12 SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
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 fi lled
our borough and city, claiming dozens
of lives, injuring hundreds and terrifying
thousands of people.
The situation has given rise to fearmongers
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 fearmongers,
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
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Police investigate a shooting in Astoria that left four people injured in August. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
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.
Third, 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.
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-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.
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