POLITICAL ARENA

Adams vows to take on gun violence

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The first few weeks of Eric Adams’ tenure as mayor have been a bit of a rocky one, especially when it comes to gun violence.

The New York Police Department is mourning the loss of two officers from a single incident in Harlem last Friday. Rookie officer Jason Rivera died that night while responding to a domestic violence call, while partner Wilbert Mora succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday.

Another officer was shot in the head while sleeping in his own car in an unrelated incident, while a 19-year-old woman was killed while at work in East Harlem.

A teenager struggled for a gun with another officer who was eventually shot and injured. And the most horrific of all — an infant was shot in the head by a stray bullet during another gun violence incident.

“We will not surrender our city to the violent few,” Adams said on Monday. “We are not going to go back to the bad old days. We are going to get trigger-pullers off the streets, and guns out of their hands.”

The mayor proposes doing that by increasing neighborhood patrols, and adding officers who will be focused solely on gun violence, over the next three weeks. But unlike past administrations, which took the plainclothes route, Adams says these officers will be uniformed. They will wear body cameras. And they will have “enhanced training and oversight.”

“The NYPD is our first line of defense against gun violence,” Adams said. “We will make new efforts to strengthen and reinforce it, while continuing our mission to involve the community.”

Adams says he’s already teaming up with Gov. Kathy Hochul to strengthen the relationship between the NYPD and the New York State Police. That will allow the city to become more involved with the Interstate Gun Tracing Consortium, as well as expand a gun violence suppression unit inside the NYPD’s detectives bureau.

Adams says he’ll also name a dedicated anti-gun violence coordinator in every city agency in an effort to better educate against such violence, and to help identify problem areas to local law enforcement.

“Just as we utilize precision policing, we must utilize precision prevention,” Adams said.

Eric Adams, New York Police Department, NYPD, Jason Rivera, Wilbert Mora, Michael Hinman, Kathy Hochul, New York State Police, Interstate Gun Tracing Consortium,