By: Dean Weiner
The NYPD’s new anti-gun unit has netted more than 100 arrests since it launched last month — and nearly 70 percent of those busted have a prior criminal history, officials told The New York Post on Sunday.
Mayor Eric Adams lauded the progress made by his Neighborhood Safety Teams, which hit the streets in mid-March in response to the Big Apple’s uptick in gun violence.
Adams said, during an interview on “Face the Nation”, “We have to stop the flow of guns, but we also must do the jobs of getting the guns off the streets that’s on there now, and my anti-gun unit, they’re doing that. “Just a few weeks out, they removed over 20-something guns off the street. But here’s the interesting number — 70 percent of those who were carrying the guns had prior violent offenses.”
“Since its March 14 launch, NSTs — a revamped version of the NYPD’s controversial plainclothes anti-crime unit — have made 101 arrests, 22 of which were for guns, a City Hall spokesman said, citing data through March 30. Seventy of those collars — or 69 percent — were of defendants with prior arrests, the rep said. And, of the 22 people busted with guns, 14 had prior criminal history,” according to a New York Post Report. “The NSTs are a central piece to Adams’ plan to combat gun violence and the new unit was announced after two NYPD officers were shot and killed in Harlem.”
Sam Raskin writes, the former anti-crime unit “was disbanded in the summer of 2020 by former Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who said a “disproportionate” number of high-profile incidents involved the plainclothes cops. Adams has repeatedly vowed that the new teams — whose uniforms clearly identify them as NYPD officers unlike the old plainclothes squads — will not repeat mistakes made by the “abusive” anti-crime units.”
“The look of Mayor Eric Adams’ new Neighborhood Safety Teams will stand in stark contrast to its plainclothes predecessor — the controversial anti-crime unit, according to photos of the approved uniforms in a police memo obtained by The New York Post.”
During one of his first speeches as mayor, Adams, a former NYPD captain, vowed to “get the guns” out of criminals’ hands, saying, “I know how to do this.” “New York has done it before,” he said. “This is not just a plan for the future. This is a plan for right now.” Adams said the NYPD would start by focusing on the 30 police precincts where 80 percent of the city’s violence takes place.
“New Yorkers, are giving Adams a lot of support in regards to his efforts to reverse the increase in crime, which was compounded by de Blasio’s policies and management, Adams biggest problem is his doggedness on mask mandates for little children and the controversy of lifting vaccine mandates for athletes and performers but not for the average worker, these issues are making him polarizing, but at this early stage, Adams has a good opportunity to reverse every unpopular policy of the de Blasio regime, and gain more support from the majority of the city ”, a political insider told TJV News.
