Lelling, top cops in Mass. join up for gun clampdown
Cite rising tide of weapons, brazen attitude of offenders
The criminal justice system’s revolving door during the coronavirus pandemic and “anti-police rhetoric” has emboldened gun-toting criminals and led to an increase in crime after a 30year low, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said.
“The idea of defunding the police is absurd,” Lelling said at a round table he hosted Wednesday with police chiefs and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “If anything … we should be reinvesting in police” since the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police sparked protests across the nation.
So far this year, Boston
Police have confiscated 661 guns, 435 of which have been used in crimes, Commissioner William Gross said, and several of those arrested had on court-ordered GPS bracelets meant to enforce restrictions on their whereabouts after previous arrests.
Because courts were not fully operational for months during the pandemic, Gross said, “what they’re saying on the street is, ‘ We can do whatever we want.’ ”
But when suspects face federal criminal charges, he said, they no longer say that because federal sentences typically are longer than state ones.
Lelling’s office recently charged 21 gun-related cases in support of Massachusetts police departments’ efforts to curb violence.
The arrests were made as part of Project Guardian, a Department of Justice initiative that emphasizes close coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement to enforce federal firearms and background-check laws.
Despite the best efforts of state and local police departments, repeat offenders “continue to mock the criminal justice system,” Lelling said. “COVID has almost certainly emboldened violent offenders who think that the criminal justice system is closed.”
Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood said the suspect arrested in a fatal shooting there on Monday had been out on bail in connection with a December arrest on firearms charges.
“Right now, they’re being released without any followup,” Clapprood said.
So far this year, her department has arrested 136 people on firearm charges and seized 135 guns, 52 of which were large-capacity firearms, including two AK47s and three “ghost guns” put together with parts that had been bought separately, said Ryan Walsh, a department spokesman.
In the last two months alone, Springfield Police arrested 48 people on firearms charges and seized their guns, Clapprood said. Four of the suspects were wearing GPS bracelets, she said, and 12 had been out on bail in connection with previous gun charges.
“The focus of Project Guardian is to enhance our crime-gun intelligence” by targeting those who lie on federal firearms transaction forms and those who are subject to the mental health prohibition of possessing firearms, said ATF Special Agent in Charge Kelly Brady.