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May 26, 2015 Liam Mathews

Normally, community council meetings are intended to be opportunities for officers and civilians to meet face-to-face and discuss issues in the precinct, but on Wednesday May 20, the Lower East Side’s 7th Precinct hosted a special session, inviting the community to try out an NYPD firearms tactics training simulator. I was intrigued, because it seemed […]

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April 7, 2015 Liam Mathews

ShotSpotter, the NYPD’s controversial gunshot-detection system introduced in some precincts in the Bronx and Brooklyn last month, may be starting to prove its usefulness. ShotSpotter uses highly sensitive audio equipment to triangulate the location of gunshots, making it faster and easier for police to respond. The Daily News reports that on Monday the technology alerted […]

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March 23, 2015 Christian Brazil Bautista

ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection system introduced in New York City last week, is the NYPD’s newest high-tech tool against against gun violence. It comes with a lot of promise, primarily from one of its main proponents, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned with a pledge to bring gunshot location technology to the city. “This new […]

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March 18, 2015 Liam Mathews

Gun control advocacy group States United to Prevent Gun Violence recently staged a gun shop on the Lower East Side for a PSA. With its twee signage and slanted font at 149 Orchard Street, the shop presented itself like any other LES boutique, but inside, it was full of rifles and revolvers. Potential gun buyers […]

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January 12, 2015 Rhett Jones

With some of the toughest gun laws in the country, New York City and New Jersey require equally tough screening at airports to ensure that passengers aren’t transporting firearms. According to a report by the New York Post, the Transportation Security Administration has been underreporting its gun statistics to paint a more rosy picture. While […]

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December 12, 2014 Prachi Gupta

In a month that has brought increased criticism of the NYPD, the New York Times has released a report that gives even more reason to be wary of police officers. The Times writes that a string of arrests for gun possession in Brooklyn in recent years “suggest a pattern of questionable police conduct and tactics” […]

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September 23, 2014 Rhett Jones

Carrying a Canadian passport and on her way to Barbados, 24-year-old Nyesha McPherson was busted at JFK with two disassembled .40-caliber handguns, 350 rounds of ammunition, four magazines for the guns and 58 bricks (33 pounds) of weed. All of it was concealed in average everyday household items — boxes for baby wipes, coffee, floor-dusting sheets, […]

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September 9, 2014 Marina Galperina

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released an annual report [PDF] on injury-related deaths of New Yorkers aged 0 to 18. The most recent report covers data on the 1,613 deaths occurring between 2002 and 2011. Overall, injury-related deaths were highest for black non-Hispanic boys living in “very-high-poverty neighborhoods,” the Bronx and Brooklyn. Most children under the age of […]

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August 4, 2014 Marina Galperina

Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed the police confrontation which lead to the tragic death of Eric Garner, has been arrested in Staten Island on Saturday night. The 22-year-old is facing charges of criminal possession of an unloaded firearm. Police officers say they saw Orta attempting to pass an unloaded .25 caliber gun to a 17-year-old female near […]

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July 29, 2014 Amy K. Nelson

A man standing outside a bodega in East New York, Brooklyn on Sunday was shot point-blank in the face, all of it captured on surveillance video. The unidentified man is standing outside with a small dog on a leash, when another man casually strolls up, whips out his gun and shoots the 41-year-old victim right […]

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