Addressing Gun Violence in NYC
There’s no denying that over the last few years New Yorkers have been increasingly feeling unsafe. Especially with the spike in shootings we saw at the beginning of the year, resulting in deaths across the City.
To address this, Mayor Eric Adams released a plan, “The Blueprint to End Gun Violence”. The plan would require the City, State and Federal Governments, the Courts, and the DA offices to work together.
Major pieces of the plan include:
Creating Neighborhood Safety Teams within the NYPD- what this really means is that the plain clothes unit of the NYPD is back. The NYPD got rid of these units in summer of 2020 as it was deemed an aggressive policing strategy that disproportionately affected people of color across the City. Their tactics were deemed unconstitutional. The plain clothes unit strategically placed officers, dressed as civilians (plain clothes), in neighborhoods with high rates of crime. Now, these teams are back, called “Neighborhood Safety Teams”, and they’ve been deployed in 30 precincts. If you want to read about what your rights are when it comes to these units, especially if you live within one of these precincts, you can read more here.
Putting more officers on patrol as opposed to desk roles- meaning that more officers will be on the streets, which I’m sure you’ve already seen.
Launching a Summer Youth Employment and Engagement Program- the program is intended to reach youth before they turn to guns and street violence.
These next parts of the plan require State authorization in order to happen. They have all been presented by the Mayor to the Governor as part of this plan, and the Governor has signaled support. They include:
Bail Reform to allow judges to take dangerousness into account when they’re deciding whether to detain a defendant. Currently, New York is the only state in the country that doesn’t allow a judge to detain a defendant who poses a threat to the community.
Amending legislation that would lower the age of when a person can be charged in criminal court for gun arrests. The current law says that criminal responsibility begins at 18 years old. This plan proposes that it be lowered to 16 *if* the person refuses to say where they got the gun. If the State moves forward with this proposal, a 16 year old that gets arrested for gun possession could be charged in criminal court.
Lowering the number of guns sold in a year that warrants a felony to 3. The number is currently at 10. This means that if anyone gets arrested for selling at least 3 guns in one year, they could be charged with a felony.
Want to know more? You can read the full plan here.