The NYPD’s “Superman” would be “sick to his stomach” at the thought of Vice President Harris winning the White House, his widow told The Post.
Bronx Warrant Squad Detective Joe Lemm was just 45 when he was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2015 four days before Christmas. It was the hero’s third deployment overseas with the Air National Guard while a member of the NYPD.
He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star for placing himself between the killer and his team members, absorbing the brunt of the explosion and shielding other airmen from potentially fatal wounds, according to the award citation. Five other airmen were killed in the attack outside Bagram Air Field.
The married father of two — who earned his nickname for chiseled good looks and guts while repeatedly serving abroad and working in the tough-as-nails NYPD squad charged with hunting outlaws — would have rejected the Harris-Biden administration’s “lack of support for our our military and police departments across the country,” Christine Lemm said.
“Joe wanted Trump in office,” she said. “He saw too many things overseas and was confident Trump could handle our enemies.
“A lot of lost lives would be in vain if this administration continues, overseas and locally,” added Lemm, a staunch Trump supporter who pointed to the Biden administration’s “disastrous pullout” from Afghanistan.
The 51-year-old met President Trump and got a hug from him at a wreath laying for her husband in Midtown Manhattan in 2019.
She now avoids the Big Apple because of the violent fallout of criminal justice reforms, she said.
“Criminals are being locked up and slapped on the hands and they’re being let out with no bail, and once again, that is a policy of, for the most part, our Democratic officials in office,” the Westchester County resident said.
Lemm faulted local liberals who have passed criminal justice reforms that have handcuffed cops and made people less safe. Bail reform, onerous discovery rules, and “Raise the Age” laws reforms have made it difficult to arrest bad guys and keep them in jail.
“They’re put back out on the streets, not once, not twice, multiple times over and over again,” she said. “So I just I can’t understand how we’re allowing this to happen, how the current administrations, from the presidency down to local agencies, are allowing this to happen.
“I’m really scared for my children, for their safety and for their future,” said Lemm, whose daughter is a 25-year-old Arlington, Va., police officer, and son is a 13-year-old middle-schooler.
While the Democratic Party points to FBI reports that crime was down nationally in 2023 — and NYC touts drops in most major crimes — detractors note that the the FBI’s national data is incomplete because many cities don’t share theirs, and that heinous crimes are being committed by migrants amid a surge of illegal immigration. In New York City, where hundreds of migrant arrests were reported this year, felonious assaults and rapes have increased by 5% and 16% respectively.
Lemm is upset about illegal immigration and actually hears the migrant flights from border states landing in the middle of the night at the airport near her home.
“I live close to Westchester County Airport,” she said. “I know they’re flying migrants in across the country, and you know they’re coming through the borders, and they’re ending up all over the country, not just in the border states.”
Lemm, who voted early and for Trump, believes the U.S. should support its allies internationally — especially Israel — but focus on home.
“We need to focus on the USA,” said the mom. “We do more for other countries than we do for America.”
