Eric Adams in the House of Representatives, National Capitol, June 8, 2022
Foto:
EPA/Jason Andrew / POOL / EFE
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“I am Eric Adams and I am honored to appear before you today as the 110th Mayor of the Great City of New York to discuss ways we can protect public safety and prevent gun violence.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s noon in America. It is time for each of us to decide where she stands on the issue of armed violence”, This is how Mayor Adams addressed himself yesterday in his testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee of the USA, in Washington DC.
The testimony comes after a series of high profile mass shootings last month, including one in a elementary school in Uvalde (Texas) and another in a supermarket in Buffalo (New York), y constant episodes of armed violence in the five boroughs of NYC.
In his speech, Democrat Adams recalled that he was a police officer in New York and stressed that The NYPD has removed more than 3,000 illegal guns from the streets since taking office on January 1, “but the guns keep coming. This is a crisis that cuts across party lines and affects both rural and urban communities.”
“We must build a society where our youth are on the path to achievement, not on the path to ruin”
Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, at the National Capitol
“Support to president Joe Biden by asking Congress to act now to regulate or ban assault weapons in this country. Even if we just raise the age required to buy one of these guns, lives will be saved.”
“And we need Congress to direct federal aid to localities and states that support not only law enforcement and violence prevention, but also access to high-quality health care, child care, education and housing. We must build a society where our youth are on the path to achievement, not on the path to ruin.”
In closing he insisted that “It is time to take action against armed violence. Because if you really love this country, then you love your neighbor and you fight for their freedoms, for their families and for their lives.”
Adams’ full speech can be reade here.
Monday the mayor adams reported with relief to the press in NYC that shootings had decreased 30% in the last 7 weeks, but he warned that if there are no reforms, criminals will continue to act because “Nobody takes criminal justice seriously anymore.”
In recent years, the wave of armed violence in the country’s most populous city has involved minor and adult gunmen, men and womeny victims of all ages. After the boom in 2020 and 2021 particularly among young gang members and/or victims, 2022 continues with the same trend, putting up a great challenge to the new mayor Adamswho since taking office in January has found obstacles within his own Democratic party y Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders to face the crisis.
In these months, in his campaign to lower the criminal boom, he also Adams ha urged social media to ban rap videos that “glorify and promote violence.”
Adams has also asked since he was a candidate, a review of the controversial bail reforms in NY in effect since January 2020 with the support of then Governor Andrew Cuomo and the approval of a federal law that would criminalize arms trafficking across state lines.
