It’s Not Too Late, Gov
Queens City Councilman Jim Gennaro is the latest Democrat to call out Gov. Hochul for failing to enact public-safety measures before the legislative session ended. But it’s not too late for her to call a special session.
Gennaro told The Post it was “a failure of leadership to not provide Gotham and other cities an effective criminal-justice system.” Shootings continue to rack the city.
On Thursday, nine people were shot in just a few hours.
Last Sunday, gunmen hit three in The Bronx. Between June 6 and Sunday, 24 incidents citywide resulted in 29 shot, per the NYPD.
Over Memorial Day weekend, the city saw 19 shootings with 23 victims.
And on Friday, The Post reported that a man suspected in the shooting of 7-year-old had been freed without bail despite a felony robbery rap.
We’re all for sensible new gun controls, but the answer to “routine” gunfire is overwhelmingly about better control of the gunmen.
Mayor Adams was correct that New Yorkers have “an obligation to protect the families and children” of their cities. That means Hochul & Co. prioritizing public safety over the demands of the thug-protection, defund-the-police lobby.
Hochul’s hullabaloo about chasing gun traffickers and stopping illegal guns at the state border will have scant effect on crime guns in circulation. One Brooklyn-based NYPD superviser figured more than 100,000 crime guns are floating around the five boroughs.
As ex-NYPD boss Howard Safire suggests: “Deploy plainclothes units in high-crime areas” and “send the message that if you commit a crime you’ll be taken in.” It’s quite simple: Send cops where the guns and crime are. The city’s longest-serving commish, Ray Kelly, suggests a return to plainclothes anti-gun units and greater use of stop-question-and-frisk, plus heavier subway patrols.
But it’d sure help if courts would (could) reliably jail gun perps, including underage ones. That requires lawmakers to stand up to the ultra-progressives who’d leave crime-ridden minority neighborhoods defenseless in the face of gun-toting thugs.
While the nation tries to figure out how best to ID and deter potential mass shooters of the Uvalde type, gangbangers and other “regular” shooters collectively rack up a far greater death toll.
Police databases are brimming with info that IDs’ repeat violent offenders. Yet “progressive” reforms make it far more difficult for cops to act on that info to deter criminals and protect the public.
Here’s a challenge, gov: Get past the June 28 primary (where you’re plainly worried about protecting your far-left flank), and then call the Legislature back for a special session to do its duty and pass the necessary criminal-justice fixes so that police, prosecutors and the courts can do what’s needed to get gun criminals under control.