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Monday, April 23, 2007

Everybody belongs -- except Plainfield?


(Chart, ProtectPolice.org)

Gwen Faison belongs. So does Cory Booker. And Robert Bowser.

Wayne Smith of Irvington.

Chris Bollwage, Elizabeth.

Jerramiah Healy, Jersey City.

Meryl Frank of Highland Park.

Don Cresitello of Morristown.

Jose Torres of Paterson.

Samuel Rivera, Passaic.

Mohamed Khairullah, Prospect Park.

John 'Mac' McCormac of Woodbridge and Shin-Fu Hsueh of West Windsor, and that's just New Jersey.

Belong to what?

A year-old bipartisan coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns begun by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and endorsed by the US Conference of Mayors and the National Conference of Black Mayors.

With 214 mayors in over 40 states, the group was in the news this past week for a meeting in Jersey City where a media campaign was announced against the renewal of the Tiarht Amendment, which prevents local governments from accessing data on illegal sales of guns.

The ProtectPolice.org website sums it up --
The 'Tiahrt Amendment' is a provision members of Congress have tucked into federal spending bills that restricts cities and police from accessing and using ATF trace data from guns recovered in crimes.

Gun trace data helps police figure out where illegal guns are coming from, who buys them and how they get trafficked into their communities.

The Tiahrt Amendment restricts a city’s access to:
  • its own crime gun trace data;
  • crime gun trace data from other cities and states;
  • crime gun trace data as evidence in trying to hold dealers accountable for violating the law; and,
  • annual ATF reports on nationwide illegal gun trafficking patterns that were once valuable tools for local police.
At the gathering, Mayor Cory Booker stated that 85% of the murders committed in Newark involved illegal guns.

What percentage of those in Plainfield?

Shouldn't we know?

Wouldn't it be a good thing for Plainfield to belong to the coalition?



More information --
Star-Ledger: "Mayors demand access to sources of illegal guns"
Organization: "Mayors Against Illegal Guns"
Organization: "Protect Police"
-- Dan Damon

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

not if the current administration wants to prevent transparency.

you know what they say:

sunlight is the best disinfectant.

thats why the current administration wont join such a coalition. it means they'll have to report and work instead of attend celebrations and talk up intangibles.