Inside the offices of the Brooklyn South Detective Bureau Monday, Mayor Eric Adams surveyed four large boards showing mugshots of alleged dangerous gang members arrested in recent gun bust operations.
The NYPD’s Gun Violence Suppression Division spearheaded these arrests — and it was the head of this unit, Deputy Chief Jason Savino, and Chief of Detectives James Essig who pointed out to hizzoner the peaks and lulls in the violence that have resulted.
It was the latest public effort by the NYPD and the Adams administration to crack down on violent crime amid a string of deadly shootings that has been plaguing the Big Apple, including the slaying of 12-year-old Kade Lewin on Flatlands Avenue and 11-year-old Bronx native Kyhara Tay.
Adams heralded the slew of takedowns and the Gun Violence Suppression Division as an imperative step in curbing the bullet storm. According to Savino, the NYPD are targeting the heads of these gangs and the men and women who are pulling the triggers.
“These are by far the worst of the worst in the entire city, the trigger pullers, the alphas, the snake’s head of the neighborhoods. Everybody knows who these individuals are. When you walk into your neighborhood, these are the individuals that create just an uncomfortable quality of life. Not to mention, they have really the goal, if you will, to pull the trigger, regardless of who’s around them, regardless of any unintended targets, something we’ve seen far too often, not only this year–but in prior years,” Savino said.
While officials took a victory lap regarding progress made against potential gun violence, the mayor pointed out that each of the mugshots included a person of color. It was evidence, Adams said, of decades-long neglect and failure by the city in serving the physical, educational, economic and mental health needs of communities of color across the Five Boroughs.
“Yes, we are failing people of color, we are failing communities that have been denied with inequalities for years. I bet you,” the mayor said, pointing at the faces, “if you profile any of these men here, you will find many of them with dyslexia, mental health issues, homelessness, failed out of school. I bet you 90% of them don’t have high school diploma.”
Adams pledged that when gang leaders are removed from at-risk communities, efforts will be made to steer youth away from gang and gun violence.
However, Canarsie locals are calling upon more gun prevention in the area.
Several protesters gathered outside of Monday’s press conference, stating that there are little to no gun prevention programs available to the Canarsie community. Instead of gun takedowns, they are calling on the mayor to create work opportunities and training for young people.
“The mayor comes to Canarsie today, and he announces a gang takedown. We can’t arrest our way out of this problem. We need more resources,” Jibreel Jalloh said, a member of the Flossy Organization — an anti-gun violence movement in Canarise.
Members of the Flossy Organization are pushing for the Cure Violence System NYC, a program that engages with impacted youth ages 15 to 24 and functions as a crisis management system to reduce gun violence in 17 city precincts.
There are Cure Violence programs in the 73rd, 63rd, and 75th Precincts — but not in the 69th Precinct, which covers Canarsie.
“So that’s an organization that comes, engages with youth, impacted youth, folks who are at high risk, like many of the youth today that have probably been arrested, they could have used the services of the Cure Violence network. They come in and mediate. It is a community center solution, not police first, community first,” Jalloh said.
While Adams declared that the Police Department’s mission is to stop crime, it falls upon the shoulders of the city to prevent it by working with the youth who are looking for a way out of what seems like an inescapable financial hole.
“Police officers’ job is not to find out what is the psychological profile, if the person has other issues at home. That’s our job as a city. Their job is to take dangerous people off the street. My job, and the job of my agencies, is to prevent people from being dangerous and that is the partnership we’ve created,” the mayor said.
The mayor also lauded the Neighborhood Safety Teams, launched earlier this year — which, he said, have aided in removing some 3000 guns off the street.
Adams also again issued calls for greater action in the criminal justice system to ensure that arrested individuals with extensive criminal histories, including gun violence, are not quickly returned to the streets.
But MK Kaishian, a civil rights attorney and policy expert with Justice Not Fear, called Adams’ remarks fear mongering and lies intended to excuse policy failures.
“Mayor Eric Adams has continued to distract from conversations about real solutions to violence by repeatedly and falsely claiming that insufficiently punitive criminal justice policies have led to decreased public safety. Adams’ claims that people ‘arrested nine times’ and ‘shooters’ are not eligible for bail are unequivocally false and were even contradicted by his Department’s own data presented at the press conference, which showed overwhelming post-arrest incarceration rates, all while he selectively credited the NYPD with a decrease in crime metrics,” Kaishian said.
