New York City was shaken Monday by the shooting death of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, 31, during a car stop in Far Rockaway, Queens.
Diller reportedly sensed something was off about the Kia illegally parked, blocking a bus stop, and approached.
After Diller repeatedly asked Guy Rivera, 34, to step out of the passenger seat, Rivera allegedly shot the officer through the door, fatally hitting him below his bulletproof vest.
Known as a selfless, already-decorated public servant, Diller lived on Long Island with his young bride and 1-year-old son. His cold-blooded murder resonated with New Yorkersâ growing personal fears of crime and lawlessness.
Bad old days here again
In a recent Citizens Budget Commission poll, barely a third of New Yorkers report happiness with their neighborhoodâs safety.
Less than half feel even somewhat secure riding the subway during the day, down from over 80% across recent decades; at night, that figure drops to 22%.
And no wonder: Mondayâs 6 p.m. gunfire sent those at the nearby RockawayâMott Avenue station scattering in terror.
The nightmare of such violence and of Officer Dillerâs death should be understood as a referendum on New Yorkâs current elected leadership, which takes every opportunity to undercut basic solutions to danger.
Despite overwhelming evidence that police, prosecution, and incarceration are how cities keep citizens safe, New Yorkâs clueless progressive leaders continue to demand laws barring these tools, advocating instead for magically curing crimeâs âroot causes.â
This hubristic approach was epitomized at last weekâs City Council hearings by New York City Public Advocate and gubernatorial hopeful Jumaane Williams.
After helpfully invoking âpeace and blessings,â Williams insisted that crime is just a misperception, and that, since New York state enacted bail reform in 2019, ârecidivism rates are pretty similar and some points have even gone down.â
Wrong on recidivism
Not true. As NYPDâs Crime Control Strategies Chief Michael Lipetri corrected: âThatâs not accurate. Recidivism is at its highest levels [since] 2017.â
Officer Dillerâs murderer could himself have refuted Williamsâ outrageous claim. Rivera had 21 prior arrests, nine for felonies.
In 2021, he was released on parole after a half-decade in prison for selling drugs; earlier, he served three years for assault.
When Diller approached him, Rivera already had a shiv stuffed up his rectum in anticipation of cycling back to the slammer.
The record of Riveraâs associate Lindy Jones, 41, who was in the driverâs seat, also attests to recidivism being an accurate âperception.â
Jones had at least 14 arrests, including for robbery and assault, and spent a decade in prison for attempted murder and robbery, getting out in 2013.
He was most recently arrested last April, for walking around Far Rockaway with an illegal loaded gun.
Itâs suspected that, on Monday, Rivera and Jones were actively casing nearby stores or passersby for fresh robberies at the time of the shooting, making them part of a growing cohort of rapid re-offenders.
As Chief Lipetri noted, the percentage of robbery arrestees committing another felony within 60 days leaped from 8% in 2017 to 25% by 2022.
Williams objects to this comparison pre- and post-bail reform because, he says, âObviously if someone is in jail, they canât recidivate.â
Uh .â.â. yes.
He went on to suggest that the NYPD âcan skew numbers to make it seem like if youâre just keeping someone in jail, youâre solving the problem.â
Uh .â.â. yes, again.
âWe should look at the recidivism rate,â Williams allowed, but âthereâs another root cause. And if we keep looking at keeping people in jail, the problem wonât be solved.â
The cityâs public advocate, wearing a large âBE LOVEâ lapel button, does not want the city to implement solutions that prevent violence and crime, such as incarcerating dangerous men.
He wants to reach into the cosmos and prevent Guy Rivera from being the kind of guy who leaves his house in the morning with a shiv up his rear and a gun in his waistband.
Broken windows
Divorced from reality, Williams also champions replacing cops with âcredible messengersâ and other alternatives. But crime always seems to go up after police deployments are âremoved,â he complained last week.
Uh . . . yes, again!
Instead of reading this fact as evidence that police prevent crime, Williams and city and state leadership ignore the failures of de-policing; of bail, parole, and discovery reforms; and of gutting enforcement for âlow-level offensesâ â like Mondayâs idling in a bus stop.
How Post Readers Can Help
You can help Officer Jonathan Dillerâs 1-year-old son via the Silver Shield Foundation, which will help fund his future education. Diller, 31, was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Queens, leaving behind his wife, Stephanie, and baby Ryan.
The Silver Shield Foundation was launched in 1982 by late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for the families of NYPD officers and FDNY firefighters who lose their lives in the line of duty
You can make a contribution at silvershieldfoundation.org/donate or send it to: Silver Shield Foundation, 870 UN Plaza, 1st Floor, New York, NY 10017
Instead, they self-righteously maintain their idiotic search for root causes at the expense of actual public safety.
If New Yorkâs leaders really want to find the root causes of our current crime predicament, they should look in the mirror.
Here on planet Earth, a conscientious police officer remains the best solution to disorder and danger. Brave men and women like Officer Diller continue to do their job, despite a 20% rise in assaults on cops over the past 14 months â including a 72% rise in officer stabbings.
Next time a suspicious car driven by armed felons is blocking a bus stop, maybe Jumaane Williams can take it upon himself to go knock on the window and check things out.
Failing that, he might try to show an ounce of the humility the rest of us feel today about Jonathan Dillerâs ultimate sacrifice.
From City Journal