DeBlasio wasn't at the meeting but will be brought up to speed by reps of the organization!  I grew up in the NYC area in the 70's and a more dangerous place you could not find in the US.  Policing brought the crime rate down in the 90's to where women can walk around alone at night!  Unheard of back then!  Even Madonna said she got raped! Madonna;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2444351/Madonna-reveals-raped-roof-building-New-York-age-19.html

De Blasio gets policing advice — from ex-cons

http://nypost.com/2013/11/21/de-blasio-hearing-plenty-of-policing-advice-from-ex-cons/

Forget Ray Kelly, Bill de Blasio is getting his policing advice from the real experts — hardened criminals.

A group of 50 ex-cons, junkies and chronic vagrants gathered at a Manhattan “Think Tank” Thursday to describe what they thought the NYPD should be doing to make their lives easier.

The felonious forum outlined a clear “get-soft-on-crime” vision.

“I like the idea of ending stop and frisk. That was the first thing that was totally there for me,” opined Mikell Green-Grand, a 49-year-old former jailbird who has convictions for grand larceny and identity theft.

Arthur Castillo, 38 — who has been convicted for possessing stolen property and assault — said he would be much obliged if the cops just left him alone to do his thing.

“Cops won’t leave us alone!” he said. “Newly released prisoners are watched by the police and a lot of us don’t feel we have an opportunity to readapt to normal life because we are treated as criminals even though we are free'

NEW YORK USED TO BE A TERRIFYING PLACE 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-used-to-be-a-terrifying-place-photos-2013-7?op=1#ixzz2lNqXqjJZ

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-used-to-be-a-terrifying-place-photos-2013-7

The New York City of the 1970s looked very different from the gentrified metropolis we know today. The Bowery, now lined with luxury apartments, housed much of the city's illicit activities, while drug dealers and prostitutes worked openly from Park Slope to Times Square.

Industrial decline, economic stagnation, and white flight led to the dramatic downturn for America's largest city.

Gotham had an unprecedented fiscal crisis in 1975, and two years later the city descended into chaos after the power went out for 25 hours. New York City saw 1,814 homicides in 1980 — three times what we have today — while the population declined to just over 7 million from nearly 8 million a decade before.

-2,225 murders by 1990!!!  Then Gulliani took over and with Bratton using street policing techniques made the streets safe ro the majority of citezens-obviously the socialists want to make the streets safe for the criminals again.  As was the case back in the day you will need to know where you can and cannot go around NYC, probably in a year to a year and a half from now. What a shame.