Later that day, I received the call I wish none of you that are sitting here with me will ever receive. I had gotten a notification from the Citizen app, which was my Central, and I saw that police officers were shot in Harlem. My heart dropped. I immediately texted you and asked you: ‘are you OK? Please tell me you’re OK. I know that you’re mad right now, but just text me you’re OK, at least tell me you’re busy.’ I get no response.

We used to share locations on Find My iPhone, and when I checked yours, I see you’re at Harlem Hospital. I thought maybe you’re sitting on a perp, but still, nothing. I called and then called again, and then called one more time, and this time I felt that something wasn’t right. I messaged PO Cadavid and Joe because I knew they were your friends from the 32. And I get no response.

Then I get a call asking if I’m Jason’s wife, and then I had to rush to the hospital. Walking all those steps, seeing everybody staring at me, was the scariest moment I’ve experienced. Nobody was telling me everything. Dozens of people were surrounding me, yet I felt alone. I couldn’t believe you left me. Seeing you in a hospital bed wrapped up in sheets, not hearing you when I was talking to you broke me. I asked why. I said to you: ‘wake up, baby. I’m here.’ The little bit of hope I had that you would come back to life just to say ‘goodbye’ or to say ‘I love you’ one more time had left. I was lost. I’m still lost.

Today, I’m still in this nightmare that I wish I never had, full of rage and anger, hurt and sad, torn. Although I gained thousands of blue brothers and sisters, I’m the loneliest without you. I know you’re looking at me and beside me, telling me I could do this, and I’m trying. Trust me, I am. But I didn’t prepare for this. None of us did.

Jason I and met in elementary school. Amistad. All the way up to eighth grade. We had the time of our lives. He was part of the cool kids’ crew. There was never a dull moment with him around. He was the class clown, got me in trouble couple of times, had our teacher sit us away from each other because we couldn’t focus. And we never thought that our innocent childhood love would lead us to marriage. Even when we said ‘I do,’ we couldn’t believe we said it. October 9th was the happiest day of our lives. I know I drove you crazy saying ‘I love you’ so many times that you would stop replying ‘I love you more.’

But you made me feel alive. You make me feel alive. And Jason is so happy right now that all of you are here. Through pain and sorrow, this is exactly how he would have wanted to be remembered: like a true hero. Or like I used to call him: big PO Rivera. You have the whole nation on lock. And although you won’t be here anymore, I want you to live through me.

This system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore, not even the members of the service. I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.

I’m sure all of our blue family is tired too. But I promise, we promise, that your death won’t be in vain. I love you to the end of time. We’ll take the watch from here. Dominique shared a photo of her late husband's new detective badge, which he received posthumously

Dominique shared a photo of her late husband’s new detective badge, which he received posthumously An enormous crowd of police officers are gathered outside St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue at the conclusion of the funeral Mass for fallen Officer Jason Rivera on Friday +72View gallery

An enormous crowd of police officers are gathered outside St Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue at the conclusion of the funeral Mass for fallen Officer Jason Rivera on Friday A sea of officers are standing shoulder to shoulder outside St Patrick’s Cathedral on a snowy Friday morning in

Manhattan to honor their slain brother Fallen NYPD officer Jason Rivera's flag-draped casket is carried from St Patrick's Cathedral after his funeral

Fallen NYPD officer Jason Rivera’s flag-draped casket is carried from St Patrick’s Cathedral after his funeral

+72View gallery

A procession of bagpipers march ahead of the hearse carrying NYPD rookie Jason Rivera as hundreds of NYPD officers in their dress blues salute in honor of their fallen brother +72View gallery

A procession of bagpipers march ahead of the hearse carrying NYPD rookie Jason Rivera as hundreds of NYPD officers in their dress blues salute in honor of their fallen brother Bagpipers accompany the hearse down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue after the funeral service for NYPD officer Jason Rivera, who was killed in the line of duty while responding to a domestic violence call +72View gallery

Bagpipers accompany the hearse down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue after the funeral service for NYPD officer Jason Rivera, who was killed in the line of duty while responding to a domestic violence call+72View gallery

The family of Officer Rivera, including his widow, seen clutching an American flag, and his mother, seen doubled over, stand outside St Patrick's Cathedral after the funeral, surrounded by a sea of blue

The family of Officer Rivera, including his widow, seen clutching an American flag, and his mother, seen doubled over, stand outside St Patrick’s Cathedral after the funeral, surrounded by a sea of blue Dominique Rivera breaks down in tears while clutching the crucifix that rested on the shroud covering her husband Jason's casket during the service

Dominique Rivera breaks down in tears while clutching the crucifix that rested on the shroud covering her husband Jason’s casket during the service Dominique Rivera is comforted by family members and is saluted by an officer at the end of the service at St Patrick's Cathedral

Dominique Rivera is comforted by family members and is saluted by an officer at the end of the service at St Patrick’s Cathedral Jason Rivera's mother breaks down in sobs as she watched her son's casket being removed from the cathedral after the funeral service on Friday

Jason Rivera’s mother breaks down in sobs as she watched her son’s casket being removed from the cathedral after the funeral service on Friday

Rivera¿s casket, draped in a green, white and blue NYPD flag, is carried out on the shoulders of police officers outside St Patrick's Cathedral

Rivera’s casket, draped in a green, white and blue NYPD flag, is carried out on the shoulders of police officers outside St Patrick’s Cathedral Police officers waited patiently outside during the two-and-a-half-hour funeral Mass to see Officer Rivera off on his final journey to his resting place

Police officers waited patiently outside during the two-and-a-half-hour funeral Mass to see Officer Rivera off on his final journey to his resting place

Inspector Amir Yakatally, the commanding officer of Rivera’s and Mora’s precinct, said that Rivera began a police career at a difficult time — amid the coronavirus pandemic and protests over policing and other issues — and was so excited to get to work that he double-parked in front of the stationhouse his first day and showed up early every workday after.

‘Jason saw the need and had the desire to foster a positive relationship between police and his community,’ he said. ‘He was what we all want in a cop.’

Jeffrey Rivera recalled that as a youngster, his brother — ‘Tata’ to his family — listened to police radio transmissions, watched police dramas on TV and became ‘obsessed’ with a law enforcement career.

‘My brother’s first love was policing. That was his first love,’ Jeffrey said.

After the funeral, Rivera’s casket, draped in a green, white and blue NYPD flag, was taken via funeral procession, including family, colleagues and a massive police motorcycle entourage, to Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, where the officer will be cremated and laid to rest.

Over the years, more than 500 New York police officers have died in gunfire, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

‘It’s an emotional time,’ said retired NYPD Officer Sean Flanagan, who played the bagpipes outside the cathedral. ‘We honor our own, we take care of our own.’

On Thursday, ordinary citizens joined thousands of uniformed officers at the cathedral for Rivera’s wake.

Patty Marsibilio, 61, traveled an hour by subway from the Bronx to pay her respects and pray for the safety of other New York City police officers.

NYPD honors Det. Rivera outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral

What the Killing of Two N.Y.P.D. Officers Means for New York

The test for Mayor Eric Adams is whether he can curb the recent spike in shootings while balancing police tactics against the rights of poor communities.

By Eric LachJanuary 29, 2022

Members of the NYPD dignitaries and invited guests arrive for the funeral of Officer Jason Rivera at St. Patricks... — *Members of the N.Y.P.D. arriving at the funeral for Jason Rivera, who was shot and killed while responding to a domestic-violence call last week.*Photograph by Alexi J. Rosenfeld / Getty

For the second time in a decade, a new mayor of New York City is being tested by the killing of two police officers. In 2014, less than a year into Bill de Blasio’s first term, a Baltimore man who brought a gun to town shot two cops dead, in Brooklyn. The man had posted on social media about avenging the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. De Blasio had come into office vowing to put an end to racist policing practices at the N.Y.P.D. Many cops held him responsible for their colleagues’ deaths. At a funeral for one of them, officers in uniform turned their backs on the mayor. “There’s blood on many hands,” Patrick Lynch, the head of the city’s largest officers’ union, said. “That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor.”

Though de Blasio had plenty of defenders, including Eric Adams, who was then the Brooklyn Borough President, the killings haunted the rest of his tenure. Even as his administration made significant changes to how policing gets done in New York—cutting back on the practice of stopping and frisking Black and brown men by the hundreds of thousands, experimenting with violence-interrupter programs—de Blasio seemed to shrink from discussing the cops. For years, he resisted calls to fire Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who put Eric Garner in the chokehold that led to his death. Two summers ago, he kept quiet when police beat protesters at Black Lives Matter marches.

Last Friday, less than a month into Eric Adams’s first term as Mayor, a Baltimore man who brought a gun to town shot two cops dead, in Harlem. His mother had called 911 to report a domestic incident at her apartment. Three officers responded to the call. When two of them—Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora—approached a bedroom, Lashawn McNeil, who was forty-seven, reportedly emerged firing a .45-calibre Glock equipped with a magazine that could hold up to forty rounds. He shot Rivera and Mora, before being fatally shot in the arm and the head by the third officer at the scene.

The test now for Adams isn’t whether his relationship with the N.Y.P.D. can recover—he came into the mayor’s office vowing to defend the civic necessity of policing, and the cops have stood by him. “Our hearts are broken, we’re in shock, our knees are buckling,” Patrick Lynch said, hours after the shooting, at a press conference with Adams. “And we’re angry, because we’ve been here before.” The test for Adams is whether he can deliver on what he promised New Yorkers who voted for him: curbing the recent spike in shootings in the city while balancing police tactics against the rights of poor minority communities.

It cannot be overstated how thoroughly New York’s local political leadership has changed in the past few months. In addition to a new Mayor, there’s a new governor in Albany, a new District Attorney in Manhattan, a new police commissioner, and a new City Council. The reformers among them, like de Blasio in 2014, have appeared chastened by the murder of the officers. Alvin Bragg, who campaigned for Manhattan District Attorney promising a less punitive approach to gun-possession cases, was prompted to announce a change in “emphasis.” He appointed a prosecutor in his office to a new post dedicated to preventing gun violence. “It’s been a really tough moment to navigate,” City Council member Kristin Richardson Jordan, a thirty-five-year-old police abolitionist who represents the Harlem district where the cops were killed, told the Times. “Because people are searching for a villain.”

VIDEO FROM THE NEW YORKERHow a Notorious D.E.A. Informant Busted Criminals

Adams has expressed no such anxiety about how to meet the moment. “It is our city against the killers,” he said last Friday night, in Harlem. “This was an attack on the city of New York.” On Monday, he unveiled a “Blueprint to End Gun Violence.” The plan nodded at reform efforts, including violence-interrupter programs, and at the ways in which the city’s crime concerns were connected to its issues properly running schools, providing mental-health services, and addressing homelessness. Adams pledged that “the abuse of police tactics will not return under my administration.” What Adams really emphasized, though, were the ways he wanted to beef up law enforcement in the city. He called on the state government to reëxamine new bail laws intended to reduce the number of people consigned to pretrial detention, and a law that sends certain teen-age defendants facing gun charges to family court instead of criminal court. He said he’d put more cops on the streets and wanted the city’s courts to return to pre-covid levels of operation. He also said he’d reinstate modified versions of the plainclothes “anti-crime” N.Y.P.D. units that were disbanded, in 2020, after years of well-documented abuses. “New Yorkers feel as if a sea of violence is engulfing our city,” Adams said. “I will not let this happen.”

Lawmakers in Albany reacted coolly to Adams’s comments about the bail laws. The Times editorial board called the proposal to send more teen-agers to criminal court a “nonstarter.” Adams also argued that judges in New York need more leeway during arraignments. Unlike elsewhere in the country, judges in New York, when making a bail decision, are supposed to consider only a defendant’s likelihood of returning to court for trial, not whether or not a defendant poses a danger to the community. Yet in practice, many judges in arraignment court already take dangerousness into account when making bail decisions, regardless of what the law says. That they have leeway to do so is evidenced by the fact that they set bail at dramatically different rates. Adams has said he wants to break the “pipeline” to prison that fuels mass incarceration. But by questioning the bail rules, he’s aligning himself with those who oppose reducing the city’s jail population, even at a time when people are dying in city custody at a rate of more than one inmate a month.

The other pipeline that Adams spoke about this week was the “iron” one, a fresh metaphor for talking about New York’s gun problem. New York has strict local and state gun laws, and yet the city is full of guns brought in from other cities and states. “We must stop the flow of illegal guns in our city,” Adams said, announcing the Blueprint. “The iron pipeline must be broken.” Here, Adams called on the federal government to pass “common sense” gun-control measures. Joe Biden plans to visit Adams in New York next week, and his Administration has pledged to help combat gun trafficking. But the challenge is daunting. The killing of two police officers in New York is not going to change the Republican Party’s decades-long rejection of federal gun-control measures. Several of the steps that Adams is proposing to take on his own—including expanding the use of facial-recognition software and police checkpoints at bus and train stations—raise concerns about privacy, overreach, and racial profiling.

As with the crisis in the city’s jail system, Adams’s approach to policing starts with de-escalating the tensions between City Hall and the men and women in uniform. “Your brother was a hero,” Adams said Friday, at the funeral of one of the officers killed last week. “You have physically lost your brother but you have gained me as your brother.” Much was made this week of whether the murder of the two officers augurs a return to the high crime and disorder of the nineteen-eighties and -nineties, and what the fact that both officers were Latino should mean about the future of policing in New York. “The two young officers—Mora was 27, Rivera was 22—were emblematic of a changing police force that has struggled to repair its relationships with the city’s Black and Hispanic communities,” the Times said this week. “Both Latino in a department that was once overwhelmingly white, the officers were cognizant of problems with policing and eager to play a role in confronting them.”

And yet in 2014, when the city’s crime rates were near historic lows—against which today’s spikes are being measured—the murder of two cops prompted worries about the bad old days all the same. “The shooting on Saturday seemed reminiscent of decades past,” the Times said then, “when the city was mired in an epidemic of drugs and violence.” In that tragedy, too, both the officers who were killed—Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu—were also emblematic of the changing N.Y.P.D. The issues confronting the new mayor, and the rest of us, are not new. The old days aren’t returning. What’s at issue is what’s ahead.

Story 2 Biden Administration Aiding and Abetting Illegal Alien Invasion — A Federal Crime and An Impeachable Offense — Video

Politically Incorrect Cartoon Shows Who's Behind Open Borders

Bombshell footage reveals Biden admin’s undercover migrant flights

New Data: 1.7 Million Undocumented Immigrants Apprehended Over Last Year

Border Patrol catching illegal immigrants from 160 countries

Joe Biden’s border policy has been a complete surrender: Ducey

Gov. Abbott torches Biden on border: ‘He does not care’

Title 42 explained: The obscure public health policy at the center of a U.S. border fight

US Immigration Latest News : Biden’s Immigration Policies – Title 42 | Undocumented

Immigrants 2021

7,430 viewsJul 8, 2021

U.S.-bound caravan of more than 500 migrants embarked on foot from southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Sept. 4.

BY ANDREA CASTILLO, KAREN GARCIAOCT. 25, 2021 5:28 AM PTWASHINGTON —

At the center of today’s most heated immigration debate is a decades-old health statute dusted off by the Trump administration that is reshaping U.S. policy at the border.

Citing the threat of COVID-19, the U.S. government has over the last year and a half carried out nearly 1.3 million expulsions of migrants at the border without offering them the opportunity to request asylum or other humanitarian protections. That policy — known as Title 42 for the section of the health statute where it originated — has been met with legal and political challenges, but it remains on the books.

And it’s one of the main reasons that border crossings are up. According to CBP data released Friday, there were 1.7 million people detained at the Southwest border during fiscal year 2021, which ended Sept. 30. This year marked the largest annual total for apprehensions in Border Patrol history. That’s in part because the nature of the rapid Title 42 expulsions make it easier for people to try to immediately cross again.

Here’s why Title 42 matters, and what you need to know.ADVERTISING

What is Title 42?

Title 42 is a public health and welfare statute enacted in 1944 that gave the U.S. surgeon general the authority — later transferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — to determine whether communicable disease in a foreign country poses a serious danger of spreading in the U.S., either by people or property entering the country.

If the CDC finds that a disease does pose a threat, it can, with approval from the president, temporarily prohibit them from entering the country to avert danger.

That’s just what it did at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, amid surging deaths from disease, the Trump administration put forward a novel interpretation of Title 42: U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents could immediately remove anyone entering the country without authorization to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This new interpretation of policy closed the border to nonessential travel in the “interest of public health.”

Covering the issues, politics, culture and lifestyle of the Latino community in L.A., California and beyond.PAID CONTENT

Rep. Van Drew slams Biden: ‘I don’t think anyone has done more to hurt the country’

[Video]

By westcoastuniversity.edu

But it also superseded all other U.S. laws, including statutes that grant migrants the right to seek asylum; prevent the persecuted from being returned to countries where they would face threats, harm or torture; and protect unaccompanied children vulnerable to being trafficked.

Before the Trump administration, migrants who made it to the U.S. and sought asylum or other humanitarian protections were detained or released into the country pending a final immigration court decision, which could take years amid a growing backlog of cases.

Under Title 42, migrants do not even receive a formal order of deportation. Instead, agents take migrants’ biometric information and perform a cursory health check for COVID-19 symptoms — a process that can take roughly 90 minutes — before returning them to Mexico (if they are from Mexico or Central America). If they are from anywhere else, they are typically flown back there.

How did we get here?

The Title 42 policy appears to have been first applied by the CDC under pressure from former Vice President Mike Pence, and from Stephen Miller, a top Trump aide who long sought to restrict immigration. Experts at the CDC objected, saying the policy would do little to stanch the spread of the coronavirus and that it could not be justified in the name of public health. Pence ordered the CDC’s director to use the agency’s emergency powers to effectively seal the U.S. borders anyway.

Advocacy groups including the ACLU last year sued the Trump administration over its use of Title 42. When President Biden began his term in January, the new administration continued the policy, saying it is “necessary to limit the spread of the coronavirus.”

MISSION, TEXAS -Asylum seekers who crossed the U.S. - Mexico border illegally wait to be processed outside Mission, Texas on March 17, 2020: Wednesday, March 17, 2021 in Mission, Texas. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

POLITICS

Biden promised change at the border. He’s kept Trump’s Title 42 policy to close it and cut off asylum

March 19, 2021

After 16,000 children who were traveling without a parent had been expelled from the U.S. under Title 42, the Biden administration exempted unaccompanied minors from the policy. Parents traveling with their children and single adults are still officially blocked from entering the country or are quickly expelled. But children traveling with extended family members, such as grandparents, are not considered family units, meaning they can be separated at the border with the children labeled as unaccompanied minors and allowed to enter.

Advocates expected the president to rescind the order over the summer, as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. But then the Delta variant hit.

What’s the controversy?

Legal experts say Title 42 is one of the most controversial and restrictive immigration policies ever enacted. When the Trump administration implemented Title 42, lawmakers including then-Sen. Kamala Harris called it an unconstitutional “executive power grab.” Immigrant advocates broadly expected Biden to do away with enforcement of the measure when he took office.

Public health experts say people who refuse to get vaccinated — not migrants — are driving the increase of infections in the U.S. Last month, former CDC officials wrote a letter to the Biden administration condemning the current policy as “scientifically baseless and politically motivated.” They said that measures including masking, social distancing, quarantine and vaccination effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Oct. 3 on CNN that immigrants are “absolutely not” a driving force of COVID-19. Asked about Title 42, Fauci said, “My feeling has always been that focusing on immigrants, expelling them … is not the solution to an outbreak.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced that some restrictions on non-essential travel at land ports of entry will be lifted in November, allowing vaccinated people to enter the U.S. from Canada and Mexico. Asked how officials could justify continuing Title 42 while ending restrictions at ports of entry, a senior Biden administration official said that two different populations are at issue — those entering with prior authorization and those entering without.

The administration continues to maintain that the Title 42 restrictions protect the migrants themselves, the DHS workforce and local communities.

How is Title 42 different from ‘Remain in Mexico’?

Sometimes the Title 42 policy is confused with another Trump administration policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, more commonly referred to as “Remain in Mexico.” Under that 2019 policy, U.S. immigration officers direct migrants from countries other than Mexico to stay there while their cases weave through the immigration court system.

The program has resulted in thousands of migrants living in squalid tent encampments on the Mexican side of the border in some of the world’s most dangerous cities. But it still gives migrants the chance to apply for asylum, albeit from outside the U.S.

Title 42 prevents them from seeking humanitarian protections at all.

Border authorities under the Trump administration largely stopped using Migrant Protection program at the beginning of the pandemic in favor of Title 42, and Biden officially ended the policy soon after taking office. But a federal court in Texas ruled that he must restart it. The Supreme Court later upheld that decision.

DHS said in September that it is still committed to ending the policy in a manner that addresses the court’s concerns. In the meantime, officials are preparing to reimplement the policy in mid-November as long as the Mexican government agrees to once again accept asylum seekers with pending cases.

How is Title 42 working?

Among more than 1.7 million people detained by CBP at the Southwest border during fiscal year 2021, 61% were expelled under Title 42, according to CBP data released Friday. But those rapid expulsions caused a significant increase in repeated crossing attempts by migrants returned to Mexico, inflating the number of individuals encountered. In recent months, including September, upwards of a quarter of the arrests were by people who had previously been turned back within the same year.

While migrants can’t seek asylum under Title 42, they can still be screened under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Just 272, or 8%, passed their initial screenings. These screenings, in which migrants must prove that they are likely to be tortured if they are expelled, are more difficult to pass than traditional asylum interviews.

Federal officials rely on Mexico to receive migrants expelled from the U.S. under Title 42 who are from Central America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Many migrants who are refused by Mexico and cannot be immediately expelled are held in detention while they await a longer deportation process.

Early this year, the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, started refusing to accept families with young children. Since then, CBP has transferred some migrants to other Mexican border cities. But most families encountered near there are now sent to U.S. detention centers or released in Texas. Thousands of others have been flown to southern Mexico and then expelled by the Mexican government to Guatemala or Honduras.

Where does the legal battle stand?

The CDC issued an order in August keeping Title 42 in place. Early this month the agency completed another assessment and determined it continues to be necessary.

Last month, in response to the ACLU’s lawsuit, a U.S. district judge in Washington, D.C., found that migrant families subjected to Title 42 “face real threats of violence and persecution” and are deprived of statutory rights to seek protection in the U.S. The judge also found that, while Title 42 grants the government the authority to turn away people seeking to enter the country, it does not permit expulsions of people already on U.S. soil.

Justice Department lawyers argued in a court filing afterward that halting Title 42 would require the government to detain people for immigration processing “in facilities that are not equipped for physical distancing, quarantine, or isolation at the best of times, and that are now substantially over their COVID-restricted capacity.” A federal appellate court later temporarily granted the Biden administration permission to continue the use of Title 42 to quickly expel migrants with children stopped along the U.S. border.

Former CDC officials say that most asylum seekers don’t have to be held in detention for health reasons, and that transferring detainees between facilities, as is often done before deporting them, increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The nonprofit group Human Rights First has tracked at least 7,647 kidnappings, rapes and other attacks on people expelled or blocked at the U.S.-Mexico border since Biden took office, including multiple children raped at tent encampments in Tijuana and Reynosa, in the Rio Grande Valley.

Though it’s still early, the September order by the appellate court offers an indication of how it could ultimately rule. If the Biden administration wins its appeal, it could continue to use Title 42 for immigration enforcement. But even if it loses, the administration could still appeal to the Supreme Court, where a conservative majority might be inclined to side with federal officials.

The CDC’s next 60-day assessment of the policy is Dec. 2.

Times staff writer Molly O’Toole contributed to this report.

POLITICS WORLD & NATION LATINO LIFE ADVICE, RESOURCES & GUIDES IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDERNewsletter

Must-read stories from the L.A. Times

Get the day’s top news with our Today’s Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning.Enter email addressSIGN ME UP

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Andrea Castillo

Andrea Castillo covers immigration. Before joining the Los Angeles Times, she covered immigrant, ethnic and LGBT communities for the Fresno Bee. She got her start at the Oregonian in Portland. A native of Seattle, she’s been making her way down the West Coast since her graduation from Washington State University.

Karen Garcia

Karen Garcia is a reporter on the Los Angeles Times’ Utility Journalism team, which publishes stories and information that help people solve problems, answer questions and make big decisions about life in and around Los Angeles.

Story 2: Democrats Are Running Away From President Biden As His Disproval Rating Rises — Videos