Bloomberg: Crime Stat Manipulations are "Tiny"
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More Bald Eagles Spotted In Harlem!
Reclining her hospital bed yesterday, the 66-year-old Harlem woman who took a stray bullet in the leg in Harlem Wednesday sent a strong message to Mayor Bloomberg about what Harlem needs: "Bloomberg's getting in there and making the place look fancy and all of that, but it's not safe and people won't want to come here," Virginia Valree told the Daily News.
"If he could purify the city instead of beautifying it, that's what's needed. People are running away from New York now. Something needs to be done." She also revealed to the Post that in the days before she was shot, she had been praying for Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old girl who caught a stray bullet in the skull. Valree doesn't blame God for answering her prayers in an extremely mysterious way, but she has lost her faith in New York.
Valree, who's lived here for almost 50 years, said Wednesday's misfortune may finally drive her away: "My family [in Virginia] have been trying to get me to leave. Now they're really going to be on my tail." She was delivering groceries to a sick friend when a bullet struck her left leg and knocked her into traffic on West 135th Street. No arrests have been made, and she explained, "The bullet's still in there. It's not nice."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg was at Gracie Mansion today with local community leaders to discuss what's to be done about all these youths squeezing off rounds like Jiffy Pop whenever they detect the slightest disrespect. Bloomberg asked the gathering, "Do they listen to the D.J., or the clergy or the coach? What we have done hasn’t reached them." He also had some harsh criticism for one of the victim's in Monday's Bronx shoot-out, 19-year-old Tyrone Creighton: "Half of his family was in and out of Rikers. It is a dysfunctional family, and they don’t have the guidance at home."
The Rev. Al Sharpton also met privately with Bloomberg today, and when City Room asked if Bloomberg was out of touch, Sharpton replied, "A lot of people have been out of touch."
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so, just what is Bloomberg supposed to have done that would have prevented this? making guns illegal? i'd bet a few thousand that less than 1% of the similar shootings in that neighborhood during the last 8 years was the result of legally acquired guns.
for once Rev Al is probably right: a lot of people have been out of touch, starting with the parents and local civic leaders in that neighborhood that turn the other way (for any reason, valid or invalid) rather than take the time to teach and discipline their kids to instill the correct social values.
this is probably one of the few things that simply is not bloomberg's fault; there are hundred of other things that are his fault, but not the raising of kids improperly so that they do not learn the proper respect for life and alternative ways to cope with peer pressures.
i grew up in the city projects of brooklyn and nobody accidentally shot anybody's grandmother when i was there, so i seriously doubt the affluence of the city projects neighborhoods was the deciding factor...
sometimes you just have to stop looking for scapegoats and start making changes in your families to improve the situation.
Sorry, but NO HUMAN is more responsible for this than Bloombag, and no human can fix it more easily.
I will list 300 separate, er, "smoking guns" if you'd like, that show 300 steps Bloomberg took to INCREASE gun shootings-----from axing after-school programs that keep bored teens off the streets (Bloomberg needed that cash to give to Bruce Ratner,Steinbrenner, et al, instead) to the OBVIOUS FACT that BLOOMBAG "EDUCATED" half the criminals in NYC.
(Or will anyone argue that Mike doesn't run the schools or that half the crime in NYC is committed by young persons "educated" by Mike?)
Does the MAYOR have any responsibility to make sure our streets aren't flooded with latchkey kid criminals whose parents were not qualified to raise a kid?
(I have always argued that PARENTING is the first disaster in human society, and it's insane that we think any asshole should be able to bear children and then raise them poorly. It hurts ALL OF US.)
HOW DOES THE MAN WHO RUNS THE CITY not have any responsibility in that crisis?
NOTE: London is the same size and mess that NYC is, yet their cops STILL don't carry guns.
(I have always argued that the Second Amendment [which I love] does not guarantee HANDGUNS and I promised in MY mayoral platform to fight to ban them and their ammo. LET EVERY AMERICAN have a single-shot rifle and ditto the police. NO MORE HANDGUNS. Too dangerous. Too unnecessary.)
But our society refuses to even DISCUSS these topics.
As does Gothamist.
It's simply not Bloomberg's fault.
There are clearly too many "good students" paroozing these troubled neighborhoods. Who would've thought that straight A's lead to violence?
Wow, a black woman who lives in Harlem that's FOR gentrification.
Your comment is funny, but superficial.
Humans usually fall for "either/or-ism".
(EX: to lower crime we need more cops? Nope. Most societies have few cops AND little crime.)
(EX: to lower NYC's record debt, we need to have a businessman as mayor!) (DUH: nothing could be WORSE than hiring a businessman, and for 8 years we saw this was true. He didn't shrink our debt. He increased it more than anyhuman in history.)
Everyone believes safe = gentrified and that's totally WRONG.
This woman, like all of us, has seen her bills jump 100 - 5,000%, but our streets aren't cleaner or safer.
Please think a little more before making up your minds, people.
It took a bullet in the leg for this black woman to realize the neighborhood sucks because it's filled with... [wait for it] *whisper* "lower income" ppl.
Thats too bad, how can somebody do that...hope that the accused will be punish soon,...He should be arrested
Roemer Industries
humane education is needed. Stop with it starts with the parents. Not all parents know how nor care how to raise their children socially responsible. Bloomberg and Quinn won't push the Board of Ed to follow the state mandate for humane education. It is very important to teach kids to respect themselves, their planet and especially other species. Damn, people, I had humane education in my school and it made me aware of my actions on others.
How can they be educated if they don't go to school? Family breakdown is the problem. In tough economic times the situation will get worse.
"It is very important to teach kids to respect themselves, their planet and especially other species."
i love you, felixthecat2.
Any serious discussion of topics like this shooting and other related violence has to be done with an eye towards identifying the cause of these behaviors and what can be done to prevent them from being exhibited in the first place. Too many people, especially in the post-9/11 world, are a little too willing to see things in terms of Good versus Evil. To simplify life to the point where bad things are done by "evil" people belies reality. There might be a dozen reasons why a person turned out a certain way or who believes it is entirely appropriate to shoot people for the slightest reason -- these are things that are going to have to be identified and addressed whether in the family, in school or in society. The fact is that there used to be tons of afterschool activities for kids which have dried up after years of budget cuts. The fact is that people don't think that you either pay now for the program or pay later when society has to deal with the consequences of a bored kid and his bored friends causing mayhem.
The fact also remains that even though this city has quite strict gun laws, too many states within driving distance do not. The import of handguns into this city is an epidemic that is not being addressed at all for fear of pissing off the lunatic fringe in the NRA.
i think a big part of the problem is the need for people to find a scapegoat, but social problems do not have single causes anymore than they have single cures.
The one thing that the social sciences has demonstrated repeatedly is that there simply is no panacea; there is no "cure", no medicine, no "magic bullet".
Its overly simplistic to plan to make one change and expect it to fix the ills of society. I find them suspect those who make the loudest demands for a simple change to cure the problem.
Blaming guns is a simplistic, knee-jerk response: in England (as someone else mentioned) the police don't carry guns, but the police also don't accidentally shoot harlem grandmothers. in England where the population generally does not have access to handguns (well they do, but for argument's sake..) so they resort to knives, clubs, and explosives.
those who want to do violence, will find a way to do violence, and as Kansas City demonstrated it's not that difficult to do: if you want to blow up a building and you can't get C4, fertilizer and kerosene will work just as well.
once you adjust for changes in population density the incidence of violent crimes in the UK has not decreased (it actually increased) since handguns were banned, so there is no rational reason to expect it to reduce violent crimes here. repeatedly doing the same thing when you know it hasn't worked, in the hope that this time it will work, is the definition of schizophrenia.
it would be very nice if there really were simple solutions, but unfortunately the world just doesn't work that way and although there are many, many things you can legitimately blame bloomberg for doing (and for not doing), that parents improperly or fail entirely, to raise their children is just not his fault and continuing to insist that it is, seems to be am attempt at misdirection (or projection).
What's a party without some booze, gang violence, guns, and stray bullets?!
There should be a one strike policy for shooting grandmothers. There should be a reward for shooting gang members.
I don't think there is anything that can reasonably done to stop these incidents from happening. Sure after school programs are great and will save a few youths from getting caught up in the streets. Some will prefer to be out on the block at all hours of the night, the streets have their own appeal to some kids. The real problem is our society's love affair with guns and the John Wayne attitude that's attached to that trigger. I've always said the most dangerous creature on the planet is a young teenage male with a gun. Just hit the deck when they start poppin off yo. Peace.
This woman lived in NYC through the 80's and she's just now fed up the the crime?
You are wrong. Crime EXPLODED all over NYC and only sheep think it went down. The NYPD just fudged the numbers b/c they know people are sheep who you can fool all the time.
I've lived in bad areas of NYC for 20 years. Crimes never been worse. Most of my friends were robbed at gunpoint in 2009 alone!!
In 2009 ALONE 8 cops were arrested just for RAPING people!
Yet you ALL think crime is way down b/c the govern-media told you this over and over, knowing that "Repeating The Lie" works.
In 2008 the pro-cop NYPOST did a COVER story on how so many cops are being arrested for all kinds of serious crimes.
Yet you ALL believe that crime is way down.
(Even as one man, Madoff, stole more cash than every blue collar criminal in NYC history combined??)
STOP WITH THE SUPERFICIAL THINKING.
Your brain is an amazing thing.
USE IT.
No more GroupTHink, please?
Well, I realize that it is hard to make this comment in the context of a grandmother getting caught in crossfire, but I live a block away from where it took place, and it really is a fairly safe neighborhood -- and police crime statistics bear that out.
I think there should be a debate, and whatever we can use to get guns off the streets and chip away at a culture of the gun is important, but it would be a shame if this brought back the image of an Old West Harlem in the face of so much progress in the last 30 years.
The very fact that you cite NYPD stats----from an agency that was "only" caught lying on tens of thousands of occasions----is EXACTLY the problem.
Govt fixes almost nothing b/c they know they can just put out a press release full of lies and the sheep will believe it all. (SEE: Virgin Birth)
Only a total fool thinks NYC is safe OR safer. (After 8 years of Mike's "Gun control" efforts and still lots and lots of kids are being killed in stray shootings? And this is after 8 YEARS of Rudy's alleged "reforms" to end this scourge that 99% of the world doesn't have??? C'mon!)
Wow.
One final point of insight:
The Mayor could also attack the CULTURE of teens with guns, but he refuses to. (Golfing in Bermuda is a bit more urgent.)
Teens carry guns for the same reason dumb girls in Jersey tease their hair: it's what their peers do.
Did you know Marlboro cigarettes used to be a "woman's" brand of cigs?
HOW DID the company change this? EASY: endless ads with COWBOYS. That was it.
COULD THE MAYOR embarass teens who carry guns and make it seem like using violence is COWARDLY and UNCOOL?
Yup.
But he won't.
(It doesn't help that Bloombag teaches the young to ALWAYS CHEAT, and that Might Makes Right. He also says "violence is good and right" 365 days a year. He even fully supported murdering women and children in Iraq.)
WHen the MAYOR of a city is a violent criminal, there is not a 1% chance that we can curb violent crime.
The reason I said that NYC statistics bear that out was only a confirmation of what I know to be true through my and my neighbors' experience -- my neighborhood, the neighborhood of this incident, is terrifically safer than it once was.
There are families raising children on streets that used to be shooting galleries, and you can walk the streets at night when it used to feel like Beirut.
Look, you're obviously a full time ax-grinder against Bloomberg, I never brought him up or gave him credit for anything -- you turned this toward what is clearly your favorite subject.
I'm only sticking up for my part of Harlem, but you trying to move your parade down the street by telling lies about the safety of my neighborhood is simply wrong on facts and principle.
NO ONE IS MORE RESPONSIBLE than Bloombag.
EX: no human on earth did more to fund and reelect REPUBLICANS to congress across the nation than "lifelong Democrat" Bloomberg, EVEN THOUGH THEY PROMISED lax federal gun laws that help criminals buy guns in lazy states and then resell them illegally in NYC, just as no one did more to fund the Albany GOP who gutted our rent protections etc.
EX: all of Bloombag's "efforts" to tackle guns has been SMOKE & MIRRORS, such as his straw gun purchases.
(Contact me if you care about the horrifying details: mayorcxb@yahoo.com) (I have a hunch Gothamist won't be wanting to get to the TRUTH.)
REMEMBER, People: this is the most empty mayor we've ever seen. He does no real work. His whole life revolves around parties, more parties, golfing, marching in parades, and more photo ops.
(Perhaps you think he named ALL of his companies after himself b/c he's not vain?)
He has totally blown Giuliani out of the water as the Worst Mayor Ever. I can't believe it! (B/c no one hates Giuliani more than I!)
BloombergScandals.blogspot.com
sorry to feed the troll, but this is ridiculous - bloomberg made straw gun purchases? what the hell are you taking about?
and no i'm not emailing you.
You got buttslammed.
Sharpton replied, "A lot of people have been out of touch.": He is the first one out of touch: Excuse me Mr. Sharpton when are you going to get the guns off of the streets instead of filling up your fat ass pockets with money you big fat racist!!