NYC NOW - January 22, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s favorability rating is on the rise. Plus, jury selection is underway in the trial of two men accused of killing Run-DMC co-founder Jam Master Jay. And finally, WNYC���s Michael Hill talks with Newark’s new Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, Lakeesha Eure, about an effective trauma-centered approach to fighting crime in New Jersey’s largest city.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. New York State voters view Governor Kathy Hokel pretty favorably. That's according to a New Sienna College poll out this week. Holters say Hokel's approval rating is the best it's been since March of last year. But it's not all good news for the governor. Polling shows that voters do not think she will make living in New York more desirable, nor do they think she will make New York the AI capital of the world,

an issue the governor has championed. Hockel's favorability rating is now at 45%, up from 40% in November. Jury selection began Monday in the trial of two men accused of killing Run DMC co-founder Jam Master J. WNYC's Tiffany Hansen has more. In 2002, Jason Mizell noticed Jam Master J was shot in the head inside a Queens recording studio.

For years, his death lingered as a cold case with witnesses reluctant to speak up. Then, in August of 2020, nearly two decades after his death, federal prosecutors charged Ronald Washington and Carl Jordan Jr. with his murder. Prosecutors suggested they ambushed Mizell over a cocaine deal. Opening statements are expected in the trial later this month. Jam Master Jay co-founded Run DMC in the early 80s when the group helped take hip-hop mainstream. Newark, New Jersey has a new deputy mayor of public safety who is also a licensed social worker. More on that after the break. The mayor of Newark has appointed a licensed clinical social worker to be its next deputy mayor of public safety.

Mayor Rasparaka says Lakeisha Yure has been at the forefront of an effective trauma-centered approach to fighting crime. WMYC's Michael Hill talked with Deputy Mayor Uri about safety in New Jersey's largest city. Before your appointment, you led the Newark Anti-Vviolence Coalition and you were the first director of Newark's Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery. What about this new appointment enable you to do that you haven't done already? The new appointment will allow me to build out systems

that will help make the Office of Violence Prevention and the ecosystem approach more sustainable. it would allow me to go travel and to go learn about what other cities are doing and to bring the information back. It would also allow other cities to come and visit Newark to see our model and for us to be able to do cross-site visits. What kind of direct resources will you have at your disposal to enable you to do more than you already have done? So this new appointment will also allow me to be able to go find more funding from the Office of Violence Prevention at the state level and also at the federal level. it would be able to allow me to go and speak to funders, foundations, ultimately to teach them about this model and this work, and to help our organizations to be able to, again, get funding

so that they can sustain the work that they're doing. We funded over 40 organizations to be able to do violence intervention work because it's never been invested in before. And ultimately, we would be able to do more in partnership with law enforcement. You have worked with a lot of victims of crime and you're a victim of crime yourself. How has any of that informed what you have done and what you plan to do? It's a direct informing because a lot of times people are doing work, but when you're not directly impacted, sometimes you don't have that level of understanding. And so by me being impacted by violence, having family members, friends, being impacted by violence, it enables me to see what trauma looks like. like and to be able to have a trauma-informed approach. And so we are teaching that we're building

this work from trauma to trust and addressing the root causes from a public health approach. And so the public health approach allows us to get to the root causes, which is mental health, right, social-emotional issues. And we ultimately can't arrest our ways out of this issue. So we really have to understand why are people committing robbery, shooting, stabbing, why are people committing crimes? And if we can get to the root causes and address it, then we can ultimately intervene so that the victim don't become the perpetrator. The perpetrator don't become the victim.

And we have some interventions that are sustainable that can help us versus just, again, going at it from a place of punitive and arresting people, why are people committing crimes and taking a time out to understand that. So that's the ultimate, the trauma-informed approach. And it's been for years that we've had trauma in our city. And so we have to address the trauma. Mayor Baraka says as Violence Prevention Director, you've traveled the country sharing Newark's crime fighting strategies,

and that's led to financial support for Newark's crime fighting efforts. Here's what he told WBGL about your role in this new position. We wanted to kind of tighten up the relationship between the police and the community organizations begin to make that relationship tighter, smoother, more cohesive, you know, get rid of those gaps and then go around and look at best practices because other people are doing this work. What's your reaction to that? He's absolutely correct. We've had a convening with over 30 mayors that came here and we were exchanging best practices, how they're doing things in their city, how we're doing things in our city and what works.

And so what he found is that when he go and he traveled to different places, they're asking him about public safety everywhere he goes. how are we able to keep our homicide numbers down? We've had decreases over the last, ultimately, like, eight years. So we went from having over 111 homicides now to this year that just passed. We're down to 48 the year before 50, but being able to close those gaps. And it took a different approach. And so other cities are doing some great things, and we ultimately are as well. So go and find best practices.

I'm in a Leadership Academy with 22 other cities, and we are learning how to professionalize the work. We're learning how to make these interventions universal so that the work is respected, that we have more credibility in the work. And so the mayor wants that to be a thing that he doesn't have to go that there's a person that's on a ground that have experience, that knows the work, that knows the terrain, that knows the history, and how we got here. and so really being able to make a blueprint. And so that is correct.

The mayor is correct in terms of how we do that. And again, building out a sustainability plan and connection with our strategic plan that we already have. How do we execute our strategic plan in a way that's effective? What's your message to the people of Newark as you start this new role? My message to the people of Newark is that public safety belongs to the public. That community have an active role in public. public safety, that public safety don't belong to law enforcement and that we can all do it together.

That's Deputy Mayor Laquisha Urey talking with WNYC's Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.