A stunt of emergency
Gun violence is a serious problem in need of serious attention. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s declaring a disaster emergency over a problem that New York and other states have been grappling with for years is an unnecessary political stunt that runs the risk of trivializing both the violence and the very concept of emergencies.
This is theatrics — well-intended theatrics, perhaps, to draw attention to gun violence, but also rather selfserving theatrics, to try to rob Republicans of what they ’ve tried to make a signature issue for the gubernatorial and legislative races next year.
Mr. Cuomo’s declaration Tuesday certainly put a focus on an issue in need of attention. While gun violence has been much worse at times in the past, the recent surge in shootings in some localities has people alarmed. Figures gathered by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services for 20 communities around the state, including Albany, Schenectady and Troy, show that gun violence last year was at its highest level since at least 2011, and that 2021 is on track in some places to exceed that. And while there are places that have not seen a marked increase, perceptions can drive fears about public safety even when they don’t reflect reality.
And Mr. Cuomo and his fellow Democrats who control the Legislature find themselves under daily fire from Republicans looking to tie seemingly every shooting and crime to criminal justice reforms enacted in the past few years. It’s a false choice, of course, between justice and public safety, but the narrative is readily digestible. We appreciate the governor’s desire for a counter-narrative.
But virtually everything the governor is proposing here doesn’t require an emergency declaration. He could direct the state to gather better data on local gun violence. He could create — or if necessary ask the Legislature for approval to create — an Office of Gun Violence Prevention and a State Police Gun Trafficking Interdiction Unit. He could partner with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to strengthen police-community relations. And the Legislature already approved the money he wants to spend on intervention, prevention and jobs for at-risk youth. He doesn’t need an emergency to cut bureaucratic red tape.
What he couldn’t do is just move money around as he pleases without legislative consent — a power he has sought before only to be, quite properly, rebuffed. Now he’s found a way to seize it, and look tough on crime as he heads, dogged by scandals, into a possible run for a fourth term.
For those who are tempted to say, So what? we don’t have to look hard for an example of how this sort of extraordinary power can be easily abused. It was only two years ago that then-president Donald Trump declared a southern border emergency and redirected military resources to his fantastical border wall in defiance of a Congress that would not give him the tens of billions of dollars he demanded.
Emergency declarations are for sudden disasters that can’t be promptly addressed through the normal process of government. They’re not to let governors and presidents bypass, on a whim, the checks and balances established to prevent abuses of power, whether for good reasons or bad.