Biden Vows to N.Y. Officials That He Won’t ‘Abandon Our Streets’

The president visited New York City to show his support for law enforcement and detail his plans to work with the city to control gun violence.

Amid a rise in murders in cities across the nation, and intense Republican efforts to paint Democrats as hostile to law enforcement, President Biden on Thursday traveled to New York City to assert his party’s public safety credentials, affirming his support for law enforcement and detailing his administration’s plans to work with the city to confront gun violence.

Flanked by elected officials including Mayor Eric Adams — a former police captain whose messaging around crime and justice has been embraced by some national Democrats — Mr. Biden highlighted his calls to increase federal investments in policing and pledged that the Justice Department would focus on so-called ghost guns, firearms that are easily assembled from kits but are not regulated by federal gun laws.

“Mayor Adams, you and I agree: The answer is not to abandon our streets,” Mr. Biden said at the New York Police Department headquarters. “The answer is to come together, police and communities, building trust and making us all safer. The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors.”