22 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
Hey fear-mongers: Knock it off already!
As August turns into
September, we are approaching
THE QUEENS
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
CO-PUBLISHER
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ART DIRECTOR
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
STAFF REPORTERS
CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS
PRODUCTION MANAGER
INSIDE SALES MANAGER
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
PRESIDENT & CEO
VICE PRESIDENT
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
BOB BRENNAN
ZACHARY GEWELB
NIRMAL SINGH
JACOB KAYE
ANGELICA ACEVEDO, JENNA BAGCAL, KATRINA MEDOFF,
CARLOTTA MOHAMED, BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
MARIA VALENCIA
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
Schneps Media, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361
718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441
www.qns.com
editorial e-mail: editorial@qns.com
for advertising e-mail: ads@qns.com
Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Queens Courier
All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should
include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating
special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION.
No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. The
publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the
error. Errors must be reported to THE QUEENS COURIER within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be
guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE QUEENS
COURIER and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or
recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement.
Story: Queens College in Flushing voted Best
College in The Princeton Review 2021 edition
Summary: This year marks the 29th time Queens
College in Flushing has been named one of the
country’s best institutions for undergraduate
education by the Princeton Review.
Reach: 7,329 (as of 8/31/20)
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 fi lled our borough
and city, claiming dozens
of lives, injuring hundreds and
terrifying thousands of people.
Th e 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 offi cials 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.
Th ird, the surge in gun violence
has been largely confi ned
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 fi nal chapter in this
saga, and it’ll be left to the next
mayor to pen it.
Th e gun violence is clear evidence
of New York’s long-held
inequity, and the grim need to
resolve it. Th at means providing
greater resources to neglected
communities, and it means
police reforms designed to not
only boost crime-fi ghting, but
also rebuild public confi dence
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.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Police investigate a shooting in Astoria that left four people injured in August.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
/www.qns.com
/www.qns.com
link
link
