Darcel Clark
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afternoon chairman Salaam and members of the Public Safety Committee.
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Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today.
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I am district attorney Darcelle Clark.
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My testimony can be summed up in 10 words or less, that I'm fighting for the soul of The Bronx.
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Those who have never tried a criminal case, never had a victim or grieving mother cry on their shoulder, or heard thank you from someone recently released from prison at an employment resource fair you organized for them should not be telling me how to do my job.
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Regardless of what a police commissioner, defense attorneys, legislators or professors say or believe, I am the chief law enforcement officer in The Bronx.
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And, I do this work in close partnership with the great men and women of NYPD.
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Public safety is my responsibility to deliver to the people of The Bronx.
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They elected me three times to perform this duty.
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I am unapologetic about who I am and the work that I do.
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I work for them and I am one with them.
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And unless you have experienced the why, you will never know the how.
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Now is not the time to retreat to broken windows.
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Now is the time to look ahead to twenty first century solutions aimed at keeping the Bronx safe.
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We start by identifying the root causes of crime and addressing the underlying conditions that lead to a cycle of violence and recidivism.
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It takes prevention, intervention, prosecution, and reentry.
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Our borough is under resourced and underserved.
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The communities suffering from poverty and high crime have remained the same since the seventies.
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To tackle the outsized share of violent crime that Bronx residents and businesses experience, our community needs more resources to address employment, education, housing, mental health, and substance abuse.
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We need more community police officers on patrol.
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They are our guardians of safety and not warriors of force.
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We need more detectives to solve the crimes and gather evidence in order to hold people accountable for crime.
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We need more ADAs and professional staff to care for victims, resolve cases, and engage with the community, especially our youth.
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And, we need the infrastructure, services, and systems in place that support people and bolster public safety.
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We need a fair and efficient criminal justice system that will keep up with technology and artificial intelligence.
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A year has passed since I spoke here and I pleaded for investment in The Bronx.
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20 20 4 proved to be another year of hell and hope for our communities.
