How about that: Trump-appointed Southern District US Attorney Jay Clayton is standing up for public-housing tenants.
His top targets include gun violence, drug and sex trafficking, transnational gangs and public corruption — with a particular emphasis on protecting New Yorkers in violence-plagued public housing.
“We charge [suspects] federally if we can because there’s a greater likelihood of detention,” Clayton explained on WABC.
This recalls the feds’ approach during the 1990s “crack wars,” tackling the drug-gang gunmen who terrorized poor minority neighborhoods: It helped drive down shootings and murders all across the city.
Crucially, the NYPD and local DAs worked with their federal partners to ensure that the worst of the worst got arrested, tried and convicted in federal court under harsher sentencing guidelines.
Clayton (whose NYC jurisdiction is limited to Manhattan and The Bronx) understands that New Yorkers “want gun-toting criminals off our street.”
Let’s hope Eastern District US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. brings the same hard-nosed approach to Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Clayton’s recent indictment of 19 drug dealers in and around Washington Square Park gives hope to South Bronx residents and shopkeepers who have long complained about the open-air drug market besetting The Hub at Third Avenue and 149th Street.
If Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s White House love-in with President Donald Trump is to pay off for the most vulnerable New Yorkers, it must include friendly cooperation with Clayton and his team.
We hope to hear the new mayor announce that there’s nothing progressive about letting the gangs run the projects.
