EDITORIAL
HEY FEAR-MONGERS:
KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!
As August turns into September, we are approaching
the end of what has been a most
violent summer in New York City.
In the pages of this paper and on our website,
you’ve read about the endless string of gun violence
that has filled our borough and city, claiming dozens
of lives, injuring hundreds and terrifying thousands of
people.
The situation has given rise to fear-mongers who
have pointed to all these shootings to bolster their claim
that this city is falling apart; and fatalists who write or
tweet, almost with a tinge of sadistic glee, about the
city’s purported demise.
We have three words for these fear-mongers, including
those who seek to inject party politics into the situation
and exploit it during the current presidential race:
Knock it off.
First, the shooting spike still hasn’t brought New
York City to the level of violence seen in previous decades.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani likes to tout how
he allegedly brought “law and order” to New York during
the 1990s, but the record shows that the NYPD had
far lower crime and murder rates during the two administrations
that followed him.
Second, the blame for the current rise in violence
doesn’t entirely rest at the feet of “liberal” criminal
justice reforms, as police officials and some fear-mongers
claim. Nor does it entirely rest at the feet of Mayor
Bill de Blasio, even with his lacking leadership on the
matter.
Third, the surge in gun violence has been largely
confined to low-income neighborhoods, which also happen
to be communities of color, that have been historically
neglected by city government.
De Blasio ran his 2013 mayoral campaign on ending
this “tale of two cities” in New York. He was right
to make that argument then, and he won the election
because of it. Yet it’s clear that de Blasio hasn’t done
enough to write the final chapter in this saga, and it’ll
be left to the next mayor to pen it.
The gun violence is clear evidence of New York’s
long-held inequity, and the grim need to resolve it. That
means providing greater resources to neglected communities,
and it means police reforms designed to not
only boost crime-fighting, but also rebuild public confidence
and trust.
Instead of broadcasting stereotypes and scare tactics,
the fear-mongers should champion the cause for
ending inequality for all in New York and America.
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Police investigate a shooting in Astoria that left four people injured in August. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
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