De Blasio Prioritizes Statues as NYC's Gun-Possession Backlog Grows

BY JACK CROWE

June 22, 2020

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO DISLIKES the pedestrian administrative work required to be an effective big-city mayor. He prefers to skip right to the stuff of national politics: making speeches, taking wholly symbolic action, using public employees as moving men, and napping on couches after long workout sessions that require a 45-minute commute.

De Blasio’s preference for symbolism over substance was on display again this weekend in New York City, where twenty-four people were shot within 24 hours, adding to a list of more than 1,000 suspects who have been indicted on gun -possession charges and immediately released because courts that have been closed due to coronavirus couldn’t accommodate their arraignments.

“We have over 1,000 people that have been indicted on a gun-possession charge, where the cases are open, and they are walking around the streets of New York today,” chief of crime-control strategies Michael LiPetri told the New York Post.

That number also excludes a massive backlog of 800 people who have been arrested on gun-possession charges but could not be formally indicted due to a lack of judicial resources. LiPetri also noted that a record high 17 percent of this year’s shootings have involved a parolee, either as the victim or the shooter.

“We’ve never seen a higher percentage of parolee-involved incidents with shootings, since we’ve been tracking it in ’05,” he said.

As of Monday morning, De Blasio had not yet found the time to weigh in on this complete breakdown in the administration of his city’s existing gun-control regime, which he tried to bring to Washington as a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. He did, however, have time to give his mayoral seal of approval to the Museum of Natural History for its decision to remove an 80-year-old statue of President Theodore Roosevelt from its front steps.

“The City supports the Museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue,” de Blasio’s office said in a statement included in a New York Times report on the removal, which ran Sunday morning . . . somewhere around halfway through this weekend’s 24-hour shooting spree.

Shootings Rise in NYC, Perps Set Free Due to Court Backlog

Shootings erupted across New York City over the weekend ahead of the long-awaited second phase of the city's coronavirus reopening scheduled for Monday.

24 people were shot in the span of as many hours beginning on Saturday, with the court system facing a backlog of cases because of coronavirus closures. The NYPD said suspects arrested on gun-possession charges were being set free because of the court backlog.

Shootings were down in the months of March and April compared with 2019, following sweeping lockdowns of the city. However, the month of May saw shootings rise 64 percent compared with 2019, while murders increased by 79 percent over the same period, according to the NYPD. (NY Post)

South Korea Says It Is Fighting Second Wave of Coronavirus Infections

South Korea confirmed Monday that the country is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections centering around Seoul after a holiday weekend in early May caused cases to spike.

“In the metropolitan area, we believe that the first wave was from March to April as well as February to March,” said Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. “Then we see that the second wave which was triggered by the May holiday has been going on.”

South Korea was the first country after China to be hit with a large outbreak, peaking at more than 900 cases a day in February. The numbers had tapered off to fewer than 10 positive cases a day by late April, including three consecutive days with zero recorded infections. (BBC)

Hundreds Test Positive for Coronavirus at Tyson Foods Plant in Arkansas, Most Asymptomatic

Hundreds of workers at Tyson Foods poultry plant in Arkansas have tested positive for coronavirus, though most of the workers who tested positive are asymptomatic.

Out of 3,748 Tyson employees tested in Benton and Washington Counties, 481 were found to have coronavirus, with 455 of those patients reporting no symptoms. The outbreak was centered at Tyson’s poultry plant in the town of Springdale.

China has reportedly ceased importing poultry from the facility upon learning of the outbreak. Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson told the Associated Press that global and U.S. health organizations including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have said there is no evidence of coronavirus transmission via food. (AP)

Corrections Officers of Color Claim They Were Prohibited from Guarding Derek Chauvin

Eight corrections officers of color at the county jail where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is being held say they were prohibited from guarding Chauvin and told they were a potential “liability” around him because of their race.

The Ramsey County corrections officers have filed racial discrimination charges with Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights over what they called a “segregation order,” the Star Tribune reported.

Chauvin, who is white, was booked in the Ramsey County Jail on $1 million bond after he was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the May 25 death of George Floyd, who died in police custody after Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, even as Floyd pleaded for air before passing out. (Star Tribune)