Sunday, October 18, 2015
Hasidic drivers get less tickets so they vote for de Blasio
Cops doled out fewer tickets to bad drivers in Williamsburg’s Hasidic neighborhoods because the de Blasio administration covets their votes and needs to keep them happy, a source said.
“They pander and he gives them a lot of what they want,” a former mayoral liaison said. “De Blasio is known to have tight ties to the Hasidic community.”
Moving violations in the 90th Precinct, which includes an enclave of 70,000 ultra-religious Orthodox Jews, plummeted 32 percent since de Blasio took office, NYPD records show.
Cops handed out 7,077 moving-violation tickets in the first nine months of the year and 8,242 in the same period last year. But in 2013, under Mayor Bloomberg, the area was blitzed with 10,365 summonses in the first nine months, records show.
Religious leaders “get in with the Police Department and do their thing,” the former official said. “I’ll tell you one thing, they didn’t all take driver’s ed and change their driving habits.”
Williamsburg’s Orthodox leaders denied they asked de Blasio for help.
“I don’t think there was any special effort or any special discussion,” said Brooklyn Community Board 1 member Simon Weiser, who credits the decline to safety campaigns printed in local Jewish newspapers and the increasing use of hands-free phones.
“Enforcement brings education,” he added. “Once they realize the law, people learn. They’re much more cautious.”
Community leaders said Williamsburg motorists complained most often about being ticketed for using a cellphone while driving and not wearing a seat belt.
More than one out of four moving violations issued were from those two categories — and both dropped significantly since 2013.
Police in the area issued 30 percent fewer seat-belt tickets in 2015 compared to 2013, and 50 percent fewer cellphone summonses.
Orthodox leaders have nagged City Hall for years to lay off. They even brought up the issue when Mayor Bloomberg was running for re-election in 2009, the former city official said.
De Blasio — whose support from the Orthodox voting bloc helped him trounce Republican Joe Lhota in the 2013 election — has since placed religious liaisons in key administrative positions and eased city regulations on rabbis who perform circumcisions.
The “NYPD issues tickets . . . without regard to neighborhoods,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Karen Hinton.
The NYPD did not respond to questions about the tickets.
http://nypost.com/2015/10/18/hasidic-drivers-get-less-tickets-so-they-vote-for-de-blasio/
“They pander and he gives them a lot of what they want,” a former mayoral liaison said. “De Blasio is known to have tight ties to the Hasidic community.”
Moving violations in the 90th Precinct, which includes an enclave of 70,000 ultra-religious Orthodox Jews, plummeted 32 percent since de Blasio took office, NYPD records show.
Cops handed out 7,077 moving-violation tickets in the first nine months of the year and 8,242 in the same period last year. But in 2013, under Mayor Bloomberg, the area was blitzed with 10,365 summonses in the first nine months, records show.
Religious leaders “get in with the Police Department and do their thing,” the former official said. “I’ll tell you one thing, they didn’t all take driver’s ed and change their driving habits.”
Williamsburg’s Orthodox leaders denied they asked de Blasio for help.
“I don’t think there was any special effort or any special discussion,” said Brooklyn Community Board 1 member Simon Weiser, who credits the decline to safety campaigns printed in local Jewish newspapers and the increasing use of hands-free phones.
“Enforcement brings education,” he added. “Once they realize the law, people learn. They’re much more cautious.”
Community leaders said Williamsburg motorists complained most often about being ticketed for using a cellphone while driving and not wearing a seat belt.
More than one out of four moving violations issued were from those two categories — and both dropped significantly since 2013.
Police in the area issued 30 percent fewer seat-belt tickets in 2015 compared to 2013, and 50 percent fewer cellphone summonses.
Orthodox leaders have nagged City Hall for years to lay off. They even brought up the issue when Mayor Bloomberg was running for re-election in 2009, the former city official said.
De Blasio — whose support from the Orthodox voting bloc helped him trounce Republican Joe Lhota in the 2013 election — has since placed religious liaisons in key administrative positions and eased city regulations on rabbis who perform circumcisions.
The “NYPD issues tickets . . . without regard to neighborhoods,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Karen Hinton.
The NYPD did not respond to questions about the tickets.
http://nypost.com/2015/10/18/hasidic-drivers-get-less-tickets-so-they-vote-for-de-blasio/
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