“Both Dominican-Americans who grew up on the same streets who later chose to patrol as policemen”, that is how President Joe Biden referred when remembering Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera, the NYPD officers assassinated in January in Harlem, during their address on the State of the Union last night in Congress.
“I spoke with their families and told them that we are forever in their debt for their sacrifice and that we will continue with their mission to restore confidence and security that every community deserves,” added Biden, referring to the visit he made a month ago to the NYPD headquarters to offer his support in the midst of the rise in violence.
Shortly after the governor of New York City Mayor Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, thanked Biden for honoring Rivera and Mora.
“Thank you, President Biden, for honoring the memory of our fallen NYPD officers, Mora and Rivera, and for pledging to provide ap Hey integral to our public safety system,” Hochul wrote on Twitter.
“The City of New York is deeply grateful that @POTUS directly honored Detectives Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora. These two heroes gave their lives for New York City and we must honor that sacrifice. As @POTUS said, we will not leave our streets,” Adams tweeted. “Public safety and justice are prerequisites for prosperity. We must end the wave of gun violence that we are seeing in New York and the rest of the nation.”
Biden pledged to invest in crime prevention and community policing. He called on people to come together to restore confidence in the police institution while holding law enforcement accountable, he summarized Pix11.
The weapon used to kill Mora and Rivera arrived in New York illegally and the suspect, who also died, had another machine gun under the mattress. The episode set off alarms of violence in New York, prompting a message of condolences from President Biden and his subsequent commitment to visit the city.
Biden said last night that he would crack down on arms trafficking and so-called “ghost guns,” which, lacking serials, are very difficult to trace. He also called on Congress to pass universal background checks and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. “These laws do not violate the Second Amendment,” he stated. “They save lives.”