ALBANY’S SHOOTING GALLERY

The PAC Perspective by Ted flint

“No guns, knives or weapons…” reads a sign at the top of the steps of the Empire Plaza in Albany.

There were plenty of fireworks on the night of July 4 in downtown Albany, but not the kind for which authorities were bargaining. A dispute between two 15-year-olds escalated, one railed off shots from a handgun, the other fired a round from a flare gun. When the shootings ended four people were injured, one critically. The round from the flare gun hit a Madison Avenue apartment complex causing a massive fire. Despite claims by current Mayor Kathy Sheehan that the city has seen a double-digit dip in crime under her watch, many city streets resemble the old west, except only the bad guys have guns.  Roughly three hours after the Madison Avenue shootings another young hoodlum fired shots at five people who were sitting in front of a home on Northern Boulevard.

Earlier that day on North First Street, near where I spent the first few years of my life, a 15-year-old was grazed by a bullet fired from a handgun. In all, 10 people were injured in three separate incidents just hours apart. New York State has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, so how do these vermin get access to weapons?

Democratic state lawmakers continually make it harder for law abiding citizens to own a firearm. Anyone wishing to obtain a license for a handgun must wend their way through a maze of bureaucratic red tape, background checks and a myriad of new rules and regulations.

The capital city has become a cesspool; violent crime is up; many of the streets, especially downtown, are busted and property taxes are astronomical.

Nearly all the shootings involve young black males, many of them are drug related. Nobody, not the Mayor, the Police Chief or ANY city official will state the obvious: there is a cultural problem in the black community. 

My uncle, Edmund Flint, was a lieutenant in the Albany Police Department from 1953 until his retirement in 2001. They treated criminals differently in those days. There were no bail reform laws or defund the police movements in his day. Cops were allowed to be cops; they patrolled the streets day and night and did whatever they had to do to maintain law and order and the bad guys thought twice about stepping out of line. The streets were safer, and the city prospered because of it.