Good morning. Today is Monday. Today we’re going to look at a county in New York State where judges have issued the most red flag gun bans. We will also receive a review of a City Council play from a New York City Council member.
It occurs more frequently in Suffolk County on Long Island than anywhere else in New York State: A judge issues a so-called “red flag” order and authorities remove a weapon from the home of someone (usually a male) who has threatened ( often against oneself).
More than 100 times in the past two years and 10 months, such orders have defused dangerous situations.
That’s hardly enough to make New York’s red flag law a gun violence remedy. But after the horrific mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo; an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; and a Tulsa, Okla. hospital, policymakers are scrambling to find ways to keep guns out of the hands of people in crisis. The Suffolk County cases reviewed by some of my colleagues point to a fundamental fact of American life: the dangerous overlap between those with access to guns and those with severe mental impairments. .
Last week, President Biden urge Congress to pass federal red flag legislation – one of the suggestions he called “reasonable, common sense measures.” However, he and other Democrats faced resistance from Republicans, who insisted that the red flag process could be abused, taking away an innocent person’s right to own a gun. .
The red flag law only applies so far. Orders are resolved in civil court and do not usually lead to criminal charges. And New York’s statute does not provide a basis for dealing with the act of making a judge’s order.
Still, Suffolk County followers still call the red flag order important.
“This is something that we can use in a gray area where we don’t have anything and we’re just avoiding a situation where we know the hairs on the back of our necks,” says Geraldine Hart. a former Suffolk County sheriff who helped direct the introduction of the law there.
After the buffalo killing, Governor Kathy Hochul Obligatory for the State Police to seek a red flag order when they believe someone is dangerous.
Her directive was prompted by the fact that the 18-year-old charged in the shooting was not included in the red flag process although he wrote in a school assignment that he wanted to one day commit a murder-suicide. He was taken for a mental health assessment, but I wrote then he was only seen for 15 minutes and he lied, saying the murder-suicide comment was a joke.
“That’s why I believe I can still buy a gun,” he wrote.
My colleagues examining cases in Suffolk County found that the red flag order resulted in the removal of more than 160 firearms, including at least five military-style rifles. The youngest subject of this order is 14 people, the oldest is 88. All but two are men.
Greater use of red flag orders in Suffolk County is unlikely to produce significant changes in gun mortality compared with the rest of the state. But Hart, a former police commissioner, said the county has seen a number of positive effects, including that parents have to deal with their children’s psychological problems.
At least 11 of the orders involved threatening schools, including two issued on Thursday and Friday against 15-year-old boys, one of which walked into a classroom shouting “I will bombard the school.” The second boy posted on Instagram that he hopes he gets locked up so that he and the other boy can “HANDLING THE CASE BECAUSE WE CAN ALL START SCHOOL.”
Weather
It was a sunny day near the 80s in New York. At night, the evenings are mostly clear, with temperatures dropping to as low as 60.
PARKING OUTSIDE
Suspended today (Shavuot).
“Report“It is a play in which actors play members of the City Council. We asked an actual member of the New York City Council – Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side – to play the drama critic after she saw the show, the Steppenwolf Theater play at Studio 54 was nominated for a Tony Award for Best New Play.
Like The Times critic Jesse Green, Brewer did not give the dark history of what happened in town in the play. Unlike him, Brewer doesn’t ask “what could be more tedious, on stage or in life” than a City Council meeting with an agenda that doesn’t quite sound like it. Here’s her review, condensed in the blank from the conversation we had last week:
I don’t go to many plays, but I enjoyed it,
The first thing I noticed was a jar of disinfectant on each desk, so I knew it was present.
I love staging. The desks are like the City Council in New York City. They are old school – heavy wood, very different, very old world.
There has been a lot of discussion about the minutes. This is characteristic of elected bodies. But they approved the minutes from two weeks ago, not the previous meeting. Mr. Peel, a young man, asked where the minutes of the last meeting were. He was never able to get an answer. It’s the old guard that uses the rules, which they control, to silence any dissidents. Then we learn Mr. Peel (Noah Reid) is the hero, so it’s a good start when he asks the question, which is what, as an elected official, we like. And it turns out he asked the right questions.
One of the other members, being part of the old guard, renovated a fountain in the town. He wanted it to be accessible to people with disabilities. He made a strong case. When the group voted, the only person who supported him was Mr. Peel, the new guy. That revealed all the potential disagreements.
It’s clever that the play builds these conversations up more than they seem on the surface. And there’s a lot of plot, and a lot of things that aren’t what they appear to be.
Mayor, also a playwright (Tracy Letts), very reasonable. He was quite mature at one point, and then when there was a 4 to 4 tie, I think, he has to get the ropes right. He was excellent. The actress who plays Miss Matz (Sally Murphy) – she’s good at comedy as an actress, but I’m not sure she’s typical of a Council member. She had to write a solution. She couldn’t remember which solution she had to write. I think a real Council member would remember that.
Everyone else in the cast seems sensible as City Council members. But there was no press person on the show. “What will the press say?” – which we’ve always been worried about, to be honest – never came up. I always speak my mind, but do you think, how will it come out in the press?
Dear Diary:
Growing up, I told everyone that I lived in Canarsie, along the L.
That’s what I think because that’s what all the subway signs leading home say as we get to and from Manhattan. (My mother did not correct me for her own confusion, similarly when she came to New York as a young immigrant.)
It wasn’t until my friend Ian challenged my geography in high school that I finally got my fix. My stop is Bedford Avenue. I live in Williamsburg.
More than 20 years later, Ian still greets me with “Canarsie in the house!” and it made me chuckle.
– Jennifer Ma
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.
So glad we can get together here. Nice to be back after a little break last week. See you tomorrow. – JB
PS This is for today Small crosswords and Spell Bee. You can find all our quizzes here.
Melissa GuerreroJeff Boda and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
