Mayor Eric Adams.
Ed Reed/Mayoral Pictures Workplace.
The Adams administration has been dedicated to public security from the beginning, and getting unlawful weapons off our streets and out of our lives is core to that mission. Because the day I took workplace, the NYPD has seized greater than 21,400 unlawful firearms — and final week, I used to be capable of assist ship many of those confiscated weapons to their last vacation spot — a wooden chipper that destroyed these weapons to allow them to by no means be used to trigger hurt once more.
The Reworld facility in Westbury is the place the NYPD sends proof, together with unlawful firearms, to be disposed of after it’s not wanted in a case. Members of our administration and the NYPD gathered there final Thursday with violence interrupters, anti-gun advocates, religion leaders, and the households of victims to assist put these harmful weapons into the gun chipper to be destroyed eternally — making certain they are going to by no means once more endanger one other little one, terrify one other New Yorker, or destroy one other treasured life. The destroyed weapons might be was scrap steel, recycled, and despatched to the Faculty of Cooperative Technical Schooling, the place college students within the welding vocational program will lastly make use of those merchandise and create a memorial to honor victims of gun violence.
It was a bittersweet event. Every gun we destroy closes a door on a future act of violence — but in addition reminds us of the dear lives we now have already misplaced — together with the lifetime of Excenia Mette, the beloved Harlem bodega proprietor and grandmother who was shot lifeless in a crossfire simply final week.
Excenia’s loss of life is tragic reminder of how gun violence tears aside lives and whole communities. That is the difficulty that retains me up at night time — and will get me up daily as your mayor. We should get criminals off our streets and unlawful weapons out of their fingers. We should implement our legal guidelines, prosecute wrongdoers, and combat recidivism. Each New Yorker have to be protected and really feel protected, assured that their metropolis is searching for them and their households, regardless of the place they reside.
Over three years in the past, we got here into workplace decided to make this metropolis safer. And every one in every of these weapons we now have confiscated is making good on that promise. Every gun we destroy saves lives, damming up yet one more river that results in the ocean of violence, and sending a message that these weapons don’t have any place in our metropolis or in our society.
I’m proud to say that our administration has made important strides in creating safer streets, safer subways, and a safer metropolis for New York households. We have now had 5 straight quarters of declining crime, and the primary three months of this yr noticed the bottom variety of shootings in recorded historical past. It is a direct results of our anti-gun efforts and main win for the NYPD and our metropolis. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is already main this division into a brand new period of security and success, together with Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry and the courageous women and men of the NYPD, who run in the direction of hazard relatively than away from it.
We are able to always remember the numerous variety of women and men who’ve positioned their lives on the road to defend and defend the Metropolis of New York. On daily basis, our workforce is on the market doing this harmful work, interacting with violent and, far too usually, armed recidivists who’ve made up their thoughts to wreak havoc on our metropolis. As your mayor, I need each one in every of them to know the way grateful this metropolis is for his or her braveness and dedication.
Due to our steadfast deal with eradicating gun violence, New York Metropolis continues to be the most secure massive metropolis in America. However we’ll preserve urgent for extra — extra officers, extra security, extra outcomes. This administration is all about going the gap, with long-term plans to make sure that New York Metropolis stays the best metropolis on the globe and a protected place for our households, our kids, and our grandmothers.
