Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler revealed that he is considering relocating the EPA’s office in New York City if local and state leaders fail to quell the widespread violence and rioting that has plagued the city for months, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
Wheeler revealed his intentions in a letter sent to the offices of Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) and Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.), lambasting them for their failures to stop the widespread riots by far-left terror groups such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa, which have led to the burning and looting of many businesses, over the last several months. The EPA office and other government offices in the area had also been damaged by the riots.
“I have an obligation to our employees,” Wheeler’s letter reads. “And if the City is unwilling or incapable of doing its job, I will do mine and move them to a location that can completely fulfill the basic mission of a local government.”
A spokesman for Cuomo’s office derided the letter as “another transparent political game from this federal government,” and falsely accused the EPA of having “abandoned every state since 2017,” and “playing political flunky.”
New York City has become one of the national hotbeds of the far-left violence, with Cuomo and de Blasio both being extremely lenient towards the riots due to agreeing with many of the rioters’ political stances. De Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, was arrested herself at a riot in Manhattan, which led to speculation that de Blasio would never crack down on the rioters due to the personal connection to his family.
De Blasio’s efforts to reduce the size and strength of the NYPD to appease the rioters, including abolishing its 600-member plainclothes division and cutting the NYPD’s funding by $1 billion, has only led to further violence due to the diminished police force, with over 300 officers retiring early and citywide homicides hitting a 5-year high. Cuomo has also been criticized for his efforts to release thousands of prisoners across the state due to alleged concerns of the coronavirus spreading in prisons, which has led to many prisoners being rearrested after committing even more crimes.
The rising skepticism of New York City and New York state’s government by federal officials follows Attorney General Bill Barr’s announcement that New York, along with the cities of Seattle and Portland, had been designated by the Justice Department as “anarchist jurisdictions” due to local leadership refusing to crack down on violence, lawlessness, and unrest.