bratton says law enforcement had a strategy in dealing with these so-called wolf packs. >> you had to every one of them. you had to send out the message that the importance of not just arresting one or two but to get all of them. >> reporter: and that's exactly what police were doing in the watkins case. within 24 hours, they had a group of teenagers in custody. but bratton says the impact of brian watkins murder on new york didn't end with those arrests. >> well, it was a seminal case for me. it allowed us to have a tipping point impact. >> reporter: the day after the murder, bratton received a call from the governor's office of $40 million to help fight crime. money that would be used to hire thousands of new cops and soon the city's crime rate began to drop, as it has for the past 25 years. as for the suspects arrested in the watkins case, all would be convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. but that's not even close to the end of the story. of the seven men convicted of this crime, one says he alone is unjustly paying the price for the murder that commissioner bratt

there is no denying that crime was out of control. >> reporter: bratton is widely recognized as one of the nation's top cops. he's run the police departments of america's two largest cities. and he served twice as new york city's police commissioner. but just to put it in perspective, the murders of 1990, compare that to other years. >> there is no comparison. 1990, 2,243, last year 333. >> reporter: but it was the 1,585th homicide of that year, brian watkins murder, that the police commissioner says caused everyone to pay attention. >> i'm damn angry. of course i am. >> reporter: beginning with then-mayor david dinkins. >> actually, the headline around that time, dave, do something. meaning, dave do something about the horrific crime rate and the brian watkins stabbing was an accelerant that was added to that whole fear. >> reporter: the minute you got this call, did you know this is going to be a big one, a lot of eyes, a lot of press on this one. >> a tornado nature of the attack. wolf pack. >> reporter: wolf pack. it was a name the media had recently given to another group of five

bratton, i'd like to talk to you."e, sit down." >> and i said, "i'm dana rosendale's daughter" and all three of their mouths about dropped to the table and i said "i wanna know what happened to my mom." and he just said -- "you know, you need to keep pushing" and that's all he'd say. >> reporter: so she did. brittany says she began calling the prosecutor's investigator every week like clockwork. and amazingly he started showing some interest in the case. >> and he'd say, you know, "nothin' new," or -- >> you're looking for a killer? >> right. >> is he looking for a killer or just trying to find out what happened? >> i think at that point at first he was just trying to put the pieces together. >> reporter: it wasn't going to be easy. what brittany didn't know was that detective bratton had done a fair bit back in the day, chasing down leads, trying to make sense of it all, but interview tapes, crime scene photos, evidence --most of that was missing. >> not to beat people up, but what happened to all those boxes, the int

joining me with more on all this is congressman dave bratton, a member of the freedom of caucus. i have a question for you. with we had 7-plus years to come up with some alternative to obamacare. how is it we are sitting here and there noise repeal and replace? >> on the healthcare, i'm equally frustrated. we put together a lot of clever white papers. but what they had failed to do is ask people if they are going to vote for the white papers. but people -- especially the senate, they voted umpteen times for clean repeal of the 2015 bill. that's why the house freedom caucus is putting in a petition to have everyone sign up on the house floor to sign up 2015 we peel bill to light a fire to get the senate going. trish: fine, you repeal it. but didn't donald trump and other politicians run under the premise they will repeal and replace it with something that was much, much better? if you don't have anything to replace it with, aren't you running a serious political risk? >> we are. wee passed a replacement bill. the senate couldn't get there on it. so the just the repeal bill we are

. >> bloomberg with good police chiefs from ray kelly to bill bratton to our current police chief, you generally under control but there are quality of life issues here in the city which he should be paying attention to. not get involved -- trish: isn't this part of his bigger political platform? >> that's it. >> he sees himself not just as mayor of new york city but potentially something bigger? >> what he sees is, that the democratic party, is now, you know, it is controlled not by bill clinton new democrats, moderate, to conservative wing of the party. it is now controlled by progressive lefties and he sees himself in that tradition. trish: progressive lefty. >> on so many issues. on economics he is further to the left than any recent mayor we've had, including david dinkins. he is probably further to the left than barack obama. he is -- trish: without a doubt. >> this is a guy that wanted pre-k education, preschool education. governor cuomo, he wanted to do it through tax increases. governor cuomo said no. the state will give you the money. he still tried to push for tax increases

when we went through with ray kelly, bratton, was detrimental to the public at large. we cannot have a president or any head of state in this , congressman,e making statements such as this. the latino community on long island, four years, has been untold abuse at the hands of police officers. day laborers, why isn't that an immigrant is treated the way he is treated in the united states? day laborers waiting to go to work looking for a job or being brutalized. no regard was being given with regard to what was happening. , we know fromp the central park five case, very racist. he is an old democrat, not a republican. he is an old democrat. for almost 200 years, it was the democrats who were preventing people from exercising their civil and constitutional rights. i'm not surprised. it is a shame we are at the level that we are at, we have dropped below ground level in the last six months. you could wiley, if speak to not only the remarks the president made but he was speaking to the culture of policing, rather than the rules and regulations, and the laws. as you will not

i cam back in the 1990s and 2,000s with bill bratton and ray kelly. this problem. but now across the country, you are seeing people stepping back from it because police are afraid right now. this attitude that police are bad is having an ill effect on our community relations and our community policing. brian: think about this, if you want to become an officer, you don't do it to become rich. you do it because you care about the society and make a difference. good people told don't get in uniform, you don't have the backing of the politicians. >> there is no question that is a problem right now for american policing and the recruiting. no one is taking the task. it's hard to get people interested in the police department. in 99% of the officers that come to work are risking their lives in service to the community. brian: we realize it here and i know do you every day. thank you so much. >> always a pleasure. brian: hopefully this guy will not get reelected. meanwhile, straight ahead. fired fbi directors james comey said his private memos about the pres