Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Alex Garrett Talks With NYC Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli As He Protects FDNY EMTs and Staten Islanders 4-19-24

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Alex Garrett Talks With NYC Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli As He Protects FDNY EMTs and Staten Islanders 4-19-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

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  Here's your host, Alex Garret. How safe are our city streets? Well,
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  I've got minority leader of the City Council Joe BURRELLI, a longtime friend,
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  Counsman de BURRELLI, welcome back to my show, Alex. Thank you
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  as always, thank you listeners for having me. Well, you know it
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  is an important issue right now, we're about to talk about how safe is
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  the city. It's maybe not as safe because now even EMTs needs body armor,
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  I mean body armor for EMTs. Counsmanbrelli. I never thought i'd see
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  the day, but you are pushing for that, and you got a bill
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  pass for them and for their safety here in New York City. Yeah,
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  well so so attacks on EMTs is up forty five percent in the last five
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  years, and it's actually up like quadruple. It's not more than that in
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  the last decade. You know, ten years ago, fifteen years ago,
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  we would never even you never hear of like attacks on EMTs. These are
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  people who are usually go it as like you know, the saving angels who
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  come and you know, save you when you're in a car accident or whatever.
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  But we saw a tragic a murder of Yadira Arroyo in twenty seventeen where
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  an EDP a disturbed person took over her ambulance and basically ran her over with
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  it intentionally. And then we saw last year, two years ago, the
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  stabbing right in broad daylight of an EMT lieutenant right on duty who was just
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  walking to get her lunch on her break and someone came over to her and
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  stabbed her. So the build us two things. It guarantees a new high
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  standard body armor being a bulletproof best and stamp proof best. In the past,
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  some EMPs were issued if they chose you know, handy down body armor
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  or different types. This would standardize what EMTs will get. And the second
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  part of this is giving them training in both self defense and de escalation.
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  That's the nice part. And here's the you know self devis they're normally there
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  just to help someone out, literally help someone save their life. And are
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  you getting the feeling? Accounts mean morelli that it's possible some of these calls
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  are almost like the ambush calls on the cops. Is that happening also,
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  we haven't seen that yet, but it doesn't mean it can't happen. We
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  certainly see people who look you have an EMT who responds to a crime scene,
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  let's say, right, they have to treat the good guys and the
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  bad guys, and sometimes in the heat of things, you're not really sure
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  you know who each person is. On the flip side, we have people
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  who we ask them to take care of who are you know, going through
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  overdoses, hallucinations, all sorts of episodic things that trigger some sort of attack.
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  And we've seen that many, many, many times. So like those
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  are really the types of attacks we're trying to prevent. You know, I
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  hate to say it, but if someone wants to ambush an EMT, just
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  like ambushing a cop, you know you'll probably be able to unfortunately just are
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  But but we want to give our EMTs the most possible protection that we can.
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  You've said this has been on the books for a while, So tell
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  us when this first started. Wasn't after the twenty seventeen tragedy or when did
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  this first start? Yeah, EMT started receiving body armor as a thing maybe
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  three or four years ago after the stabbing that took place. But you know,
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  they were they were just done that. They were just kind of body
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  armored at triage. The incident. We didn't really issue them as a policy
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  until this bill was passed last week, and there was some talk that the
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  mayor wouldn't sign the bill. It's kind of funny how that story came out,
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  you know, the news broke Mayor Adams may not sign the body armor
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  bill for EMTs. I mean, this was such a non controversial bill that
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  passed meeting. The administration of the Fire Department and the Mayor's Mayor's legislative staff
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  were so supportive of it that it didn't even rise to the level of like,
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  you know, briefing the mere on like, oh my god, we
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  have this bill coming down the pike. He actually the first time he probably
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  heard about it was when it passed, all right, on a bigger scale
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  here at Councilman Brelli, how is the relationship between City Council and Mayor Adams
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  from where you said speaking of whether he's going to sign bills or not?
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  Is that a worry every time you guys have a bill that you go on
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  pass Is there is there a disconnect between city Council and the mayor or?
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  What are you seeing? Well, there's a personal animosity between the speaker and
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  the mayor. Which manifests itself in a little bit more aggressive oversight and perhaps
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  lawsuits over housing vouchers. We've had that, so there is a confrontational posture
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  between the mayor and council member that said, I mean, you know,
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  my relationship with him is fairly good, though you know, we do collaborate
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  on more things than people would think, which is which is nice. I
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  mean I would say that about Bill Blasio. Unfortunately, when you know you
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  need the mayor's help on a local issue in your district, you got to
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  go to the guy, and thankfully Mayor of the Blasio occasionally was very helpful.
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  But things are I think a little better with Mayor Adams in terms of
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  how he's treating let's say Staten Island, which is a good thing. And
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  truth be told, if Mayor Adams loses an election next cycle, it'll most
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  likely be in a primary, and I can assure you that New Yorkers would
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  have a much more tough time swallowing you know, Mayor Brad Lander or Mayor
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  Johanni Williams than they ever will with with Mayor Adams. I don't even want
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  to think about that, especially Lander. That's just that's that's that's that's not
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  good news for our city. Now, I gotta ask you, because you
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  are from Staten Island, obviously, what's going on over there that maybe my
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  listeners aren't aware of the people should be aware of right now with the migrant
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  situation is is everything kind of calm down now over there? Yeah? The
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  big player we're having is congestion pricing. I mean, this is a policy
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  that's going to put more cars on Staten Island roads, it's going to put
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  more pollution into Staten Island lungs, and they're going to charge us for the
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  privilege of doing that. So it's just fundamentally unsafe. I know there's been
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  some conversations that the MTA had with New Jersey about, you know, paying
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  them off basically. I actually hope Old Phil Murphy doesn't cave and he keeps
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  his lawsuit going, because we're certainly gonna keep our lawsuit that we're doing in
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  conjunction with the United Federation of Teachers. It's kind of funny, you know
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  how politics make strange bedfellows. Yeah, here you have all the Staton Island
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  Republicans on a lawsuit that were being supported by with plaintiffs and with financing from
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  the United Federation of Teachers. Now, is this your last term? Am
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  I hearing that correctly? Yeah? I will be our. The only thing
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  I can tell you for certain is I'll be out of office by January first
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  of twenty twenty six. My term expires at the stroke of midnight on New
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  Year's Eve, so I have a little bit of time left. You know,
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  I'll most likely serve out the balance of my term. You know,
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  you know you never know, right, I mean, you're always a good
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  offer away from a good offer. But I'll most serve out the balance of
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  my term and then we'll see what the future holds. Well. I know
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  you love radio, so maybe that's now avenue down the road. But while
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  you're still there, what do you hope to accomplish that maybe people would want
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  to know about. I want to keep the moat between Staten Island and the
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  rest of the city nice and fresh, and it's possible separated by another five
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  feets. I mean, I'm not just being fasttious. You know, almost
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  everything the City of New York does is just fundamentally bad for Staten Island.
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  I mean, every decision at City Hall makes. Being the council and the
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  mayor just continuously has bad impacts on Staten Island. So if I could just
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  play defense for the next eighteen months and work on some big picture issues,
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  Like one of the issues I'm working on is non part of an elections,
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  which is pretty you know, people can criticize me for this because I'm fighting
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  for it now on my way out when I'm not running for anything anymore.
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  Maybe it would have made my reelections more difficult, but I'll take that criticism.
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  But I think non part of an elections and I hate to sound like
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  our friend Frank Morano with all this you know, good government stuff, but
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  non part of an elections meaning the and city council are are elected in an
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  open primary meeting. Is not a Democratic primary, just open election, which
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  I think would save the City of New York. Of the top fifteen largest
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  cities in the country, it's only US and Philadelphia who have part of the
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  election at the municipal level, and I would argue that, you know,
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  Philadelphia is not a great model to look at either. I am so for
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  open primaries because I believe independents need a voice too, you know, especially
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  in the primary season. Yeah, and look look at like some of the
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  largest cities in Texas where you have you know, moderate mayors. I mean
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  these are democratic cities. You have more moderate Democrats who often wins. And
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  in the case of Fort Worth, like the ninth largest city, you have
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  a Republican. It just it just builds a better mouse trap for the community
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  and it makes people, It makes people in office be more accountable to the
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  broader swath of the population in terms of who they have to, you know,
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  show deference to. You know, when you say how different sen Island
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  is from New York City and other boroughs, I automatically think how different the
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  perspective is on law enforcement stat and I own respects law enforcement more than Manhattan
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  Queens and you know, all the other boroughs combined. It feels like,
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  so, how how has the tenor been with city council since the tragic killing
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  of Officer now detective Dillers. Is there more support for police in the council
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  halls that you're seeing councilmen. No, No, they got right back up
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  to and went back to trying to figure out ways how they could make the
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  work of policing more difficult. There. You know, there wasn't even a
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  momentary pause in that respect, you know, the only goal for them is
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  making the job of police officer more difficult, meeting making the lives of criminals
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  more easy, and that's all they care about. This is this is the
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  impetus behind the defund the police. This is the impetus behind you know,
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  closed rikers. It's all everything we have to do in the city. Government's
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  for the wrong people. They don't even want Columbia University to have a safe
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  campus right now. How crazy is that they don't want the police intervene in
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  that. And I think that's say that they should be able to intervene in
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  get those people off that campus. That's another issue going on right now.
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  And as much as the Trump tile, a lot of stuff going on in
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  the city, and I'm sure you're following all of it right of course.
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  Look, if you're out there beating a drum saying you're Hamas, you know
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  you're a terrible person. I was in kafar Asah on the Gods of Border
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  about a month ago, you know, and I saw what Hamas did to
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  people who were, you know, roughly the same age as as some of
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  these entitled Columbia students. And I'm not going to mince words when I say
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  these pieces of these people are are are pieces of garbage. And by the
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  way, it ties into another issue like the These are the people that Joe
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  Biden wants us to empathize with when he talks about student debt. You know,
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  it's not like the kid who goes to state college for engineering, or
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  like some taxi driver, you know, taking college classes at night. It's
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  these entitled, illiberal elitist who spend the price of what a house costs in
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  most states to get a degree in Middle Eastern basket weaving. Yeah, it's
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  it's not good. And of course elon Omar's daughter is now suspended. It's
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  just amazing on full circle, that is. But you're right, a lot
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  of these kids want it back, want their money back, and they probably
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  were indoctrinated while they were getting their education, right, absolutely. I mean
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  I like to think didn't happen to me, but you never know. Well,
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  and I know Cuney and I was a graduate of Cunity. They've gone
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  a little far to the left too, and maybe hopefully this does not spread
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  to the Cunity campus. Have you seen anything of that note spreading the Cunity
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  campuses? No, I mean I teach at the College of Staten Island and
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  it's a very welcoming campus. And yes, we have some, you know,
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  students that emphathize with the Palestinian certainly as a large Jewish population in the
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  College oft Thattn Island. But it really hasn't materialized into any sort of violence
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  or or just just nastiness that we haven't seen that thankfully. Let's keep it
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  that way, right, that's the prayer today. Let's keep it that way.
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  And as far as because I know you talk about all this stuff,
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  so as far as the Trump thing, it's another reflection of Alvin Bragg when
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  it comes to local politics, isn't it. Yeah. I mean, you
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  know, this is what the guy's prioritizing. I mean, this case is
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  costing the taxpayers a tremendous amount of money. You know, it's certainly not
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  a cheap case to prosecute. It's something that just flies in the face of
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  everything he's ever said about downplaying misdemeanors. Rather it's felonies. I mean,
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  he's someone who made a career on taking felonies and making them misdemeanors. But
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  when it comes to the Orange Man, it's let's take misdemeanors and mak the
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  felonies unbelievable. And of course he's deduced so many felonies and misdemeanors at the
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  same time. It's all it's all backwards, right, counselman. It's backwards.
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  It's backwards. But this is the New York that the voters picked.
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  The one thing I'll say about Alvin Bragg is that he didn't lie about who
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  he was. He ran under the guise of being this progressive, woke prosecutor.
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  Well, Consman, I hope to see you around the halls of nine
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  seventy once again soon enough. We love having on the radio as you know.
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  Thank you, sir. I hope to be back soon. And that
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  was Kinsman Joe BURRELLI, the minority leader of the city at talking about yes,
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  EMT is needing body armor and uh, when the bill signed is signed,
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  let me know and we'll talk about it. Maybe go to the press
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  conference. That'd be great. Sounds good. Take care out, take care
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  Colensman, Barelli on one leg up with Alex Garrett. Colensman, thank you
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  so much every time man, have a great day, you too, hope
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  to see you around for real. I haven't seen in a minute. It's
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  been a while. It's been a while, all right, talk to you
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  sir, be well. Thanks again,