The supervisor of Oyster Bay, New York, told Newsmax on Friday that it's "ideology" that led to Nassau County being named the safest community in the country by U.S. News & World Report earlier this week.
Joseph Saladino joined retired Republican Congressman Peter King on "American Agenda" to discuss the No. 1 ranking by the magazine. The suburban Long Island county achieved a public safety score of 100 from U.S. News & World Report.
Saladino said the recipe is a complete buy-in to common sense and not allowing nonsense.
"It comes down to ideology," Saladino said, "the ideology of our county executive, Bruce Blakeman. The ideology and the quick response, effective response, of our district attorney Anne Donnelly, and of course, the dedication and effectiveness of our Nassau County Police Department.
"You put those three pieces together in the recipe, and you come out with safer communities. We're not chasing what might be popular in the moment; we're using good common sense."
Nassau County experienced a red wave in the 2021 elections, with Republicans being elected to top positions, including Blakeman and Donnelly.
"[Donnelly] gets people into court and if they're guilty, she makes sure they learn their lesson and send a very strong message that we just don't tolerate this nonsense in Nassau County. It's worked out very, very well. And it's tremendously in contrast to what we're seeing in other cities and other counties across our great nation," Saladino said.
King said another ingredient is that judges are elected in Nassau County.
"And certainly on the Republican side, we always elect judges who are strong supporters of law enforcement. And there's basically a no-tolerance policy," said King, who retired from Congress in 2021. "So it's, you know, going back to the broken windows theory; people hanging around on street corners, throwing things on the sidewalk, that's stopped right away, because we know the smaller crimes lead to big ones. … We do have to worry about the crossover crime coming in from New York City. And even gangs now have come in from New Jersey. But the cops are doing their job."
"And I would say, dealing with the police commissioner on a regular basis, the county executive, they are on this and they make no excuses at all. And they don't tolerate any excuses," King added.
Saladino added that conservative principles work in Nassau versus those of sanctuary cities.
"We're not evil; it's not like we don't want people to have these things. But when taxpayers have to foot the bill and find that they're losing services, their children don't get free college, they pay for all of [illegal migrants] healthcare, they have to deal with the problems, their stores are getting looted and their homes are getting broken into, they say, We've had enough," Saladino said. "So if you're wondering why there's division, go to this issue.
"Communities like Nassau County that have zero tolerance, as Peter King so aptly mentioned, we're not seeing these problems. We're a safe community. People work together. We respect everyone from every walk of life, from every socioeconomic level. But we get along, we work together, and we have embraced the similar ideology."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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