September 11, 2020
By Mark Chesnut
As New York City continues to go to hell in a handbasket, Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to pretend he doesn’t notice the carnage.
In fact de Blasio has apparently gone so far over the edge that he called last weekend, which features 23 criminal shootings—including that of a six-year-old boy who was wounded by gunfire—a “peaceful weekend” in the Big Apple.
That offhand flippancy about a city under constant violent siege was too much for Lawrence Keane to remain quiet. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), said in a Wednesday op-ed that, “New York’s gun control Utopia is living hell.”
“[de Blasio’s] audacious statement came on the heels of the New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea’s announcement the city topped a 25-year high of gun-related arrests,” Keane wrote. “Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 6, 160 arrests were made in that one week alone. Commissioner Shea explained that 436 arrests were made in a 28-day period ending Sept. 6, up 116 from the 320 arrests made for the same time period last year.
“This is New York gun control. The inmates aren’t running the asylum. They’re running the city.”
For his part, de Blasio seems more interested in trying to find someone to blame COVID-19 deaths on and attending trendy liberal photo opportunities than trying to make any lasting changes that might help the crisis.
“Mayor de Blasio is the proof,” Keane continued. “He has been more interested in publicity photo ops painting streets than providing leadership and safety for his fellow citizens. Mayor de Blasio claims that criminal violence will be cured with a coronavirus vaccine. Seriously?”
Keane concluded by calling out de Blasio for letting citizens of NYC suffer the consequences of his refusal to do anything about the rampant criminal violence.
“Mayor de Blasio doesn’t understand he has a duty to stop the criminal violence ravaging the city and its residents,” Keane wrote. “Instead, he scapegoats. He shifts blame. He ignores what everyone else can see. Even New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted him for failing to contain crime as it spiraled out of control.”
Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years.
