Democrats are making ‘everyone much less protected,’ says Councilman Ari Kagan
Anna Allen • December 6, 2022 1:50 pm
Disenchanted with Democrats’ far-left soft-on-crime insurance policies, a New York City councilman introduced Monday that he’s switching to the Republican Party, the New York Post reported.
Bensonhurst councilman Ari Kagan, who started his first time period in workplace in January, is abandoning the Democratic Party, which he says is answerable for New York City’s crime surge.
“I believe right now, the Democratic Party is doing everything possible in New York City to make everybody less safe,” he stated. Kagan, in a statement Monday, particularly listed the City Council’s transfer to bar landlords from requiring prison background checks on potential tenants and its push to remove solitary confinement as examples of Democrats’ failure to deal with public security considerations. Democrats have a supermajority on the council.
“The Democratic Party in New York was moving to [the] left at such a speed I couldn’t keep up,” stated Kagan. “It’s not me leaving the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party very quickly started to leave me.”
Crime charges within the metropolis spiked 15.2 p.c within the final yr, a quantity that Democratic New York governor Kathy Hochul tried to dismiss as just some “high-profile instances.” New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) signed an order final week that enables police to commit doubtlessly harmful mentally unwell folks to psychiatric establishments. Liberals quickly slammed the invoice, claiming it could trigger “trauma.”
“Every month I found myself, like, ‘What am I doing in the Democratic Party?'” Kagan stated. “In my own district, in southern Brooklyn, everywhere I knocked [on] the doors people [were] saying, ‘When are you switching to the Republican Party?'”
Kagan is launching a common election bid in opposition to former ally and fellow councilman Justin Brannan (D.) for a newly redrawn Brooklyn district.