Politics & Government
NYPD Commissioner Slams Community Groups for Lack of Outcry to Gun Violence
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly believes community leaders have been silent about the 77 cases of gun violence last week, despite their protests to his stop-and-frisk policy.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly blasted community leaders for what he believes was a lack of response to the recent spate of gun violence that left 77 injured or killed in the city last week, according to the New York Daily News.
“Many of them will speak out about stop-and-frisk” but are “shockingly silent when it comes to the level of violence right in their own communities,” Kelly said at an event in Harlem on Tuesday, according to the paper.
Kelly argued that there has been no demonstration about and shot in the leg at Bed-Stuy's Roosevelt Houses playground over the weekend.
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“I'd like to see some political outcry,” Kelly said, according to the Daily News. “I want them to be outraged that a three-year-old child is shot on the streets.”
Elected official were outraged at Kelly’s comments, with City Councilman Jumaane Williams, D-Ditmas Park, calling his words “presumptuous and patently false,” as well as an “insult” to communities like his, according to the article.
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“Maybe he'd like to come with me when I go to the families of the victims just hours after they’ve lost a son and see just how silent I am,” Williams said.
“The mere fact he made that comment shows his disconnect,” State Senator Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn, responded.
And according to the Daily News, City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, D-Manhattan, called Kelly’s comments "really irresponsible and quite inflammatory.”
