New York declares state of emergency to deal with gun violence phenomenon | International

After a particularly bloody weekend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced the declaration of a state of emergency to deal with the rise in gun violence “for what it is, a problem of public health”. “The statement will allow us to devote all the attention and resources it needs to this crisis,” Cuomo said in a tweet.

The veteran Democratic politician, in the home stretch of his third term as governor of the state, signed an executive decree on Tuesday, although his emergency plans were made public the day before, after learning data relating to incidents with firearms during the long holiday weekend of July 4: more than 150 killed in 400 shootings across the country. New York State recorded 26 of these deaths, in 21 shootings, according to the tally compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, between Friday and Monday, both included. This Monday was a public holiday, as the celebration of the country’s independence coincided with Sunday.

Although every major city in the country is experiencing the phenomenon, New York, which has seen rates of gun violence increase exponentially since the pandemic began in March 2020. The figure for the July 4 holiday has been lower to that recorded in the same period of 2020, when 30 people died in 25 shootings, according to data from the police department. So far this year, however, the increase in gun violence in the city has reached 32%, which is why the trend has monopolized the election campaign for the Democratic primaries. Local sources bring the state’s death toll to 51.

Cuomo’s plans to tackle the phenomenon include crossing and exchanging incident data between state police departments and mapping the scenes where shootings occur, as well as preventing access to firearms to people considered at risk by his background explained the information portal The hill. Cuomo also announced a summer youth employment plan, working with local businesses, for high-risk youth, an initiative very similar to that launched by Democratic New York City candidate Kathryn Garcia. . Cuomo’s proposed plan, with funding of $ 57 million, aims to create 21,000 jobs to keep excluded or at extreme risk youth off the streets. The majority of gun incidents are believed to be related to gangs and gang activity.

“We are going to hire young people, train them, facilitate their access to the labor market, but it is not only a question of giving them a job, but the possibility of starting a well-paid career after leaving school, in order to that they don’t consider me to be using an interim solution, ”Cuomo said during a ceremony at John Jay Law School in New York City. “You can be a carpenter, electrician, grocer … you can have a whole future in front of you”, added the governor, arrested since last January by a series of accusations of sexual harassment and for his management of the pandemic in the houses of retirement.

The governor also announced that he would sign two executive orders aimed at preventing people with a police or psychological background from obtaining a firearm, as well as the transfer of law enforcement officers accused of abuse or misconduct towards other departments.

According to the local CBS branch in Albany, the state’s seat of government, the total cost of the anti-violence plan will reach $ 140 million.

According to the comparison established by the Gun Violence Archive portal, between the weekend of July 4, 2020 and the latter, there was a slight drop in both the number of shots recorded and the number of victims (dead and injured). 26% less, extrapolates the television network CNN, with a total of 233 dead and 618 injured in more than 500 shootings, including 17 massive (in 2020 there were 314, 751 and 26 mass shootings respectively).

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