Testimony on Mayor Adams’ Blueprint to End Gun Violence

New Yorkers deserve a gun violence response plan that is grounded in community- and evidence-based solutions, not the same old fearmongering that seeks to conflate any and all crime with bail reform and that doubles down on failed, racist, broken windows policing tactics that do nothing more than criminalize poverty and devastate Black and Brown communities. The City Council must reject the very premise of the Mayor’s Blueprint – namely that there is a way for us to police our way to community safety. The safest communities are not the ones with the most police or the highest jail populations; they are the communities with the most resources, the strongest social safety nets, and the most accessible and non-punitive clinical supports for people in crisis.