He loves them, he loves them not.
Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim — who once vowed to defund the police — has lately taken to boasting of his pro-police bonafides to voters in his district.
Kim, a progressive Democrat who has spent a decade in Albany, finds himself facing a stiff challenge in the June 25 Democratic primary from Yi Andy Chen, a small business owner sitting on $227,149 in campaign cash — significantly more than Kim’s $136,367. A third candidate Dao Yin is also seeking the nomination.
As anti-Asian hate crimes surged, Kim promised community leaders he had the situation well in hand.
“People are feeling unsafe. So we agree with the governor’s proposal to enhance funding for the state police,” Kim told constituents during a budget forum in March. “We’re adding close to $10 billion for emergency services, state police, and homeland security. That’s $10 billion to keep our communities safe and we’re going to fight to redirect a lot of that money towards things . . . to make sure that our communities feel safe moving forward.”
In December 2022, he signed a letter along with fellow Queens lawmakers calling on Mayor Adams to send more cops to the northeastern portion of the borough, to stem the rise of rapes, robberies and burglaries.
When pressed by voters, he has claimed to be an adamant police champion. During a campaign reelection event at his Flushing office in February, Kim “emphasized that he has repeatedly fought for funds for the police. He is not opposed to the police as rumored, nor does he want to encourage crime by canceling cash bail,” the Chinese language world journal reported.
A review of his record by The Post shows, however, that Kim supported police early in his career, but made an abrupt U-turn after the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
“40 years of extracting from the bottom + militarization of police = criminalization of poverty,” he said in an X post from June 2020, in which he called for the “immediate” defunding of the NYPD and ending qualified immunity.
“When I say “defund” I am also referring to the military & prison industrial complexes as well – the whole ecosysm [sic] that invests in violence,” in added in the same thread.
When the Minneapolis City Council voted to defund their police — inaugurating a wave of violent crime which continues to this day — Kim gushed, “This is the way to truly honor #GeorgeFloyd – no watered down legislations with inputs from police unions. Instead, a complete transformation toward a #CaringSociety.”
In the Assembly, Kim has supported legislation to decriminalize the possession and sale of hypodermic needles and syringes, end cash bail, and decriminalize prostitution.
Critics like veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said Kim’s defund and pro-perp positions had put him on the “wrong side of history.”
“The voters are not idiots. When incumbents have primaries it tells you people are angry,” Sheinkopf said. “This is the permanent political class finally being brought to judgement for putting New Yorkers as risk.”
In a statement to The Post, Kim was defiant.
“I, like all sensible New Yorkers, have at times called for accountability, but that goes hand-in-hand with improving public safety,” he said. “I have a record of calling for additional police patrols in the subways, an increase in funding for hate crimes investigations and crimes targeting elderly New Yorkers.”
