Nicole Malliotakis: “I thank my colleague Anthony D'Esposito for his service and for highlighting the dangers that our law enforcement face…”

“I thank my colleague Anthony D'Esposito for his service and for highlighting the dangers that our law enforcement face each and every day. As a Representative from New York City, it breaks my heart to see that we are losing police officers year after year, not just to retirements and then those who are fleeing our State, but those who are being murdered by criminals who should not be on our streets. We talked about how 374 police officers have been killed in the line of duty since Joe Biden became President in 2021. That includes five of our brave NYPD: Detective Tsakos, Detective Rivera, Detective Mora, and Officer Fayaz, and the latest being Jonathan Diller. We must listen to the words and the pleas of their widows, of their parents, of their family members, of their fellow law enforcement officers who are saying that this is preventable. If we see that our police officers are not safe in cities like ours, how can the public be safe? It is truly tragic because we know it is preventable, and there are a certain number of laws that the State legislature in New York has put in place that have caused this crisis. The individuals who were responsible for the death of Officer Diller were career criminals. Guy Rivera, who was the one who pulled the trigger, had 21 prior arrests, and he was still on our streets. He was most recently released from a 5-year prison stint for a drug conviction, and then he went off to parole in 2022.…”