NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Maya Wiley said Friday that she wouldn’t take guns away from NYPD officers after the progressive candidate didn’t give a definitive answer when asked about it at Thursday night's mayoral debate.
“Well of course I’m not taking guns away from police officers,” Wiley said in an interview with 1010 WINS.
“It is an idea that has not even been in a conversation in this race,” she said. “I wanted to focus what is only a minute of time on the conversation that actually has been the issue in this race, which is keeping our people safe but doing it in a smart way. And the fundamental conversation we’ve been having is how we do that.”
Wiley raised some eyebrows with her response to the question at the debate between five Democratic candidates.
The candidates were asked if they would consider disarming police officers, as some countries have done. While four of the candidates said they wouldn't, Wiley wouldn’t say either way definitively after being pressed several times.
“I am not prepared to make that decision in a debate,” she said. “I am going to have a civilian commissioner and a civilian commission that is going to hold the police accountable and make sure we’re safe from crime but also from police violence.”
Wiley, a civil rights attorney and former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, told 1010 WINS that part of keeping New Yorkers safe is “recognizing that this is not about adding more police officers to the police force, but by being smart and building up the very things that prevent the guns from being shot in the first place.”
“Like mental health crisis intervention. Like making sure that the folks that are so effective on the ground right now at preventing the guns from being picked up and shot in the first place actually get the support they’ve been asking for, deserve and need,” she said.
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