New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Attorney General Pam Bondi that the city does not need the Trump administration to deploy the National Guard to tackle crime, according to a report.
Tisch met with Bondi Monday for 30 minutes at the NYPD headquarters in Manhattan, where she made a case about the city’s declining crime rate, The New York Times reports.
The commissioner also hailed the police department’s drone technology to solve crimes, according to the outlet.
The high-stakes meeting comes as President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday directing the Defense Department to step up its role in domestic law enforcement by “quelling civil disturbances” across states.
Trump’s order states that specially trained National Guard units in all 50 states and the District of Columbia should be mobilized quickly to ensure “public safety and order.”
Chicago, New York and Baltimore are among some of the targets on Trump’s hit list following his federal takeover of Washington, D.C. last month, where National Guard troops were deployed on the streets to tackle what he called “out of control crime.”
“When ready, we will start in Chicago … Chicago is a mess,” Trump said, and added that the administration “will help with New York.”
The Independent has contacted the New York Police Department and the Justice Department for comment.
Tisch and New York City Mayor Eric Adams touted a 5.6 percent drop in overall crime in July, the same week four people were gunned down in a Manhattan office building.
“As we reflect on the month of July, we are exceptionally proud that overall crime continues to topple — leading off our SEVENTH consecutive quarter of crime reductions — with some of our most violent crimes at record lows across the city,” Adams said in a statement earlier this month. “July saw the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history.”
Meanwhile, Illinois leaders have also pushed back and warned Trump not to deploy military troops to Chicago.
“Do not come to Chicago,” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at a press conference Monday.
New York officials also took issue with Trump’s threats to withhold or revoke federal funding to local and state governments that offer cashless bail, arguing that it is a threat to public safety.
“No cash. Come back in a couple of months, we'll give you a trial. You never see the person again,” he said, moments before signing Monday’s executive order.
Bondi must submit a list of jurisdictions that have “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order” within 30 days, as stipulated in the order.
Proponents of eliminating cash bail describe it as a penalty on poverty, suggesting that the wealthy can pay their way out of jail to await trial while those with fewer financial resources have to sit it out behind bars. Critics of the cashless route have argued that bail is a time-honored way to ensure defendants released from jail show up for court proceedings.
They warn that violent criminals will be released pending trial, giving them license to commit other crimes.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office issued a statement Monday, calling the threat “reckless.”
“President Trump has no concept of how the law works in New York,” Hochul’s spokeswoman Jen Goodman said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
