acqueline Ross has handled up-
ward of 3,000 cases in her five
years as a public defender, all in
Chicago’s imposing Criminal
Courts building. She represents
mostly young men, many of whom
have been in prison before. But one
case still haunts her — that of Pauletta
R., who, at the age of 14, was charged
with first-degree murder. Pauletta and
three girlfriends schemed to lure a
man into an alley for sex where an-
io te
other compamon, a man in luis 205,
waited with a handgun. The robbery
went sour and the young man shot the
intended robbery victim.
During the trial, Ross recalls, Paulerta would sat at
the defense table, her head buried in her hands, her
thumb in her mouth, At other umes, during particu
larly tense MOMeENts, she would rock in her chair,
childhke.
“She had very lde idea what was BO8 on,” Ross
recalls. “She should have been cried in juvenile court.”
Paulerta is one of thousands of cluldren who,
accused of violent — and in recent years nonviolent —
crimes are transferred to adult court, where retnibu-
on rather than rehabilitation is the result, if not the
objective. This, according to a recent USA Today/
CNN/Gallup Poll, 1 what the public wants. Three-
quarters of those polled said children who commut 4
violent crime should be treated as adults.
As more and more juveniles are arressed for
murder, rape and armed tobbery -- arrests for
violent crimes went WP 27 percent 1 the decade
between 1980 and 1990 — oliticians, partly out of
desperation, partly out of lise (for their jobs), are
cracking down on kids. It is a freney that child
advocates have labeled che “adultificaion™ of children.
Alex Kotlowitz 15 the author of “There Are No Children
Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up i” the Osher
America” and a distinguished visitor at the Jobn D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. ~
40
Last year alone, the Colorado, Utah and Florida
Legislatures passed laws making it easier to (ry certain
youth offenders as adults. A number of other states
are considering similar legislation. Senator Carol
Moseley Braun, the freshman [hints Democrat, has
introduced a measure calling for the automaue trans-
fer of juveniles as young 4 1} who are accused of
Federal crimes.
The juvenile courts were founded on the premise
that they could be more flexible in. working with
children; there the accused would be defined less by
their offenses than by cher youth and their need for
adult guidance and care. In juvenile court, the judge —~
4 consultation with probation officers, psychologists
and social workers — has great leeway
as to what kind of treatment and
punishment (0 IMpPOse. Children, be-
cause their personalities are still in the
process of formation, are thought to
be more open to rehabilitation than
adults. The “waiving” of juveniles into
adult courts protects neither the pub-
fie nor the children. Consider Paulet-
ta's case,
On the night of July 27, 1991,
Paulerta drove around the sireets ofa
tough neighborhood on the North
Side of Chicago with three girlfriends
and a young man named Michael
Brandon. They stopped to chat with a
neighborhood gang leader whom Pau-
letta’s sister owed $100. tHe told Pau-
letta that if she didn’t come up with
the money, he'd hurt her. Pauletta and
her friends, one of whom was also in
debt to the gang leader, then drew up 4
plan. They'd pose as prostitutes
rob a customer.
In the early hours of the next day,
the four girls primped and posed on
a street corner when a young man
approached them for sex. They told
him he could have his pick. He chose
Paulecta’s friend, Robin, also 14, Robin and her prey
walked into a nearby alley where Brandon lurked in
the shadows with a pistol. A struggle ensued, and
Brandon shot once, killing his victim. Paulecta heard
the gunshot as she walked coward a friend's house.
Within hours, the police arrested Pauletta ~~ a5 well
as the four others. All five were charged with first-
degree murder.
Given the serious nature of the crime, the prosecu-
tion asked the courts to (ry this eighth grader as an
adult, The court psychologist, Nancy Feys, cesufied
that Pauletta, who lived on welfare with her mother,
had “serious problems with depression” and func-
tioned “like a small child” with wide mood swings,
including suicidal impulses. Pauletta had told the
psychologist, “{ just don’t Inke the world,” according
to court documents,
Feys urged that Pauletta be placed ina long-term
residential treatment center, both she and Pauletta s
probation officer recommended that Pauletta re-
main in the juvenile system, The judge, though, sent
her to adult court where, last summer, she was
found not guilty of murder, but guilty of armed
robbery. She received a six-year 5cf-
tence that insured she would spend
her formative teen-age years behind
bars.
The crackdown on children has
gone well beyond those accused ol
violent crimes, In Florida, fur os io
ple, between October 1990 and June
1991, 3,248 children were transfersed
to adult court for offenses 4s serious
as murder and as trivial as possession
of alcohol. And Florida is not alone.
In November, 1 met Brian H. and
his father, Leon, @ supervisor at an
electrical company, '" Courtroom
301 of the same Criminal Courts
building where Paulerta’s case was
heard. Brian, dressed in 2 6f4Y suit
and tasseled brown loafers, sat erect
on the bench, nervously clenching
his hands as he awaited the judge's
arrival. His father leaned over to
but because he was accused of selling
drugs on the sidewalk near a local
Under Ulinots law, any child charged with dealing
narcoues within 1,000 feet of a school or public
housing property | automatically transferred into the
adukhood? There's got © be another way:
Children like Pavlecta and Brian live in neighbor-
|
q
+ x
\
; 4
‘ eal
Ba’ 4
« ‘
‘ a”
-h .
‘ *
P R
tree
} teyt
i t
Pauletsa came trom a fasrely
tattered by alcohol rnd domestic
wolence Still, despste the wreck
Ww reraciad GN ASL PCHOETIC ys} anem-
nt, day guniire ind inade-
pate 4 tise, thes ire push hual-
Thev haunt foe cnakes. rede
lukes. play wideo games and go on
lates, They are also impulsive and
silly. They olten make wronghead-
ed decisinns Thev're casiiv swaved
by peers.
Treating adolescents as adults 1g.
nores the fact that they are develop-
mentally different. “We can't rewire
then,” says Dr. Katherine Kaufer
Chrtoffel, a pediatrician and direc-
ror of the Violent Injury Prevention
Cemer a Children’s Memorial Medical Comer in
Chicago. “It seems ke we're saying, ‘Don’t be a child
in the wrong place.” ”
Dr. Christoffel argues that prevenung youth crime
requires changing the child's environment. She cites
studies indicating that the greatest impact on dimin-
ishing drunken driving among teen-agers comes from
changes like curfews, alcohol-free proms and raising
the driving age co 17.
De. Christoffel is concerned about whar she per-
ceives as a backlash coward children. “To the extent
chat parents and community fail, society has to back
them up,” she says. What has society done to back up
urban children and their parents? Not much.
Brian’s situation 1s HMustrative. When he first
showed signs of trouble — coming home late, failing
classes, being suspended for fistfights at school and
wearing expensive jewelry —— his parents sought
help. The assistance Brian could receive at his school
is limited; there’s only one full-time social worker
and one part-ame psychologist for 1,700 students.
His parents called the juvenile detention center 10
ask if Brian could visit the facility. They hoped thas
might shake him up. Officials there don’t give tours
and had no suggestions for referral. His father then
called the local police station to ask if an officer
would come to their house to talk with Brian. But
iccuatraation ey Josh Gosriece
my
%
arents, said they
j Brian got into tre
im,” Brian’s mother says.
according to his p
hing unt
the police,
couldn't do anyt
“We wanted to frighten
“We wanted him to get bac
impression that as a parent
within the system you cou
consequences,
vi ey cannot be
he painful crush
locked up for a long
time, if for ne ot
But a blanket policy of
and Brian into the adult courts is a grie
der appr
er crime.
cach assu
But longer
uced adult crime.
fren have an unintended
minal courts are already so over~
dges have shown @
than they
fer laws o
consequence. The cri
burdened that §
propensity to give
might receive in yuve
ome adult-court ju
children lighter sentences
nile court.
THe N
The debate over treating puve-
mile offenders as adults 1s more
than a debate over youth crime,
gets to the fundamental question
of what if micans to be a chub,
particularly in an increasingly vir
alent world. Children need help
navigaung through what can bea
treacherous adolescent maze.
That is why children can’t marry
without permission of their par-
ents, why children can't buy haq-
vor — and why society created
juvenile courts.
“What's so disturbing, says
Felton Earls, a professer at the
School of Public Health at Har-
vard University, “1s to see 4
legal process that’s lowering the
age of adulthood rather than
seeing this as a failure of social
structures and policy towards
our children.”
When | met Brian and his fa-
ther at court, their case was Cone
tinued to another date. In the
hallway, they huddled with their
lawyer.
“Ts ia very serious?” = Brian
asked, his hands buried deep in
his pants pockets, his eyes rivet
“fz doesn't get much more serious than this,” his
Because of mandatory-minimum sentencing, if
found guilty, Brian — tried as an adult — will receive @
sentence of at least six years. Moreover, he will carry
for life the samp of a convicted felon, making it
difficult vo find employment.
“f'm scared to go back,” Brian told me. (He spent
three weeks in a detention facility for juveniles.) “[ got
plans to do with my life.” He says he wants to be an
electrical engineer, just like his dad.
As for Pauletta, she’s due to be released from the
Illinois Youth Center at Warrenville this July, at
which time she'll be a month away from turning 18.
She will re-enter society without a high-school
diphpma and without the kind of intense counseling
the court psychologist said she needed.
Paulecta and Brian made mistakes. Were they
big enough that society should snatch away their
childhoods? @
aw Youn Times mMacagina / FEBRUARY ia, 1994 41
PREFACE
The Problem of Youth and Violence -
Psychology's Message of Hope
enna
More than a half-century ago, psychology brought the study of violence and
human aggression into the realm of science. The Commission on Violence and
Youth of the American Psychological Association (APA) was empaneled in July
1991 to bring the body of knowledge generated during the last 5 decades to bear
on the troubling national proble.a of violence involving youth.
Although violence involving youth is hardly a new phenomenon in the
United States, both the quantity and quality of this violence have undergone dra-
matic change within the past 10 to 15 years. Mere statistics cannot tell the story,
but the following observations will suggest how much the parameters of the prob-
tem have altered:
» Homicide is the most common cause of death for young African
American females as well as for young African American males, The probability
of a young African American female dying by homicide is four times that of a non-
African American female. A young African American male is 11 times more likely
to die by homicide than a non-African American male.
> Children can buy handguns on street comers in many communi-
ties. In part because of this ready availability of firearms, guns are involved in
more than 75% of adolescent killings. “Get rid of the guns,” said a teenage girl
from a violent neighborhood in Washington, DC, when APA members asked her
what adults could do to stop the violence in her community.
> The intensity of violence involving children and youth has escalat-
ed dramatically. In testimony presented to APA, Mireille Kanda, MD, who then
was Director of Child Protection Services at Children’s National Medical Center in
*§
12 Report of the American Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth, Vol. |
Washington, DC, noted that the rate of penetrating trauma caused by violence
seen in her emergency department increased 1,740"s between 1486 and 1989.
>» Children are becoming involved in violence at ever-younger ages.
In a study of first and second graders in Washington, DC, 45% said they had wit
nessed muggings, 31% said they had witnessed shootings, and 39% said they had
seen dead bodies. A 17-year-old African American girl from Boston told a state
task force that she had attended the funerals of 16 friends aged 14 to 21 who had
died by violence.
Although young people are disproportionately represented on both sides
of the knife or gun, it is important to consider their experiences as part of the larger
picture of violence in America. By many measures, the United States ranks first
among nations in its rates of interpersonal violence. The United States has the
highest homicide rate of any Western industrialized country—a rate that is, in fact,
many times higher than that of the country with the next highest rate. At current
rates, more than 25,000 Americans are murdered each year, and homicide is the
tenth leading cause of death in our nation.
In inner-city communities, violence often is dramatically evident in night-
ly shootings and in the dayume struggle of families to keep their children from
becoming perpetrators or victims. The problem of youth violence is not limited to
urban environments, however. Domestic violence, hate crimes, sexual violence,
and violence among peers pose threats to children and teenagers in every
American community. No one is immune to the pervasive violence in American
society, although the probabilities of involvement are affected by race, social and
economic class, age, geographical area, population density, and other factors.
These dismal statistics and the inescapable pervasiveness of violence
affecting American youth have led people in communities throughout the country
to feel a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.
4
- ae |
we
Report of the American Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth, Vol. !
13
ajaesinosncrmenvesennn Ht i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our socety is failing to protect its children and fails
they are in crisis. As a result,
America’s children are increasingly at nak
Families with young children make up the larg:
of Americans living
children with adequate housing, food, or health
from high
metric increases in burths outside of marnage and
in the divorce rate over the
Only about half of the women entitled to child
support receive the full amount to which they
are entitled, and one-quarter do not receive any
Guns kill or injure 40 children every day. Gun-
shot wounds of death
among both whute and African-American teen-
age boys in the United States.
Fewer than half of all 17-year-olds in this coun-
try possess the academic skills needed to hold
most entry-level jobs or to attend college.
Eight mullion Amencan children lack any kind of
health coverage.
The United States sprerids substantial wmounts |
money keeptg roughny 600,009 chiidren Fox.
bit does not devote sufficrernt resources
aeywices that would help keep chul-
ter care.
to pt ¢yert ive
dyer saie ul they own facuacs.
ey hous
Farmuhes that need services TanRiNnys fr
WAR, tG cansyot
those services at all, cannot get fanspe! ations to
the services that are eve frag
many cliferent %% 3}
services agencies rather than
counseling too frevpuently erty taal
offered, of 1
mented S2rVvices from tox
the comprebensve
services that experts agree they need
e State courts are overwhelmed by cases involving
because of, among other
things, rapid rises in reported cases of abuse and
example, juvenile delinquency judges hear 1,700
Angeles, juvenile court
judges have about ten minutes to devote to each
case
Children too frequently find themselves before
courts without benefit of counsel, despite their
constitutional and statutory rights to counsel in
many kinds of cases.
Children detained pending trial or confined fol-
lowing trial too often suffer placement in over:
crowded facilities which fail to provide adequate
education or health care, and which expose them
to violence within the instituGon.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROGRAMS TO
PREVENT AND TREAT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
Social indicators point to a generation of young people with inadequate
support from family, school and the community. Lacking positive support, large
portions of this generation are laft without direction for developing values and life
skills. Delinquency, violence, drug abuse, welfare dependency and teenage pregnancy
are ravaging this generation and future generations. The nation must step in
decisively to rescue our young people and save our communities. This will take efforts
to develop all our youth before they tail, as they show signs of failing and if they have
failed.
1. Primary Prevention
The best place to start addressing juvenile crime and delinquency is before it
starts. The great mass of youth need more support than they are getting from
home, school and community. Indicators point to poor school performance, increased
teen pregnancy, inadequate career preparation, welfare dependency running into
subsequent generations... the list goes on. Correcting these problems once they
emerge is a major drain on the national and state budget, and the problems only
seem to get worse. Primary prevention -- the delivery of services to forestall
problems before they start -- is perhaps the best investment that the country can
make in its young people.
Delinquency and other forms of juvenile deviance have been accurately
predicted from factors that describe a world of inadequate care and support for
young people:
-- Teen mothers
-- High crime neighborhoods
-- Early identified behavioral problems in school
-- Early signs of school failure
-- Early contact with law authorities.
These indicators clearly predict delinquency, violence and other negative
outcomes.
Some successful approaches to primary prevention include:
Pre-natal care for teens and young mothers
Early childhood heaith care
Parent skills training
Pre-school day care enrichment programs
Early school enrichment - Head Start and similar programs
School resources for early identified behavioral problems |
Parent and community involvement in school decisions
Career oriented education and training
Alternate patterns for educational and vocational training.
1
Head Start and other early enrichment programs have been and continue to be
successful. Other models exist, often only in pilot form. New York City's community
schools program developed under Deborah Meir is one outstanding example that
needs to be replicated. These programs work. And when they work, delinquency its
other negative concomitants are reduced. The nation cannot afford NOT to
implement primary prevention. Compared against the dollar cost and the social
chaos of delinquency and violence, primary prevention is the best investment that this
country could make.
2. Secondary Prevention
The predictive indicators are clear for early identified problems. They only get
worse. Early problems in school performance lead to dropping out. Early behavioral
problems lead to more serous problems, which often ends in juvenile and adult crime.
Life chances are narrowed into rounds of arrest and incarceration. Life expectancy is
greatly reduced, with homicide being a leading cause of death for delinquents and
young criminals.
Programs that have worked with early indications of delinquency include:
-- Skills oriented training
-- Career preparation
-- Supportive counseling aimed specifically at correcting criminal ideation and
value deficits.
What has not been successful with early identified behavioral problems and
first offenders has been counseling that takes a broad and general approach to
development. This is underprogramming for a group that needs more structure in
addressing potential crime and delinquency. Similarly, overprogramming this group
with shock programs and scare tactics is counterproductive because youth, especially
these youth, do not see themselves caught in the criminal justice net before it actually
happens.
Young people who are spotted early need very specific tools to bring them into
the mainstream. They need interpersonal skills, job skills, they need to have their
destructive thought patterns challenged and improved.
Early identification can be fraught with legal issues, such as labelling offenders
before they have actually committed chargeable crimes. Programs need to be skill
focused and career enhancing. This is not labelling; this is youth development.
3. Tertiary Prevention
Once young people are caught in the net of the criminal justice system, they are
at the greatest risk on continuing in this trap. The best indicators of subsequent
2
crime and delinquency are previous crime and delinquency. These are the hardest to
engage in positive programs and possibly the least likely to improve as a result.
Nevertheless, some approaches have been found more successful than others. The
more successful approaches all aim directly at criminal behavior. They address it,
challenge it and offer alternatives.
Some positive programs include:
.- Moral reasoning and logical thinking
-- Victim awareness and victim confrontation
.- Behavior modification of specific criminogenic activities
-- Anger and aggression control.
What does not work with tertiary prevention are general programs and those
that avoid coming directly to grips with criminal behavior.
Common to all successful programs, no matter what the level of prevention, is
that programs must be clearly defined, rigorously implemented as designed and they
must ensure that program participants stay with the program. These requirements
presuppose adequate staff orientation and training, clear program elements and an
adequate level of security to ensure stability and safety to program participants and
to the community.
hoe
A TEENAGER is arrested Wednesday at the armory on Washington Avenue in Schenectady that was used as a
processing center for the 66 people arrested in a massive drug raid. She was standing nearby, looking for
acquaintances, when city police arrested her on a warrant
Residents cheer massive drug raid
@ Army of police
officers nabs 66
suspects in
Schenectady’s
Hamilton Hill
BY JOE MAHONEY
Statt water
SCHENECTADY ~~ In a neigh-
borhood where children have learned
to duck for cover when cocaine cow-
bevs have shootouts, an army of
state and city cops tried to take back
the streets Wednesday morning, ar-
resting 66 drug-dealing suspects as
many residents cheered,
Most of the arrests including
that of an 11-year-old reputed crack
seller —- took place during carefully
synchronized pre-dawn raids in the
city’s drug-plagued Hamilton Hill
INDEX
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neighborhood.
The suspects were arrested by
more than 500 officers who staged
the most massive drug sweep in the
city’s history,
Those arrested were among 110
people indicted on drug charges
stemming from a probe that began
last July. That was when State
Police Superintendent Thomas A.
Constantine agreed to deploy State
Police undercover drug investigators
to assist Schenectady police in com-
bating street-level drug dealing. The
other suspects remained at large
Wednesday evening,
Through a total of 332 undercover
drug buys made by the State Police
Community Narcotics Enforcement
Team, police were able to identify
virtually every street-level dealer in
the city, said Schenectady Public
Safety Commissioner Charles Mills.
While the suspects were low-level
dealers on the drug world's totem
pole, they have had a decidedly
corrosive effect on the quality of life
in the city, Constantine contended.
“It's a decent neighborhood,” Con-
stantine said, “People shouldn’t
have to live like that. The people in
the community were thrilled with
what we did this morning.”
Those arrested included several
juveniles, ene of them an 11-year-old
boy who had allegedly sold crack on
the street. Another, 17-year-old Ray-
mond Chaires Jr, of 3307 Woodlawn
Ave., Was wearing a Christian Broth
ers Academy uniform when he was
charged with a felony count of selling
cocaine while he was about to leave
tor the prestigious Albany school.
At precisely 6 a.m., convoys of
police cars began swarming into
Hamilton Hill like an invading
army. Two black trucks were filled
with heavily armed members of the
State Police Mobile Response
Teams. Overhead, a State Police
helivopter whirred, ready to help
track runners or provide Medivac
transport information in the event of
injuries.
Clad in black and wearing black
military-style helmets and carrying
large black shields, the mobile re-
sponse team members were a partic-
Please see BUST A-11
Times Urvon/SKIP DICKSTEIN
x
HY
i
ies
i
a sereae! HOw oy,
2 Albany cops
charged with
taking evidence
@ Both had been recently suspended
for off-duty incidents
BY CAROL DEMARE
Staff writer
ALBANY -~ Two city police officers already in
trouble with the department for recent off-duty incidents
were charged Wednesday in connection with the
disappearance of marijuana and cash stemming from an
arest this summer of a suspected drug dealer
Ricky G. Vincent, 25, and Kelly ttc 2rtep
Kimbrough, 26, both uniformed offi |
cers with less than five years on the |
force, pleaded not quilty to evidence |
tampering, a felony, and other counts | ,
|
}
at their arraignments that came atter
agrand jury returned a sealed indict. |
ment Tuesday,
Each posted $2,500 hail set by
County Judge Thomas A. Breslin
lt was the second time this year
charges were lodged against the offi
cers. Kimbrough was suspended
without pay earlier this month for an
sarelated off-duty altercation with ’
ampus police at the University at
Albany. Vincent was suspended
without pay in August for allegedly
pushing a weman acquaintance
through a cupboard door at her
home
Their arrests corne on the heels of
another case of evidence tampering
that resulted in last month’s suspen
sion ol narcotics Detective Keith Cole
Vincent and Kimbrough came under suspicion in
September after a drag suspect told New York Cit
transit police that Albany officers had stolen his drugs
and money, according to Assistant District Attorney
William A. Carter. Transit officials reported the infor
mation to Albany, and the department's Internal Affairs
Unit began investigating, Carter said.
“It's very unfortunate that it happened,” Chief John
Dale said Wednesday afternoon. “We're police oftivers,
and in this business there will be people who want to
work outside of the law, and it will be up to us to get them
and to bring them to justice the same as any other
criminal.”
;
i
Vincent
Evidence presented to the grand jury by Carter
showed that on Aug. 7 at &:30 p.m. the two cops, who
were partners assigned to Division 2, respended to a tip
that had been called in. A man was reportedly selling
drugs in a park at Catherine and Eagle streets
Three Other officers also responded, Carter said.
Kimbrough and Vincent took the lead and arrested
Please see INDICT A-12
CUTIE NS SNe CNET oan EE eT Ee er ee eS EE ON a
Albany, N.Y.,
Thursday, November 18, 1993 TIMES UNION
Continued fom A-1
BUST:
66 nabbed
in massive
drug raid
ularly ominous presence. The cops
swooped into one apartment after
another, seeking suspects whose
photographs they carried, and
searching for mans, drugs and stash-
es of narcotics money.
From a suspected cocaine lair at
the Steinmetz Homes public hous-
Ing project, State Police Lt. Pat
MeDonald carried a 5-vear-old boy,
left alone when other cops arrested
the boy's mother
On Eagle Street, just west of Bran-
dywine Avenue, an elderly woman
peered through curtains and waved
her approval as police forced their
way into a two-story house across the
street
“People came out in their night-
clothes to thank the officers,” Con-
stantine said later. He said some
even pointed to houses where drug
deals had been coramonplace.
Schenectady Mayor Frank Duci
was full of praise for State Police and
Schenectady police officers who par-
ticipated in the clampdown.
“It was fabulous,” he said. “The
police have sent a message that we're
not going to take that kind of stuff in
the city of Schenectady. People in
the neighborhoods have been so wor-
ried; I think this is going to lift their
spirits,”
Constantine said police had care-
fully planned for the possibility of
encountering armed resistance.
‘Thank God there were no police
officers injured,” he said.
In a building on Albany Street,
police were met by a pair of snarling
pit bulls,
In other locations, police said they
found a pair of loaded sawed-off
shotguns, a loaded revolver and
small quantities of crack and mari-
juana.
Schenectady County District At-
tormey Robert Carney said residents
van assist authorities in flushing out
any drug dealers who think they can
step into the void created by the
arrests.
“The challenge to the community
im: Wil you stop other people from
taking their place?” he said,
« Carney vowed to prosecute the
wuspects und send them to jail, He
said police have garnered strong evi
dence therm.
fee's perspective,
“mady,” he
send these Percy shes
To those
“From our of:
the cases are trial
‘We will seek to
to prison a
who ehided
Bast
said
SLISPHECt s
Times Union/SKIP DICKSTEIN
THOMAS A. CONSTANTINE, superintendent of the State Police, talks about tne pre-dawn drug raid carried out
Wednesday in Hamilton Hill.
- The challenge to
the community is:
Will you stop other
people from taking
their place?”
~ Robert Carney
Schenectady County DA
Wednesday's dragnet, Carney said,
“You can run but you can't hide. You
can go to New York City, but the
State Police will get you.”
Constantine said at least 35 per-
cent of those targeted for arrest origi
nally came from New York City,
Sixty-two percent of the suspects
had previous arrests, including 25 for
weapons possession charges and 27
for drug-related offenses. Nearly half
had prior felony arrests and more
than 25 percent had felony convic-
tion records.
Constantine said there has been a
significant migration of drug dealers
from New York City to upstate com-
munities in recent vears, setting the
stage tor violent turf battles between
local and outside drug gangs.
“The citizens of Schenectady, in-
cluding the residents of Hamilton
Hill, are decent, hard-working peo-
ple who have expressed their concern
about violent crime and drugs in
their community,” said Constantine,
who is a leading candidate to hecome
Mare HWS P & has So se 9 20am Ss: SOpm
r 5 > a 12 ‘. TE
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Ss A
Pe a MA
oe Tan Street |
ty 4 Fits,
a rasa retypire
eee LPG: MOP OR CALL 1-800: 876-6123 DEPT. RY
against a Times Union truck, at
which point she was handcuffed and
the next chief of the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration, “To-
day's effort is in response to their told that they had a warrant for her
request for help in ensuring public arrest, too,
safety. It reflects credit on them and The girl, who had been laughing
moments earlier, began wailing,
“Call my mother! Call my mother'”
One of the indicted suspects, Paul
Lester Benedict of Strong Street, was
described by authorities as wale
wanted on a murder charge in Bir- |
mingham, Ala.
Interviewed by the Times Union |
while he was led to court by Trooper |
Clem Harris, Benedict said he ve
aware he was wanted for murder but
denied involvement in the crime.
on their city.”
Outside the National Guard Ar-
mory on Washington Avenue in
Schenectady, where the drug sus
pects were brought for booking and
fingerprinting, a teenage mri was
with two fmends, waiting to see ax
quaintances who had been arrested
in the roundup, remarking that al
most all of those picked up iy
were males. Suddenly,
came up and ordered her to
varie *?
; ;
Palioe officers
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}
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: i
Times Union/SKIP DICKSTEIN
SOME of those arrested on drug charges are rounded up Wednesday by
police officials in Schenectady.
' PLEASE HELP |:
Throughout this Thanksgiving
season -- and only with your help --
we will provide le a of hot,
nutritious meals each day to the
desperately needy men, women
and children of our community.
Please help as your heart directs
You,
tL $19.00 to feed 10 hungry people
( $38.00 to feed 20 hungry people
L. $57.00 to feed 30 hungry people.
L$ hungry people
awe fer tye needy this Thankszrong and al year-round
Name eee 8 f
I iis crsctncicrenpacinenatinnianiniinteremietotnaasiiniiiiinansitaanninenesiien Il
DO a
| CAPITAL CITY RESCUE MISSION we
i 50 Hudson Ave.» P.O. Box 1662 * Albany, N¥ 12201
Na LEP ANE SPGE WITH Faw tet
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OUR 44TH YE AR OF SERVICE
Your tax-deductible gift will belp us co:
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TODAY ito 9pm |
FRIDAY W to 8
SATURDAY Sto 8
SUN a
Names 01 peupie
arrested in sweep
Here’s'® list of the people arrested
Wednesday:
Anthony Acevedo 24, State Street, Sche-
Nectady, two covets of criminal sale of a
controlied substance, third degree; Theresa
Ballard, 20, Stave Street, Schenectady, three
counts of criminal sale, third degree; Cesar
Barros, 18, Niidebrant Avenue, Schenecta-
dy, two counts of criminal sale, third de
gree: Paul L. Benedict, 22, Strong Street,
henectady, five counts of criminal sale,
third degree; Shawn Black, 25, Hulett
Street, Schenectady, four counts of crimi-
nal sale, third degree; Todd E. Boyd, 24,
New York, one count of criminal possession
of a controlled substance, seventh degree;
Glen Brodhead, 37, Steuben Street, Sche-
nectady, three counts of criminal sale, third
degree; Kevin Brodhead. 277, North Ferry
Street, Schenectady, two counts crirninal
sale, third degree; Nathan Carrasquille, 17,
Staniey Street, Schenectady, two counts of
criminal sale, third degree.
Christopher Carver, 27, McClellan Street,
Schenectady, one count of criminal sale,
third degree; Raymond Chaires Jr., 17,
Woodlawn Avenue, Schenectady, three
counts of criminal sale, third degree;
Sae'lon Charleston, 18, Queens, one count of
criminal saie, third degree; Andre Clark, 17,
Delamont Avenue, Schenectady, 1} counts
of criminal sale, third degree, and one
count of criminal possession, seventh de-
Ofee; Christopher Clayton, 27, Delamont
Avenue, Schenectady, two counts of crimi-
Hal sale, third degree; David L. Clayton, 24,
Albany Street, Schenectady, two counts of
criminal sale, third degree; Wilson J. Cork-
er Jr, V7, Hulett Street, Schenectady, one
count of criminal sale, third degree, and
petifiarceny
Dwight O. Daniel, 14, Chestnut Street,
Schenectady, two counts of criminal saie,
third degree; Anne Devine, M4, Lafayette
Street, Schenectady, one count of criminal
sale, third degree; Bernard Edwards, 32,
Paige Street, Schenectady, one count of
criminal sale, third degree; Vernita E. En-
ous, 16, Delamont Avenue, Schenectady,
two counts of criminal sale, third degree;
Robert Fraiser, 18 Emmett Street, Sche-
nectady, eight counts of criminal sale, third
degree; Lesiie M. Gabriel, 17, Steinmetz
Homes, Schenectady, eight counts of crimi-
nal saie, third degree; Sheldon A. Good-
ridge, 21, Brooklyn, two counts of criminal
sale, third degree; Devon Grant, 2 Front
Street, Schenectady, six counts of criminal
Sale, third degree.
Jonn T. Harris, 41, Stanley Street, Sche-
nectady, two counts of criminal sale, third
degree; Tracey D. Harris, %, Jay Street,
Schenectady, two counts of criminal sale,
third degree; Jose M. Hernandez, 2, State
Street, Schenectady, two counts of criminal
sale, third degree; Owight House, 40, First
Street, Albany, five counts of criminal sale,
third degree; Tirnethy Hudson, 3%, Robin-
son Street, Schenectady, two counts of
criminal sale, third degree; Marty Eugene
Humphries, 41, Emmett Street, Schenecta-
dy, six counts of criminal sale, third degree;
Jermaine Jennings, 16, Strong Street, Sche
nectady, one count of criminal sale, third
degree.
Andrew 0. Johnson, 20, South Avenue,
Schenectady, one count of criminal sale,
third degree; Kevin E. Jones, 27, New York,
two counts of criminal sale, third degree;
Michelle Jones, 24, Steinmetz Homes, Sche-
nectady, fwe counts of criminal sale, third
degree; Basil R. Joseph, 26, Brooklyn, one
count of untawful possession of marijvana;
Leon Martin, 17, Emmett Street, Schenecta-
dy, 10 counts of criminal sale, third degree;
David Mayo, 38, New York, five counts of
criminal sale, third degree; Jackie McDan-
jel, 28%, Emrnett Street, Schenectady, two
counts of criminai sale, third degree; Ri-
keime McQueen, 18 Robinson Street, Sche
nectady, two counts of criminal sale, third
degree; Carmine J. Miller, %, Jay Street,
Schenectady, two counts of criminal sale,
third degree.
Robert $. Moinar, 272, Moyston Street,
Schenectady, one count criminal sale, third
degree; Rallek Moore Jr., 17, State Street,
Schenectady, one count criminal sale, third
degree; Daniel 8. Nelson, 36, Chestnut
Street, Schenectady, two counts of criminal
saie, ihird degree, Larry Oates, 31, State
Street, Schenectady, four counts of crimi-
nal sale, third degree; Ronald Parker, 73,
Emmet? Street, Schenectady, two counts of
criminal sale, third degree; James K. Per-
kins, 18, Broad Street, Albany, seventh-
degree criminal sale
Robert W. Reid, 16. Germania Avenue,
Schenectady, two counts of criminal sale,
third degree; Victor Rondon, 19, Broad
Street, Albany, seventh degree criminal
sale, Stacey Rouse, 24, Jarnaica, Queens,
two counts, criminal sale, third degree;
Maritza Santana, 21, Manhattan, unlawful
possession of mariivana; liyas M. Scott, 14,
Waldorf Place, Schenectady, three counts,
criminal sale, third degree; Harley J, Skel-
ley, 44, Hulett Street, three counts, criminal
sale, third degree.
Diona Smith, 18, Stanley Street, two
counts, criminal sale, third degree; James
T. Smith, %, Broadway, Rensselaer, crimi-
nal sale, third degree; Prescious D. Spoon-
er, 20, Stanley Street, Schenectady, seventh-
degree criminal possession; Moses Timons
Jr., 23, Hamilton Stret, one count, criminal
sale, third degree; Willie Valentine, 2, New
York, five counts, criminal sale, third de-
gree, Arnoid J. Vargas, 22, 951 Aibany St.
one count, criminal sale, third degree; Joe
Washington, 22, Delamont Avenue, Sche-
nectady, two counts, criminal sale, third
degree.
Guy C. West, %, Emmett Street, Schenec-
tady, two counts, criminal sale, third de-
gree; Maria Whittemore, 34, Avenve A,
Schenectady, two counts, criminal sale,
third degree; Antione Williams, 25, Clifton
Place, Schenectady, third degree, criminal
possession of a weapon.
Harold Williams, 38, Lincoln Avenue,
Schenectady, three counts, criminal sale,
third degree; and Thomas Wilson, 446, Hulett
Street, Schenectady, two counts, criminal
sale, third degree.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are forced to
liquidate, to raise immediate cash.
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Bonded Auctioneer 257 Auction 2PM Showing 1PM
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WE SERVICE WHAT
" WESELL (je):
preliminary Report on Youth Violence
youth Violence Commission
Violence in schools section
Draft: 2/14/94
VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS
The increased violence and weapons use among youth has
intruded into our schools throughout the nation. A recent study of
violence in New york State public schools found that while the
majority of students and teachers felt safe at school, the extent
of violence and fear is unacceptable (NYS Education Department and
the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services, 1994). One in four
seventh through twelfth grade students reported they were robbed or
assaulted during the 1992-93 school year. One in five students
reported bringing some type of weapon to school during the school
year. The weapons students brought to school most often were
knives or other sharp objects. One in twenty-five students,
though, reported bringing a gun to school during the school year.
And, one in fifty had carried a gun to school during the 30-day
period prior to being surveyed. One in three students were afraid
of being attacked or harmed at school or on their way to or from
school.
Nowhere is this problem of violence and weapons in schools
more visible than in large urban areas such as New York city where
the volume of incidents draws media attention. The problem of
violence in schools, however, is not restricted only to large urban
schools districts. The study found that assaults were just as
likely to occur in urban schools as in rural schools.
violence in schools inevitably affects students physically,
psychologically and academically, and it demoralizes teaching
staff. Schools in New york city and elsewhere have generally
responded to the escalating violence in schools by increasing
security staff and metal detector use in the most troubled schools
and by implementing programs designed to reduce student violence.
violence-prevention programs generally focus on conflict
resolution, peer mediation, and improvement of self-esteem and
decision-making skills. Despite these efforts taken to reduce
violence, public concern about the safety of children in schools
continues to grow.
violence in schools interferes with the right of all children
to a sound education. without a safe learning environment, the
ability of many students to attain the knowledge and skills that
will enable them to become productive members of society is
seriously undermined. Programs and strategies must be developed
that address the conditions which promote violence among youth if
we hope to make schools safe and secure environments for learning.
REFERENCE
New York State Department of Education and the New York State
Division of Criminal Justice Services. .
Albany, New York, February 1994.
nee enn nt et A TO PE
es
26, 1994
in America
BOB HERBERT
Are We Awake Yet?
Is there reason for hope, or is that
naive?
Is the country really waking up to
the enormity of its problems of crime
and violence, or is this just another
phase, driven by the media and last-
ing only until we are diverted by a
killer blizzard, or a celebrity sex
scandal, or a surprise locker-room
attack by a Buffalo hitperson to the
knees of Dallas Cowboy Emmitt
Smith?
A serious national effort to combat
crime has never been needed more
than now. Americans are being mur-
dered, raped, beaten, robbed and ath:
erwise terrorized in numbers that
suggest an extraordinary evil has
been loosed upon the society.
No one is immune, not even tod-
dlers or infants; and no place 15 @Xx-
ernpt, not even schools or houses of
worship.
The reality is more horrible than
most fiction writers are capable of
imagining. The Children’s Defense
Fund has released a report that says
nearly 50,000 children and teen-agers
were killed by firearms in the United
States between 1979 and 1991, More
than 24,000 of those deaths were hom-
icides, the remainder being suicides
and deaths from firearm accidents.
A child growing up in the U.S. is 15
times more likely to be killed by
gunfire than a child growing up in
_ Northern Ireland. An American child
or teen-ager dies from gunshot
wounds every two hours.
The only thing more remarkable
than those statistics is that the violent
deaths of so many young people could
occur without a frenzied national out-
cry, a collective expression of an-
guish and outrage.
Perhaps that is occurring now.
A New York Times/CBS News Poll
shows that crime has become the
nation's biggest concern, The major
media outlets are top-heavy with
stories and special reports about
crime. The politicians, irresistibly
drawn to the twin lures of opinion
and television cameras, are
flexing their rhetorical muscles.
protection to law-abiding Ameri-
cans” and “to put an end to the era of
coddling criminals."
That was followed by the most vio-
lent, crime-ridden decade in the na-
tion’s history.
This time could be different. The
key will be whether the politicians
and other leaders are willing to avoid
the notion of simplistic solutions.
Crime is an incredibly complex issue
and no real breakthroughs can be
accomplished by knee-jerk responses
of the right or the left.
Obviously something is wrong with
a criminal justice system that regu-
larly releases murderers in five and a
half years and rapists in less than
three. And there is something wrong
with a society that can't seem to
corral — and keep corralled — repeat
violent offenders.
But there is also something wrong
with a society that takes huge 5€g-
ments of its juvenile population and
condemns them to a hideous world of
ignorance, fear, alienation and crimi-
nal neglect. Something has to be done
for children who, at ages 10 and 11,
Getting serious
about crime.
are making detailed plans for their,
own funerais.
For years we have had advocates
of harsh punishment on one side and
these who want to attack the root
causes of crime on the other. It is past
time for each side to listen seriously,
and in a spirit of good will, to what the
on crime would have an enormous
positive effect on society as a whole,
welfare.
Crime is the real crisis in America.
But doing something about crime also
means doing something about drugs,
of politicians, but the rest of America
as weil, including educators and the
clergy, community and civil rights
jeaders, and ordinary citizens, espe-
young
There’s also the media, of course,
which can be helpful by shifting some
of the emphasis from the sensational
crimes to the less entertaining search
for solutions. oO
Eee
ee
#325
“2 ES
38
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tr
Fourth Annual
Capital District
Community
Conference
on
Crime and Criminal Justice
"Youth and the Law:
Problems and Solutions"
Presented By
The Center for Law and Justice,
Inc.
&
The NYS Division for Youth
Saturday April 16, 1994
The Empire State Plaza Convention Center
Meeting Rooms 2 and 3
Albany, New York
1994 CONFERENCE SPONSORS - Partial List
Albany County Probation Department
Albany Dispute Mediation
Albany Law School
Albany Service Corp
Alcoholism Council of Schenectady County
Blacks in Government
Boys and Girls Club of Albany
Campus Action
Capital Area Council of Churches
Capital District Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism
Capital District Women's Bar Association
Carver Community Center
Center for Dispute Resolution
Centro-Civico, Albany
Centro-Civico, Amsterdam
Citizen Action
Communicator, The
Fund for Modern Courts
Hamilton Hill Neighborhood Association
Hudson Valley Community College-EOP and BSA
Law, Order & Justice Center
League of Women Voters of NYS
NAACP-Schenectady Branch
National Lawyers Guild - Capital District Chapter
NYCLU-Capital District Chapter
NYS Coalition Against Sexual Assault
NYS Coalition for Criminal Justice
NYS Coalition Against Domestic Violence
NYS Commission on Corrections
NYS Defender's Association
NYS Division of Parole
NYS Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives
NYS M.L.K. Commission and Institute for Non-Violence
Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action - SUNY
100 Black Men of Albany, NY, Capital Region, Inc.
Prisoner Support Network
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Dean of Students Office
Russell Sage College-Sociology Department
Schecectady County Office of Community Services
Schenectady County Human Rights Commission
Schenectady Youth for Change
School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Siena College-Sociology Dept.
Social Justice Center
Statewide Youth Advocacy
Taylor Residence Court - Troy
Trinity Institution, Inc.
Troy Area United Ministries
Troy Boys & Girls Club
Troy Rehabilitation & Improvement Program
United Tenants Association
Urban League of the Albany Area
Women's Building, The
Bees
ee
Why a Community Conference on Youth and SCHEDULE
the Law? , ‘
8:00 - 9:30 Registration and Refreshments
9:30 - 10:00 Welcome: Alice P. Green, Executive
Director, The Center for Law and Justice, Inc.
10:00 - 11:00 -Youth Speak - ( Dramatic
Performance and Panel Discussion by area high school
and college students)
As we rapidly approach the 21st Century, it has become
clear that we are losing too many of our children and
youth to crime, violence, drugs, poverty, and despair.
While affecting parts of all our communities, these ills
are visited most viciously upon a disproportionate
number of African American and Latino children, This is
primarily due to racism, bad social policies, failed school
systems, poor housing, the proliferation of guns, and
ineffective juvenile and criminal justice systems. They
have created an environment in which:
+ Nearly half of all African American and Latino
children in large urban schools drop out by the age of 16.
* Every 6 hours a child of African heritage dies from
11:00 - 12:00 -Response: Dr. Frankie Bailey, School
of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Brian Wright, Schenectady County Office ofCommunity
Services
12:00 - 1:00 LUNCH BREAK- Lunch,
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The Fourth Annual Community Conference whose theme
is "Youth and the Law: Problems and Solutions” is called A. Juvenile Justice - What Does it Mean? :
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firearms. information Booths, Vendors, Entertainment (Music and i U> =
+ 85% of youngsters in NYS Division for Youth Dance) m g Ef a a
custody are African American or Latino. a 2s
wat AIDS Workshop - "How to Talk to Your Children oe TAY g = ho
Our communities, fearful that violence and crime will About AIDS” - Yvonne Goodbee, Cornell Cooperative pO xz 8 ic Fe
engulf us all, too often embrace punitive incarceration as Extension 5 3 > = 3 s
the only answer. But the increased incarceration of our eo Ss 4 f
young people has failed to deter youth crime or violence. 1:00 - 1:15 Award Ceremony - Presentation of the w de g. 3 wy .
We must come to understand that imprisonment of "Frederick Douglass Struggle for Justice Award” by the SR we BES a
individuals will not address the root causes of the crime Honorable Michael Brown, Alderman, Albany Common ~ So 3 R
and delinquency which result in large measure from flawed Council 3 § a Z 4
social policies. 1:20 - 2:50 Workshops: -] 2 os 38 N
4 =
A
fe =
to: Discussion of the System, how it functions, and
*Promote understanding of the complex recommendations for change
problem facing our youth and their relationship to the
juvenile and criminal justice systems.
*Conduct an intergenerational dialogue that
will lead to the adoption and use of concrete solutions
and strategies that will address the societal and spiritual
problems facing our youth and communities.
*Adopt and embrace a set of community action
plans and strategies thought useful in addressing the
crisis before us.
B. Prevention and Societal Survival Skills
for Youth - Strategies for avoiding and surviving
those forces that impinge upon the healthy development
of youth.
3:00 - 4:30 Workshops:
C. Programs that Work -
Sharing and Learning to Prevent and Treat
Presentation of local model youth programs that prevent
Planning Committee Coordinators: and treat.
D. Legal Rights Workshop - Presentation by local
mansaaga of We ag ates emg Say Severe ™
area
4:30 - $:00 - Summary & Action Agenda for
Change
Wanda Stratton (Albany)
Donald Tutt (Rensselaer)
BrianWright (Schenectady)
NOLLVULSIOda
uo aousIeyuO AuNUTWOD lLNSIq jerides penuuy quno
SUOTINJOS PUL SUIIIGOIg :ME] UL FY YN}. wy L
a
sorsny [BUMUILD pue owt)
IN AS MUCH AS YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN,
YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME. (Matthew 25:40)
JESSIE DAVIS
On July 8, 1984, Jessie Davis was shot and killed by Albany police officers who broke down the door of his
apartment with guns drawn. He was accused of no crime and the police had no warrant to arrest him.
A closed Albany County grand jury cleared the five officers involved in the Davis matter, but criticized three of
them for violating police procedures, They, in turn, were cleared by a state arbitrator.
Mr. Davis’ sister, Louise Thornton, filed state and federal civil rights lawsuits against the City of Albany and
the police officers in order to establish that Mr. Davis was the victim of excessive force and was illegally shot to
death. Since there are no witnesses for Jessie Davis to establish what actually happened, the event must be
reconstructed based on photographs, such as the one above, and other physical evidence that must be inter-
preted by experts. Jessie Davis’ family is poor and cannot afford such experts.
The photograph above was discovered only recently in police files. It was not shown to members of the Grand
Jury. Why? Police claimed that they shot Mr. Davis because he attacked them with a knife and fork. In this pic-
ture, taken by a police officer only minutes after Mr. Havis was shot and lay dying, he is pictured with a toy
truck and key case in his hands. How can this be explained? The family and the community want to know.
Now we are told that the trial will commence on September 16th in Syracuse, 4 decision that will pose addi-
tional hardships on the poor plaintiffs.
The City of Albany will pay any and all legal and court expenses for the police officers. Mr. Davis’ family
has no money. We, who believe in justice, must come to their aid. The poor should not be denied justice.
YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE. (john 8:32)
“Let us be dissatisfied until from every city ball, justice will roll down like waters
and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Double Your Contribution to Honor Dr. King:
Support the Lincoln Park Memorial AND The Jessie Davis Fund!
The life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. calls out to be honored and remembered in many ways. One inspiring and fitting
tribute is the King memorial monument being constructed in Lincoln Park by the memorial committee. This monument
will be a visible reminder of the contributions of Dr. King and the civil rights movement. The monument also will serve as
an ongoing expression of the commitment of the people of Albany to keep Dr. King’s dream and vision alive.
The upcoming trial in the Jessie Davis case presents another opportunity to honor Dr. King and to create a ‘‘living’’
memorial to his commitment to justice. Jessie Davis’ family seeks their day in court to publicly establish the truth about
what happened to him on July 8, 1984. The only surviving witnesses are the police officers themselves. All legal pro-
ceedings so far have been closed to the public. The recent revelation of a photograph showing the dying Jessie Davis
clutching not the knife and fork claimed by the officers, but a small toy truck and key case, has raised many questions
concerning the truth of what happened to Mr. Davis.
if Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, he would likely be found among those who are pressing for justice in the Jessie
Davis case. Dr. King, who was always willing to speak the truth to those in power, would likely agree that the police story
of the events of July 8, 1984 does not make sense, that there must have been alternatives available to the police other than
to shoot and kill Mr. Davis.
Dr. King would be honored by the City's dedication of a monument in Lincoln Park, but also would want his life to be
remembered for his willingness to assist those who sought justice, even under difficult circumstances.
Please join in this additional tribute to Dr. King by contributing to the ‘‘Jessie Davis Fund.” The community in Albany has
already raised significant funds to assist in this lawsuit. The Albany NAACP has donated and raised over $1500 and has
also arranged for the services of a stenographer to help with the many pretrial depositions necessary in preparing this
case. The Center for Law & Justice has also raised funds. However, much more is needed in order to make sure that the
truth about the events of July 8, 1984 can be brought out.
As Dr. King said, ‘*. .. we are still challenged to be dissatisfied. Let us be dissatisfied ... until justice will roll down like
waters from a mighty stream.’’ We can only add, ‘‘Let us be dissatisfied until the truth about how and why Jessie Davis
was killed can come out publicly and let us show our dissatisfaction by making sure that the family of Jessie Davis is pro-
vided the resources needed to have their day in court!”
SUPPORT THE MONUMENT AND THE ‘‘LIVING’’ TRIBUTE TO DR. KING!
CONTRIBUTE TO THE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE AND TO THE JESSIE DAVIS FUND!
Yes, | want to promote justice. Here is my tax-deductible donation.
NAME ee = ae ¥ mi
(Last) (First) , (ML)
ADDRESS Sea oe
(Street)
(City) ~ (State) : "(dip Code)
DONATION
Please make checks or money orders payable to:
Jessie Davis Fund
c/o The Center for Law and Justice, Inc.
Pine West Plaza #2
Washington Avenue Extension
Albany, New York 12205
Phone: (518) 427-8361
THE CENTER
FOR LAW
That Justice is a blind goddess Alice P. Green, Ph D & J USTICE, Inc.
Is a thing to which, we black are wise EA he Center fr Law and Justice
} ) ; ] sores ine West
Her hi two fe estering Washington Avenue Extension
That once per haps were eyes. Albany, New York 12205
(518) 427-8361
Langston Hughes
gi 58
Ea 3 3 Community Education
PiOos Mobilization & Empowerment
3 § @ § Change in Criminal Justice
onvenagnenennanererns *
The Center for Law and Justice is a
minority-operated, community-based
organization founded in 1985. Its purpose
is to provide information, technical
assistance and advocacy that promote the
empowerment of disenfranchised com-
munities to effectively address problems
of crime and criminal justice policy.
THE PROGRAM
¢ Community Education—the center
organizes conferences, publishes a
newsletter, serves as a clearing-
house for criminal justice infor-
mation and issues.
* Advocacy—the center conducts work-
shops on legal rights, evaluates
complaints of bias, promotes crime
prevention and the use of alterna-
tive sentencing, and assists individuals
who have been arrested or convicted.
e Promotion of Change—the center
monitors criminal justice legislation,
coordinates community activity to
promote changes in the system and
provides liaison between the community
and prisons.
THE CENTER FOR LAW & JUSTICE, Inc.
ene
THE PROBLEM
The disenfranchised Black and Latino
communities are in crisis—suffering from
poverty, crime, and drugs. The future
holds little hope as long as society con-
tinues to respond with incarceration,
ignores the need for effective treatment
and crime prevention and overlooks
community-based programs that could
help people in trouble become productive
members of society.
Young Black men are more than 23
times more likely than young white men
to be incarcerated in New York State.
Young Latino men in the state are more
than 11 times more likely to be in-
carcerated than young white men.
Asa result, nearly 85 percent of the
prison population in New York State is
Black or Latino.
The disproportionate incarceration of
Black and Latino men, as well as women
and juveniles, generates enormous social,
fiscal, and political costs; it destroys
families; it deepens poverty, anger and
despair; and it robs the community of
potential leaders.
The criminal justice system's response
to the crisis in poor, urban communities is
not working. Communities must recognize
against inequities in the criminal justice
system that exacerbate its impact. The
Center for Law and Justice exists to coor-
dinate this community mobilization.
ao Re Pane gee SN ENT a a nT Oe CONT ET UT ON TTT ON EN I A LC OU TT eR OT OU I aS I TE ET ENTE a I I TN ENE Le STE Am BO ae ET TOMI TENET TH Nt Nee ye ENO Dra NUT
aadiiaalt
THE SOLUTION
If you need information or assistance with
a criminal justice problem, contact the
Center for Law and Justice.
As an individual:
* if you were arrested and subjected to
brutal treatment by the police or other
law enforcement officials
e if you are being prosecuted for a crime
and are not getting adequate legal repre-
sentation
¢ if you are in jail and have a complaint
about jail conditions
As a member of a community group
e if you need a speaker on criminal justice
or minority topics
¢ if you need information on bias in the
criminal justice system
¢ if you need to coordinate activities
related to criminal justice change
As a volunteer:
¢ if you are committed to promoting
justice in our society
¢ if you want to find out how you can help
* if you wish to become a member
Get in touch with
Alice P. Green, Ph D
The Center for Law and Justice
Pine West Plaza#2
Washington Avenue Extension
Albany, New York 12205
(518) 427-8361
"The Center serves a critical
purpose in helping the black
community reclaim its men from
the prison system."
Jamie Denard, President
Urban League of Northeastern New York
"The Center has given the
Capital District bold focus and
direction to the issues of racial bias
in policing and the courts. Under the
capable direction of Alice Green, the
Center never falters in its quest for
peace and justice."
Capital District Coalition Against
Apartheid and Racism
"Since I have come in contact
with the Center for Law & Justice,
I have learned of the bias against
people of color. But, in the 90's,
things are changing, and we must rid
the criminal justice system of bias.”’
Doreen Sheldon
Community Resident
MEMBERSHIP
The Center for Law & Justice, Inc.
welcomes memberships, donations
and volunteers.
All donations are tax deductible.
For additional information, please
contact the Center at
(518) 427-8361
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Lucia Alcantara
Dr. Frankie Bailey
Collie F. Brown
Ralph Byrd
Dr. Gloria DeSole
Eddie Ellis
Dr. Alice P. Green
Carol Hausen
Rev. Henry E. Johnson
Howard Kahn
Larry Mauldin
Patricia Murray
Carmelo Rivera
Charles Touhey
Raymond Walker
Larry White
Jane Wylen
LEGAL ADVISORY
COMMITTEE
Ralph Byrd, Chairperson
Mark Mishler
Deborah Reyes
Mylo Eytina
Marty Rosenbaum
Serena Stier
Jean Thelwell
Alice P. Green, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Center for Law & Justice, Inc.
Pine West Plaza, Building 2
Washington Avenue Extention
Albany, New York 12205
Telephone: (518) 427-8361
Fax: ($18) 427-8362
The
Center for
Law & Justice,
Sa
The Center for Law & Justice,
Inc. is...
a community-based organization
founded in 1985 to effectively address
unfair and unjust treatment of poor
people, people of color and other power-
less groups. Supported by private dona-
tions, grants, membership dues, volun-
teers, and student interns, the Center
seeks to involve a diverse community
population toward working for change in
criminal justice policy.
The mission of the Center for
Law and Justice, Inc. is...
to promote the empowerment of individu-
als and communities to change criminal
justice policy to bring about a fair and just
criminal justice system.
The Center seeks to accomplish its
mission by pursuing three major goals:
1. Provide useful legal and criminal
justice information, referral and
education.
2. Provide client-based and group-
based advocacy that addresses
criminal justice issues.
3. Encourage and support organized
community action programs
directed toward criminal justice
and social change.
a, : 4
The Center's programs and
activities include:
»
*
‘The Center provides criminal justice informa-
tion to individuals, organizations and communi-
ties.
oJ
As a referral and intake resource, the Center
handles over 1500 requests for information and
service on an annual basis, These requests CON-
cem issues of public defense, policing, correc-
tions, courts, legal rights, discrimination, ete.
”
Community education efforts focus on the devel-
opment and implementation of legal rights work-
shops, conferences, meetings, panel discussions,
speeches, syMposia, publication of a newsletter,
and prison seminars on employment discrimina-
tion and legal remedies. These offerings are made
available to schools, colleges, public and private
agencies, professional organizat ions, prisons, and
community groups such as public housing resi-
dents,
°
Field Placement
Field placement activities provide internship
opportunities for college students of law, social
welfare, criminal justice, sociology. and other
areas of study.
Support and technical assistance allow for the
provision of information, and the use of effective
strategies by community groups and organiza-
tions seeking to address problems of crime and
criminal justice policy.
csi LARC
Over the course of recent years,
the Center’s more notable activ-
ites have included the following:
Annual Capital District C ommunilty
Conference (1 991, 1992)
« Over 50 groups represented in conferences
that focused upon significant crime and
criminal justice issues.
» Over 400 participants attended from the
Capital District community and neighbor-
ing states.
Prison Legislative Conference
« | Three conferences were planned, devel-
oped and implemented. These forums
have served as a vehicle to bring together
state prisoners, community groups, and
members of the New York State Black and
Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus.
Grant Awarded
* Awarded a grant in 1992 from the “Holding
Our Own” project to develop and publish a
resource packet for female prisoners and
parolees returning to ihe community.
Coalition for Community Action
+ Planned, organized and administered the
development of the Capital District
Coalition for Community Action Against
Racism and Violence (CAARV). CAARV
is aconstructive community response to the
Rodney King verdict, and local crime and
criminal justice problems.
What You Can Do
It is time for us to cash in on hard-won
We encourage concerned people to
take three steps:
e Communicate with candidates across
the nation asking them to pledge to
focus on this new criminal justice
law.
¢ Communicate with media figures
across the nation, challenging them
during the election campaigns to
focus on this human rights and
criminal justice law.
Please send us copies of your efforts in
this campaign, which we will share with
others.
e Collect information on police
brutality and government response,
on access to counsel and
interpreters in criminal trials, on
prison conditions and programs, and
on efforts to meet the new
standards, for inclusion in a critique
of the first U.S. human rights report
to the UN in September 1993.
Please send us copies for our critique.
SAMPLE ACTIVIST LETTER TO
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Dear [Candidate]:
If you are elected, you will solemnly swear to
“take care that the laws be faithfully
executed,” as required by the Constitution.
The International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights requires the President to
protect the rights of all who come into contact
with the criminal justice system--arrestees,
defendants, prisoners. And it requires the
President to appoint a member to the UN
Human Rights Committee.
The Senate ratified the Covenant on April 2,
1992 (Cong Rec S 4783-4784), effective
September 5, 1992.
Enforcement of this human rights and
criminal justice law, and appointment of a
strong criminal justice advocate to the UN
Committee, is essential to our future--as
individuals and as a nation.
Let the voters know your commitment to
carry out the law and make the ICCPR the
new standard for the American criminal
justice and penal system. We have a right to
know your views on enforcing human rights
for all.
Sincerely,
City, State, Zip
Ss aeememeiemmennneeeetieeteemaaeimenienemetaa
Bush for President
1030 15th Street, N.W., 12th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 336-7080
Clinton Committee
P.O, Box 615
Little Rock, AR 72203
(501) 372-1992
YAMUING LES
255°
House Office Buildin
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3121
Candidates/Senators
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3121
WE CAN HOLD THEM
ACCOUNTABLE!
RREKREKRREEARAEENRREREREE RE
*
*
*
This leaflet was .
produced by the :
Meiklejohn Civil Liberties
Institute and is
distributed in the
Captial District by the:
&
*
*
*
*
*
M4
CAPITAL DISTRICT ¢
COMMITTEES OF *
CORRESPONDENCE *
P.O.Box 6811 *
Ft. Orange Station s
Albany, NY 12206 ‘
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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+
*
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t ,
KRENEK RE HR AE
WE CAN USE
THE NEW LAW
TO PROTECT
¢« VICTIMS OF
POLICE
MISCONDUCT
¢ CRIMINAL
DEFENDANTS
¢ PRISONERS
Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Box 673, Berkeley, CA 94701-0673
(S10) 848-0599; Fax (510) 848-6008
A new law was passed in April of 1992
when the U.S. Senate ratified the
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR).
Cong Rec S 4783-4784 (4/2/92)
"Weekly Compilation of Presidential
Documents," Vol.28, p.1008 (6/5/92);
6 Intl. Legal Materials 368 (1967).
The ICCPR, a Senate-ratified treaty, is
part of the supreme law of the land
and should be obeyed by all U.S.
agencies: federal, state, and local.
U.S. Coast, Art. VI § 2
The United States has now agreed that
"In the determination of any criminal
charge" the accused is entitled to
counsel “without payment ... if he does
not have sufficient means to pay for it."
ICCPR Article 14 § 3
The United States has also committed
itself to provide “free assistance of an
interpreter” to any criminal defendant
needing translation.
ICCPR Article 14 § 3
During the Gulf War, and again in the
aftermath of the Rodney King verdict,
police arrested thousands on charges
ranging from looting to violating curfew.
Activists report being herded into
containment centers and given no access
to counsel.
The U.S. has now committed itself
before the international community to
reach a higher standard of treatment
for all criminal defendants.
ait
DUE PROCESS
The U.S. is committed to provide
remedies when rights of defendants or
arrestees are violated.
"[A]ny person whose rights and
freedoms as herein recognized are
violated shall have an effective remedy,
notwithstanding that the violation has
been committed by persons acting in an
official capacity.” Article 2 § 3
"Anyone who has been the victim of an
unlawful arrest or detention shall have
an enforceable right to compensation."
Article 9 § 5
These rights were already recognized in
the U.S. Constitution and 42 USC
§ 1983. The ICCPR provides for
international scrutiny of U.S. efforts to
meet these standards.
Local, state, and federal agencies should
enforce the ICCPR and effectively
compensate victims of police brutality
and prosecutorial misconduct.
The ICCPR sets specific require-
ments for due process and equal
protection, and puts the US.
criminal justice system under inter-
national scrutiny, When the ao
betrays Americans — by ‘failing
protect human rights, the TCCPR
underlines the standard we have
agreed to achieve ia our own
Constitution. :
EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
By signing the ICCPR, the United
States “undertakes to respect and to
ensure to all individuals within its
territory and subject to its jurisdiction
the rights recognized in the present
Covenant, without distinction of any
kind, such as race, color, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, —
or other status,” Anticle 2 § 1
Specifically, the composition of juries
and the instructions given to jurors
must reflect this commitment to
guarantee rights and remedies without
distinction or bias, which builds on the
U.S. Constitution equal protection
clause.
Broadly, we must work to change
sentencing guidelines and arrest profiles
to remove bias based on race, property,
or other classifications.
This law specifically requires the
President to submit his first report
to the UN Committee on Human
Rights in September 1993 on our
progress in implementing — these
important rights in our criminal
ene ane Dprsseene ts Le Poenap
“ Anicle 40, § 1
RIGHTS OF PRISONERS
Under the ICCPR, the U.S. has
recognized that "The penitentiary
system shall comprise the treatment of
prisoners the essential aim of which
shall be their reformation and social
rehabilitation,” Amticle 10 § 3
Rehabilitation clearly comes first,
although the U.S. Senate in its
ratification document recognized
“punishment, deterrence, and
incapacitation as additional legitimate
purposes for a penitentiary system.”
Maximum security prisons such as the
federal prison at Marion, Illinois, or the
soon-to-be-constructed federal prison at
Florence, Colorado, do not attempt to
meet the ICCPR standard.
The ICCPR forbids “cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment."
Although currently the U.S. is bound
only to the extent of the Sth, 8th and
14th Amendments, President Carter was
advised when he signed ICCPR in 1977
that this should be a standard which
the U.S. seeks to meet.
We must demand that prison
administrators provide training and
rehabilitation programs and work to bring
recidivism rates down for the good of
society.
FRONT PAGE
| N >
= ee ee
THE Sun
JANUARY 9, 1994
Guns tn the
Capital Region
By KATE GURNETT
Gazette Reporter
LBANY — The Dec.
7 Long Island Rail
Road rampage left
six dead and 17 wounded. It
took three minutes.
: Exactly one week later, a gunman in an Aurora, Colo,
Chuck E Cheese's restaurant shot five people in the head,
pee four. Killing time: 6 minutes.
Suninute shooting spree in a San Francisco law office
in July left eight dead and six wounded.
In each case, angry gunmen vented their rage with
eS ee firearms.
udent.
“ gga eee senior at Burnt Hills-Baliston Lake High
Schoo! put a 22-caliber rifle to his head and killed himself
at the playground of Charlton Heights Elementary School
ov, 2, 1993.
“a An estranged husband armed with a 12-gauge shotgun
killed his wife and mother-in-law in Moreau on Nov. 6, 1993.
Guns helped make these events happen. Unlike other
weapons, they are efficient, quick — and often final.
Most people who own guns do so without incident. The
National Rifle Association repeatedly argues that guns
don't kill, people do,
In Pein sir Simon’s Rock faculty member Nancy
Yanoshak had this comment.
“People with guns kill people faster,
See GUNWORLD’, Page 3
Profles....... Pages 3,5, 7,9, 11, 12
The Independent Voice of the Capital Region
|
By KATE GURNETT
Gazette Reporter
panini einaannainan ope nnenny ntinnnynaunanevieyviewntenannnr nrannnarnnasnanyramnrmamens <sarmeantat!
LBANY — 4 a.m. Crack! Pop! Pop!
Gunshots on North Swan Street wake
John Williams inside his apartment,
Diving to the floor, he rolls to a table, pulls
down a knife and clenches it between his teeth.
“I just dug in like I was in the field ready for
war,” the year-old former soldier said a few
days later. “Like, where’s my grenades
He laughed. “I started flipping out.
A waning crack cocaine high aggravated his
panic,
Those who died of gunshots loc
rae
Residents want foot patrols... . . Page 4
iitegal gun trade flourishes... .. . Page 4
| History of a murder weapon... . . Page 5
| Gung part ofdrugtade........ Page 6
LEWIS L. BURKETT
ADS mags
The stray bullet entered an apartment house
Where two girls, ages 6 and 13, slept, according to the
sirls’ mother, a woman who only identified herself
“So I crawled to the dresser and got another
hit,” he said.
Appliances and bottles he collects fill the
basement flat his friends call “the dungeon.”
Weeks earlier, three men stormed his place,
robbing him at gunpoint.
His reaction’
“1 was going to get me a pistol —- or an M-16
[rifle] or rocket launcher.”
Outside, North Swan Street climbs north
from Clinton Avenue, peaks on Arbor Hill and
levels off at Livingston Avenue, a quarter-mile
stretch intersected by First, Second and Third
streets.
AC x
Wee Hb 8 ites
DAY GAZETTE
$y
SCHENECTADY, N.Y.
x NE Sep Sp. AY .
Gis APAL LC)
A hodgepodge of red, yellow and green two-
story apartment buildings crowds four short
blocks with 14 iron-barred store fronts and va-
cant dirt lots,
Here, even the second-floor windows are
guarded by metal mesh.
Crack cocaine is a main source of employment.
And violence is a part of life.
By day, children in orange and lime-green
outfits dart around corners while slow-moving
senior citizens walk to Franze’s grocery or
Dargan Health & Beauty Supply
See DRUGS, Page 2
Cr OA ALOU AEL 7
ally in 1993
Prosecutor Michael McDermott said he did not op
pose Blair's release because the witnesses had al
tered their stories so dramatically, One witness who
ROY -- On Sept. 14, someone fired a handgun 4% Sue. Sue said she planned to leave the house be told police he saw Blair shoot Burkett subsequently,
. bf art: 4 . rs ° ® aie " - i ’ . : ae"
Shee
S Taiys Fy 5) iy
A day in the life of N. Swan Street
~ In the Capital Region, our tragedies have occurred on a
smaller scale. But the region is starting to see gun-related
problems that tear at the fabric of society.
® An 18-year-old student armed with an assault rifle
allegedly opened fite at Simon's Roek College of Bard in
Great Barrington, Mass., on Dec. 14, 1992, killing a professor
and a student.
* A 17-year-old senior at Burnt Hills-Balliston Lake High
School put a .22-caliber rifle to his head and killed himself
at the playground of Chariton Heights Elementary Schoo!
on Nov, 2, 1993.
® An estranged husband armed with a 12-gauge shotgun
killed his wife and mother-in-law in Moreau on Nov. 6, 1993.
Guns helped make these events happen. Unlike other
weapons, they are efficient, quick — and often final.
Most people whe own guns do so without incident. The
National Rifle Association repeatedly argues that guns
“ i
SEPA ALES
APACS?
A day in the life of N. Swan Street
By KATE GURNETT
Gazette Reporter
LBANY — 4 a.m. Crack! Pop! Pop!
Gunshots on North Swan Street wake
, John Williams inside his apartment
Diving to the floor, he rolls to a table, pulls
down a knife and clenches it between his teeth.
eee Cen ee ee es ciash earl
“So I crawled to the dresser and got another
hit,” he said.
Appliances and bottles he collects fill the
basement flat his friends call “the dungeon.”
Weeks earlier, three men stormed his place,
robbing him at gunpoint.
His reaction?
“I was going to get me a pistol — or an M-16
A hodgepodge of red, yellow and green two-
story apartment buildings crowds four short
blocks with 14 iron-barred store fronts and va-
cant dirt lots.
Here, even the second-floor windows are
guarded by metal mesh.
Crack cocaine is a main source of employment.
And violence is a part of life.
' le do. “] just dug in like I was in the field ready for [rifle] or rocket launcher.” By day, children in orange and lime-green
= kill rng ct Rock faculty member Nancy war,” the 34-year-old former soldier said a few Outside, North Swan Street climbs north outfits dart around corners while slow-moving
Yanoshak had this comment: days later. “Like, where's my grenades?" from Clinton Avenue, peaks on Arbor Hill and senior citizens walk to Franze’s grocery or
a “spoon re ” He laughed. “I started flipping out ” levels off at Livingston Avenue, a quarter-mile Dargan Health & Beauty Supply.
See ‘GUNWORLD’, Page 3
A waning crack cocaine high aggravated his
panic.
stretch intersected by First, Second and Third
streets.
(/
See DRUGS, Page 2
Tk Paengeewe = dey vy
ProMee. ess Pages 3, 5,7, 9, 11, 12
Residents want foot patrols... . . Page 4
itegal gun trade flourishes... ... Page 4
History of a murder weapon. ... . Page 5
Guns part of drug trade. ....... Page 6
A drug gunman’s story ........ Page 6
Advocates seek responsible use ... Page 7
State wresties with gun control. .. Page &
The governor's proposals... ... Page 9
Kids are carrying guns ........ Page 10
Fighting youth violence........ Page 10
Guns central to U.S. culture... . Page 12
A pian to reduce aggression... . Page 12
ALT merge
CE wt 4
Those who died of gunshots locally in 1993
LEWIS L. BURKETT
Tine - On Sept. 14, someone fired a handgun
in a Fifth Avenue parking lot. Some of the bul-
lets hit Lewis L. Burkett, while at least one
bullet entered a house across the street where two
children slept.
The children were not hurt, but Burkett, 27, of 936
Albany Ave., Brooklyn, died about 30 yards from the
spot where another young Brooklynite was fatally
shot almost exactly two years before.
Chappale Webb, 16, died Sept. 13, 1991, on the
street between Jacob and Hutton streets. Troy police
said both shootings arose from drug-dealing disputes.
Burkett's death may have stemmed from a turf dis.
pute between rival drug-dealing factions, said
Detective Set. Anthony Magnetto.
BETTY CONLEY
HARLTON —- Betty Conley lost her life for
about $100.
That's all the money Saratoga County sher-
iff's deputies say was in the cash drawer of the X-tra
Mart convenience store on Route 67 in Chariton,
where Conley was working the overnight shift the
morning she was murdered.
On June 8, just a few hours after she began her
shift —- and only six weeks after she began working
at the store —~ the 37-year-old Providence mother of
two was siain by a single bullet to the back of the
head at about 2:10 a.m. during a robbery of the store.
Her killer has not been caught.
Neighbors and relatives of Conley in this rural
The stray bullet entered an apartment house
where two girls, ages 6 and 13, slept, according to the
girls’ mother, a woman who only identified herself
as Sue, Sue said she planned to leave the house be-
cause of drug dealing on her block and the gunfire
that comes with it.
Police believe a 38-caliber semiautomatic pistol
was used in the shooting, but the weapon was not re-
covered,
Police accused Nailon M. Blair, 17,
Livingston Ave., Albany, of shooting Burkett
Blair was charged with second-degree murder
and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon,
both felonies.
Blair was released on his own recognizance Nov. 8
because the district attorney's office had not pre-
sented the murder case to a grand jury within the 45
days required by law.
of 123
Saratoga County community continue to wonder how
a life so valuable to them could have been taken in
such a cheap, senseless crime.
“It's always somebody else you read about in
Albany and the big city,” said John Tranka, Conley's
next-door neighbor on South Line Road. “This
makes you realize that you are a lot more vulnerable
than you thought.”
“You could accept an accident more than you
could accept something like this,” said Mike
Staber, who worked with Conley at the Cock & Bull
restaurant, one of several jobs held by the woman,
tay he described as easy-going and family-orient-
ed.
“She was the most ambitious and kind-hearted la-
(ty you'd know. She was just motivated to do every-
thing,” Tranka said.
Prosecutor Michael] McDermott said he did not op-
pose Blair's release because the witnesses had al
tered their stories so dramatically. One witness who
told police he saw Blair shoot Burkett subsequently
said it was not Blair, McDermott said
Although Blair was released on the murder
charge, he was sent back to the Rensselaer County
Jail the same day on unrelated drug charges.
Magnetto said police want to arrest other suspects
who were with Blair when he allegedly pulled the
trigger at about 12:30 a.m.
Magnetto said police have a hard time sorting out
drug crimes. Finding out about victims and suspects
alike is difficult in a drug culture in which people
have no roots and change identities frequently
Magnetto said police know little of Burkett’s back
ground. The victim had married recently and had a
child. He had no criminal record.
Conley’s death came at a time when her life was
just beginning to grow, friends say.
Conley, who had become interested in gardening
from working part-time at her neighbor Tranka’'s
nursery, had decided to take the job at the conve-
nience store to help save money to study horticul-
ture in the fall.
She wanted to continue her education after just
recently receiving her high school equivalency
diploma.
While saving money for her own education, she al-
so wanted to do the same for her daughter, Linda, 17,
who had just graduated from Galway Central High
School with plans to become the first in the family to
go to college.
More PROFILES, Page 3
Shoot. I
Continued from Page |
On Sunday, well-dressed church-go-
ers at the Bethany Baptist Church
might be reminded of Saturday night
as they step over blood spilled on the
sidewalk.
At night, hustlers and partiers fill
the narrow, littered blocks, drinking
40-ounce bottles of beer or Seagrams
gin im paper bags. Skinny, gold-
toothed teen-agers carry more cash
than their parents earn in a week.
They buy drugs. They shoot craps.
They tell loud jokes and get high. And
they fight.
But in the past four years a glut of
guns — the crack trade's deadliest
tool — has altered the street, bringing
menace and fear, residents say.
“Everyone's got a gun,” said Born, a
Swan Street drug dealer, (The Gazette
is referring to him by a ficticious
street name.) “They're easy to find
and they're cheap to buy. And if you
mess around you'll get shot. I live up
here, I work up here and I play up
here. And I pack mine.”
Citywide, gun-related police calls
rose 105 percent from 320 in 1989 to
655 in 1992, the last year for which sta-
tistics are available. That means an
average of nearly two calls a day,
though much of the action takes place
in the summer, when police can field
as many as a dozen calls on a week-
end,
North Swan Street generated more
— gun calls than any other spot in
innocent victims
While most agree gunfire is limited
to rival drug dealers, there are inno-
cent victims:
®@ Marilyn Robinson, 22, of Sche-
nectady took a bullet in the head as
she left a Caribbean Night party at
the T C Club at 36 N. Swan St. Dec. 1,
1991. Three gunmen fired eight shots.
Their targets — Sam Cassell and Paul
“Demus” Miller, high-level Jamaican
marijuana dealers in a turf war with
Albany dealers — escaped injury, po-
lice said.
Robinson had just met Cassell and
Miller minutes before she was kill-ed.
@Gavin Lee Franklin, 25, was
dragged from his bed and shot once in
the back of the head, execution-style,
in his mother’s second-floor apart-
ment at 59'AN. Swan St. on March 10,
1992. Police believe Franklin's older
brother, Ricky “Jah” Durham, owed
money to a New York City cocaine
supplier, They found several ounces
of the drug in the apartment.
“The activities hurt
*
common sentiment: These days, she
said, “it's best to stay in your own
house.”
Guns make firefighter paramedics
cautious when called to the block.
“You try to watch who's walking
around and use common sense. You
don't start getting too personal. You
just keep the questions to medical
treatment and you keep watching the
crowd,” said William Tobler, presi-
dent of the Albany Permanent
Professional Firefighters Association.
Firefighters want the city to remove
the badges from their uniforms s0
they aren't mistaken for police.
Police at disadvantage
Even police have problems on
North Swan Street.
“It’s the toughest street in the city
to police,” Detective Kenneth Ken-
nedy said. “It’s so small. And if you
have illegal activity up there, there's
no way to get to that street without
ljookouts seeing you first. It's on the
top of that hill and it’s narrow, $0 if
you're in a police car you get jammed
up in traffic.”
For most residents, foot patrols are
part of the answer
“You need neighborhood police,
not somebody riding through the
area” in a car, said Headley. “You
need the same officers, day in, day
out, to create some type of rapport
with the community.”
Gunfire is particularly alarming to
parents and the elderly
Fear kept one mother of four from
letting her children out of the house
at Swan and Third streets.
DEAD ENDS
“Some of the kids are mean and
they're vicious. And they place no val-
ue on life or property,” former 3rd
Ward Alderman Nebraska Brace said.
Brace’s wife, Anne Marie Brace,
runs Anne Marie's Final Touch hair
salon in a gray-brick yault of a build-
ing at Third and Swan.
Here, crack dealers crowd the cor-
ner day and night, oblivious to a large
sign on the wall above their heads. It
reads:
“Warning, Persons seen loitering on
this corner or near this building will
be singled out as drug dealers or buy-
ers. Nebraska.”
“A lot of times | go out and ask
them to move. But that gets tiresome,”
Anne Marie Brace said. “And I don't
always feel safe.”
“You can feel it. People just don't
brandish {guns), They don't show it,
but you know they have it,” Nebraska
Brace said. “It’s to the point now
where people are afraid to come to
Swan Street,”
Despite the warnings, dealers use
the salon outer wall to store their
“bumpies,” small bits of crack. After
tearing down a fence, they carved hid-
ing spots by ripping bricks out of the
wall,
9 am. North Swan Street is nearly
deserted as Katherine Jordan, 17,
walks to her office job under a cloudy
sky, quiet and precise in a beige
pantsuit, her hair ina soft bun.
A young boy in a baggy white T-
shirt and blue jeans climbs the hill
from First to Second streets, Two ear-
ly-bird dealers beckon to passing mo-
torists at Third Street.
Jordan is a college-bound honor
student. The crack dealers will match
her weekly minimum-wage salary this
morning.
When Jordan moved in with her fa-
ther last March, he gave her a firm,
but simple warning:
“Don't speak to anyone on the
street.”
“action. Boom, boom. Shoot, |
jumped right into the frying pan when
1 moved over here,” said Jordan, who
had lived with her mother in
Rensselaer
“You don't hear it in Rensselaer,”
she said, smiling behind large glasses.
“TH tell you the truth. I was scared
over here.”
Kids drawn in
Seeing S-year-old children outside
at 2 in the morning bothers Jordan
the most. “And the parents have the
kids carry drugs. I think that’s sad.”
“If T had a choice I would not live
here. You wouldn't see me," she
added. “I think everyone would move.
{ don’t_know about the {dealers} be-
niente a etn wena Chee SELMA. *
ambitions, your place to exchange
ideas — maybe not always good, but
there is a social interaction that goes
on,” he said.
‘It's harmony,” Chuck
said
Traynham, 44, who stops on the block
each day after work. “Everyone sticks
together around here.”
4 p.m, Contractor Amos Carter, 49,
Drugs and guns go together on North Swan
stands in work clothes and talks to a
group of men near a grove of trees In
a dusty lot at Livingston Avenue.
Like others raised here, Carter of.
ten visits in the afternoon.
But by 6 p.m., he is gone.
“You see the time of day I'm here.
See NORTH, Page 4
boom.
Shoot. I
tne fawn va toner peed, CATY er- Ser
in his mother’s second-floor apart.
ment at 55'4 N. Swan St. on March 10,
1992. Police believe Franklin's older
brother, Ricky “Jah” Durham, owed
money to a New York City cocaine
supplier. They found several ounces
of the drug in the apartment.
“The activities on that street hurt
everybody, Not just the people that
live in that area and have to live in
that area,” said the Rev. Richard |.
Headley of Bethany Baptist Church at
Second and Swan streets. His parish-
ioners often leave church to find drug
deals “going down” on their cars, he
said.
“This is a combat zone,” said
Headley. “One only has to drive
through there. People are on the cor-
ner, and if you understand the hand
signals as you go by, [you see} what
drugs they have to sell. I do believe
that if they have to defend their terri-
tory — if that means indiscriminate
shooting — so be it.”
Guns are mostly hidden in “safe
houses.” said one member of a local
“posse,” a loose-knit gang,
“If you yell up, ‘Throw me the joint.
Throw me the toolie, they throw it to
you. That's why people are sitting in
the windows.”
Last year, an unidentified gunman
shot and slightly injured Robert Jones
in front of A& M Groceries at 2 N,
Swan St. Earlier that year, a 25-year-
old white man from Ghent, Columbia
County, blasted a shotgun into a
crowd as he drove by Catherine’s New
World Lounge at 48 N. Swan St. No
one was hurt. Police said he was retal-
iating for a drug rip-off.
Last summer, city officials shifted
North Swan's annual block party to
the Arbor Hill Elementary School two
blocks away — “to get it off Swan
Street” one officer said.
Shirley, a street hustler who fre-
quents North Swan Street, echoed a
DAVID J. ROGOWSKI
The Rev. Richard |. Headley waves
to visitors at the opening of the
new version of the Bethany Baptist
Church at Second and Swan
Next door, a rusty blue swing-set
frame rises from a weedy city play-
ground. There are no swings.
“The city doesn't even keep that
{playground} clean. There's always
broken glass and the aftermath of the
night before,” said Headley.
More than 54 percent of all police
gun calls citywide during the first sev
en months of 1993 were to this corner
The mother of four saw just one al
ternative. She moved
One older man's front door resem
bled crushed Styrofoam after street
thugs bashed it in and ripped off his
porch railings in a street fight.
“They said they'd blow my house
up” if I complained, he said. Like
many, he did not want his name pub
lished.
Minnie Littles, 85, a 40-year resi
dent of 78 N. Swan St., has never seen
a gun on the street. But her days of re
laxing on the back porch are over
“I don’t dare do that now. Too many
strangers go up and down the street
and you never know when a bullet
could come flying,” Littles said.
Merchants also suffer.
Plywood tacked over shattered
store windows is a common Sign of
“street justice.”
One shopkeeper who called police
on dealers saw her window broken
Another merchant refused to close his
store to mourn the gunshot death of a
neighborhood marijuana dealer. Two
of his windows were smashed.
CPV ED wae
Kikie drawn in
Seeing 8year-old children outside
at 2 in the morning bothers Jordan
the most. “And the parents have the
kids carry drugs, I think that's sad."
“If | had a choice f would not live
here. You wouldn't see me,” she
added. “| think everyone would move.
{ don't know about the [dealers be.
cause they're making money.” . |
Behind the immediate problems of
crack and guns, the neighborhood suf:
fers widespread unemployment, lack
of education and alienation.
. “The problem is always going to ex-
ist — as long as the people come down
to buy it, there will be people selling
it.” landlord Sal Franze said. They're
not Boing to work for $30 to $40 a day
when they can make $400 a day. It's
basie sociology.” : |
Franze whose family ran Franze’'s
market for 86 years until he sold out
last May, has trouble finding tenants
for his 39 rental units on the block
It’s been a tough grind,” he said
He said county probation officers
forbid their clients to live on North
Swan Street
Placing an addict in such a high
drug area is like “sending a pedophile
to work in a day camp,” said Albany
County Probation Director { ‘harlotte
Gray. Keeping them out avoids trou-
o for clients as well as the commu.
nity.
“People are just hanging out —
they've got nothing else to do. It's
poverty. Poverty’s a problem up
there,” said Kennedy.
Without jobs, folks gravitate to the
street to socialize
‘The more people feel hopeless
and despondent, the more they're go-
ing to take to the street,” said
Headley
“It's not only a dangerous place, it’s
a place to talk about your hopes, your
a
BRUCE SQUIERS
Crazette
Photographer
DEAD ENDS
‘Gunworld’ doesn’t spare the Capital Region
Continued from Page 1
And gun use is up, officials say.
Statewide, crimes committed with
firearms are “at record levels and
increasing steadily,” particularly in
cities, according to a 1992 state report
on gun-related violence.
In Colonie last year, four people
were killed by gunfire in the presence
of police ~~ three of them suicides.
Another 15 people were gunned down
in the Capital Region last year. In
some cases, violent relatives fired the
shots. In others, a careless friend,
drug rival or robber pulled the trig-
ger. In several cases, victims killed
themselves during confrontations
with police.
There were three gun homicides in
Schenectady last year, up from zero in
1989. Two of those were drug-related,
Asst. Chief Louis J. Pardi said.
Albany police have seen reports of
gun activity — shootings and shots
fired, fights with a gun or people with
guns ~~ more than double, from 320 in
1989 to 655 in 1992. Actual shootings
rose 40 percent, from 25 to 35, during
that time.
Drug dealers account for some of
the increase as they arm themselves
and fight over turf with New York City
interlopers, .
One dealer, Bronx native Kenneth
“Mac” Myrick, who operated in
Albany before he was jailed here in
1991, earned his nickname by carrying
BRUCE SQUIERS
Gasette
Photographer
A school bus
turns the comer
te head south
toward Clinton
a MAC-10 assault pistol, according to
police,
Tilegal guns are brought from out-
side the state or stolen in house bur.
glaries. They fetch $50 to $1,000 on the
street, depending on the quality
Others, like illegal sawed-off shot.
guns, are bought legally, then altered
for quick concealment.
But the drug world accounts for a
small percentage of gun violence. A
much more common contributor is al-
cohol — a factor in more than 60 per-
cent of American homicides.
Carl Murtagh, 31, was blind drunk
when he shot at his parents and po-
lice and killed himself in Gloversville
on Aug. 15, according to the coroner.
In response to the violence, Gov.
Mario Cuomo urged tough anti-gun
measures in his State of the State ad-
dress Jan. 5.
Cuome called for a near-total ban
on assault weapons, harsher penalties
for illegal gun sales, gun sales to mi-
nors, as well as sloppy storage or han-
dling of guns.
Last month, the state Assembly
beefed up security by installing metal
detectors in its visitor's gallery, some-
thing the state Senate did years earli-
er
Government fears about workplace
violence are well founded
In five states, homicide was the No.
1 cause of workplace deaths, accord-
ing to a National Institute of Oceu-
pational Safety and Health study.
New York had 1,783 workplace
deaths between 1980 and 1989 887 of
those were murders. In the greater
New York City area, 45 percent of the
306 workers killed on the job in 1992
were homicide victims
Taxi drivers, police, retail workers
and others who handle money, work
alone or work at night. are most apt to
be slain on the job, aceording to the
study .
Meanwhile, the number of legally
owned firearms is growing, said
Walter “Bud” Blevman, resident
agent-in-charge of the US, Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office
in Albany
. While New York City keeps a reg
istry of residents who legally own ri
fles and shotguns, there is no such
registry upstate, Bleyman said
Pistol permits are administered by
each county and tracked by New York
State Police
In the Capital Region, permit ap-
provals have remained steady — 1,234
in 1991, 1.251 in 1992 and 1.146 through
November of 1993. Those totals are for
Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer.
Saratoga, Fulton Montgomery and
Schoharie counties
Women are the newest breed of gun
buyer, says Mike Spenello, hunting
manager at Taylor & Vadney Sporting
Goods in Albany :
“Most of them have joined a pistol
club or a league and they learn to
shoot and they enjoy it and they feel
comfortable having {a gun} around,”
Spenello said :
Most people buy handguns to feel
safe, Spenello said. The 9mm semiau-
tomatics made by Ruger, Smith &
Wesson and SIG-Sauer are popular.
“There is no freedom for women
who are afraid to walk alone,” de-
clared a fall 1992 NRA ad campaign
in women's magazines,
While 95 percent of Spenello’s buy-
ers are trained to use guns or have
used them before, about 5 percent
have never used a gun, he said. “They
want a home protection gun like a 12-
gauge shotgun.”
_ Tronically, sales of assault weapons
jump when gun contro! jaws are pro-
posed or publicized, Spene}jo said.
The Chinese-made AKM.47, a spin-
off of the AK-47, for example, is sell-
ing now because customers are afraid
it _ be banned in the future, he
Said,
“From a retail aspect it’s good for
us,” he added.
A study published in the Journal of
Quantitative Criminology reports that
people who use a gun to resist a rob-
bery are less likely to be- hurt than
people who do nothing to resist,
But people who keep guns in their
homes aren't necessarily safer, a 1993
study published in the New England
Journal of Medicine found.
People who keep guns at home are
nearly three times more likely to be
killed than those who don't, according
to the study, which characterized guns
as a health risk.
More than 75 percent of the victims
are killed by a spouse, relative or ac-
quaintance.
Guns in the home bring higher risks
of suicide, fatal accidents and as-
saults involving relatives or acquain-
tances, the report said.
Last month, an Orange County
woman fired her 410-caliber shotgun
at a fire chief who broke down her
door to warn her about a fire.
The chief underwent three hours of
abdominal surgery. The woman, who
was charged with attempted murder,
told police, “I was defending myself,
my possessions and my dog,” accord.
ing to the Associated Press.
About 37,000 Americans die each
year from gunshot wounds in homi-
cides, suicides and accidents, accord-
ing to Handgun Control Ine. of
Washington D.C. Another 240,000 are
injured.
That’s more Americans killed every
two years than died in the entire
Vietnam War.
Related annual hospital costs are at
least $1 billion, according to the
Journal of the American Medical
Association. Such figures have
prompted many doctors to name gun
violence as a leading national health
crisis,
“We live in Gunworld,” syndicated
columnist Garry Wills wrote after the
Long Island commuter killings last
month,
Shooting sprees often lead to more
gun deaths, experts say.
When Colin Ferguson, who faces
multiple murder charges in the Long
Island Rail Road shootings, threat-
ened a lawyer in New York weeks
ago, he spoke of the July slaughter in
which a vengeful law client killed
eight people in a San Francisco law
office, police said.
Young people are particularly vul-
nerable to violence portrayed in
movies and television, many re
searchers believe.
More than 100 characters were
killed in “Rambo IIL" Another 264
were slain in “Die Hard If.” Such car-
nage without consequences rarely
shows permanently disfigured vic-
tims, grieving families or their trou-
bled attackers.
In real life, using guns to solve
problems is more complicated.
Take Amin Cowan, 16, of Albany.
Police gave this account:
Cowan was shooting craps with
some older teens on Lark Street last
July when a player pistol-whipped
him.
To retaliate and save face, Cowan
returned to his First Street home and
got a gun.
Tucking the .38-caliber revolver in
his waist band, Cowan took off on his
bicycle. But when he hopped a curb
and landed, the cocked gun fired,
shooting him through the left testi-
cle.
The
worse,
“He was going to blast them all,”
one acquaintance said.
“We have to do something about
this,” ATF’s Bleyman said. “People
are getting slaughtered all over the
place. Because wackos and kids are
getting a hold of [guns}.”
The oft-cited NRA argument on the
“right to bear arms” is erroneous, ac-
cording to Bleyman.
Our founding fathers were “talking
about muskets. A cannon that you had
to wheel in on two wheels and pull
with a horse, not an automatic
weapon that you can stick in your
pocket and carry on a train. Don't the
innocent people have any rights any
more?”
More prisons is not the answer,
added Bleyman. Simply put, “There
are too many guns on the streets.”
Said one Aurora, Colo, Chuck E
Cheese employee: “It could happen to
anybody, any place, even at a kid's
restaurant.”
outcome might have been
imported.
BRUCE SQUIERS
Csaicette
hy itengragwer
A school bus
turns the comer
to head south
teward Clinton
Avenue on North
Swan Street, |
above. Some
vacant buildings |
on the block |
have become |
\
}
erack or
gambling
pariors, police
and residents
say. Others are
hiding spots for
egal guns or
drugs.
A young man,
right, surveys
the scene on
North Swan
Street from 4
vacant jot at
Livingston
Avenue, Out-of-
town residents
who visit the
block often drive
through to buy
drugs.
rmrmenee: Sr eeaeaaaeenbialaeial
STEVEN D. CONLON
AST GREENBUSH — Steven D. Conlon bought a
ealiber, semiautomatic rifle at Kmart on
Columbia Turnpike at 7 p.m. March 16
About three hours later, Conlon fired the Martin rifle
it two police officers and then shot himself in the head
n a back yard on Grandview Drive in North
Greenbush
The 24-year-old East Greenbush construction worker
was pronounced dead at the scene about four miles
from his Acorn Avenue home
DUANE E. JOHNSON
LBANY ~ Duane E. Johnson died in the snow,
Nine bullets riddled his body
Before he was gunned down on 4 South End
“treet corner near his childhood home on Feb. 13,
Johnson. 21, liked to party ™ ith his friends at the
Renaissance bar on Central Avenue. fis friends called
him “Freedom.”
On March 2, two weeks after bis death, Johnson's fam
iis and friends gathered at the popular nightclub to say
wibbve
foo di
her son.
straught, his mother had missed the funeral tor
The shooting ended a short life scarred by «fic
since Conton was a teen
Police said Conton’s criminal record began al ave 16
when he broke into a North Greenbush house and re
moved a handgun. He was arrested the next day afle:
firing the gun in a wooded area, Conlon was sentene vd
to three years’ probation for the burglary
Conlon’s arrest record lists 19 charges in the Capital
Region since 1985, including aggravated harassment
menacing, assault, reckless endangerment and « rind
trespass.
On March 18, a woman came to North Greenbush po
lice to lodge against Conlon charges of trespass, assault,
TEETERTECESE CELE eee
Meanwhile, police sorted rumor from fact and came
up with the following conclusions:
Johnson wasn't killed over drugs or a woman, as In
tially reported
“ft was just a fight.” said Detective Ken Wilcox. an:
ficer at the time who investigated the crime
The first scuffle broke out at the Renaissance bi:
Johnson and several friends argued with three mener
ing patrons who had bothered a female friend The trv
. high school classmates in the Bronx ~~ had relocated
to Albany to peddle crack cocaine
Days later, there was a second clash, this time at Ui
B&B Lounge on Morton Avenue.
The Bronx group vowed to “get” Johnson.
At the time, Johnson was staying with a girlfriend al
aggravated harassment and leaving the scene of an acci
dent. North Greenbush Police Chief Bernhard Peter
said,
When Conlon drove by the police station about 9:30
that night, the woman spotted him and told Officer
Robert Durivace. Durivage, who had been interviewing
the woman, got in a police car and pursued Conlon on
Blooming Grove Drive
According to police, Conlon stopped about a mile
from the police station, but sped away when Durivage
approached his rented Chevrolet. The chase continued
south on Route 4 into the town of East Greenbush,
where Conton was forced to abandon his ear because of
Kee SOE ESSERORERER REDON ERATE HECETP EET?
14 Teunis St. The New Yorkers ~ Eric “E” Benson,
Michael Lopez, and Robert “Smoke” Singleton, ~~ were
taving nearby at 5 Teunis St. :
At 320 a.m. Benson and Lopez left Teunis Street in
a taxi. Within minutes, they spotted Johnson at
Clinton Street and Third Avenue, jumped out of the
cab and opened fire, pumping nine bullets into
johnson. A bullet to the neck severed his carotid
artery, killing him :
Reports of the trio's loud laughter as they fired on
Johnson were untrue, Wilcox said. “It wasn't them
laughing,” i was an uninvolved bystander
But police made 4 chilling discovery. The shooters
arrested the next day - also planned to kill Johnson's
tnends, they say
&
Nine out of 10
illegal
handguns
confiscated by
police are
untraceable
because serial
numbers have
been filed or
drilled off, or no
record of the
gun can be
found because
a gun dealer
has gone out of
business.
a eesesconsesesgeseet
yoaeae
in 99.8
percent of the
protective uses
of guns, such
as pulling out a
gun to frighten
an attacker, no
one gets killed.
eeeeeeweseree
CRESPO EEE EE TEE STEERS ES ERH SEE EHH ERR HERE ERE ED
Cee ee ee eaeeeees
ee eee 2
eee eee
a roadblock set up by East Greenbush Police Sgt
Richard Kemner
As officers Kemner and Durivage pursued Conlon on
foot back across the town line into North Greenbush, he
fired five shots at them, all of which missed. Then he
shot himself
“I'm not aware of any suicidal pattern” in Conlon’s
life, Peter said. “There appeared to have been a pattern
that he was very disturbed.”
The rifle that Conlon bought with a credit card for
about $100 is a very popular model, often used for target
shooting and hunting small game, said East Greenbush
Police Chief Christopher Lavin.
The suspects were no strangers to crime and gunplay
Lopez, 19, has 37 prior arrests — 13 for serious
felonies, including two for attempted murder --- in New
York City. He first told police his name was Vietor
Melendez.
Benson, 21, was charged with attempted murder three
months earlier in the shooting of a well-known Arbor
Hill drug dealer.
Singleton, 22, had been charged with robbery one
month before Johnson's death.
Singleton later pleaded guilty to weapons possession
and is expected to testify against Lopez and Benson in
their murder trial later this year,
More PROFILES, Passe 5
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DEAD ENDS
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ever was.”
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Illegal weapon pipeline feeds violent crime
By TIM McGLONE
ee ere
LBANY -— Members of a
Boston-based crack cocaine
“posse” made about 30 trips to
Georgia between 1989 and the spring
of 1991.
Their mission: to buy guns for their
own protection and to sell them in the
Capital Region. All they needed were
Georgia driver's licenses.
The posse muscled its way into the
drug and weapons market in Arbor
Hill until local, state and federal au-
thorities dismantled the operation.
The five gang members have been
convicted in federal court and are
now serving lengthy prison terms.
But the guns they left behind on the
streets are contributing to a steady in-
crease in violent crime, authorities
said.
Guns are being used more often
nowadays in rapes, robberies and as-
saults, statistics show.
In one category — armed robberies
of individuals on the streets of
Schenectady County — the use of a
gun to commit the crime increased
1,000 percent over 10 years ago, ac-
cording to state statistics.
In Schenectady, Albany and
Rensselaer counties, violent crime
committed with a gun is increasing at
a faster pace than crimes committed
without guns.
One person whom authorities partly
blame for this is John Zodda.
Zodda, New York state's most noto-
rious illegal gun trafficker in recent
years, was sent to federal prison in
November for 40 months after being
convicted of illegally buying more
than 1,300 firearms.
Zodda held a federal license to buy
and sell firearms for 10 years before
he decided in the late 1980s to branch
out into the illegal gun trade.
Once he did, he transferred his li-
cense from New York City to the
Schoharie County town of Middle-
burgh, perhaps thinking it would be
more difficult to track him there, au-
thorities said. He never actually lived
there, though he worked out of a rela-
tive's home there.
He then began to sell thousands of
weapons to the Mafia, Chinese gangs
in New York City and to his associ-
ates, federal authorities said.
When federal authorities raided
the Middieburgh home, they found a
typewriter Zodda used to forge licens-
es, according to a federal agent. He
apparently used correction fluid to
blot out his name so he could type in
a fake one.
Like 80 percent to 90 percent of the
illegal guns confiscated by police, the
guns used and sold by the Boston
and those sold by Zodda came x
out of state, according to the state
Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Despite those arrests and countless
others, the illegal gun trade is flour-
ishing, local police and federal agents
said.
“Over the last 10 years, we've seen a
noticeable increase in the number of
guns on the streets,” said Walter
“Bud” Bleyman, agent-in-charge of
the Albany office of the U.S. Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Weapons that can't be traced by po-
lice agencies in northeastern New
York state, including the Capital
Region, Amsterdam and Utica, are
traced by the Albany ATF office.
“There's no limit to the number of
places guns can come from,” Bleyman
said of the legal purchases.
Law enforcement authorities say
the majority of illegal guns that end
up in the Capital Region come from
the streets of New York City.
“They're purchased illegally in
New York City, but they're purchased
legally in states where the laws are
somewhat lax,” said ATF agent
Martin Marciniak. “They come from
what { consider the source states.”
“You take states like Florida,
Virginia, Ohio, where it's relatively
easy to get a gun ... that's how the
guns get here,” Bleyman said.
“They quickly get distributed. Guns
move quick,” he said.
“We can't say it's all from New York
City,” he said, citing the Boston gang
as an example. "They come from all
over,”
There's no limit to the number of
different types of people we run into,”
he said.
“We're looking for convicted felons
who are dealing weapons; we're look-
ing for drug dealers who are dealing
weapons,” Bleyman said.
ATF also will look for gun traffick-
ers who buy guns wholesale, some-
times by the thousands, and sell them
on the streets.
Local, state and federal authorities
broke up a Jamaican organization in
Saratoga Springs in 1987 that dealt
crack and guns throughout the Capital
Region. One member was known to
carry an Uzi submachine gun.
Eight members of the gang were ar-
rested. Seven were natives of Jamaica
who moved to New York and then to
Saratoga Springs to corner the crack
market, according to trial testimony in
federal court. They had teamed up
with a Saratoga Springs native.
Authorities said the group moved
into twe homes in Saratoga Springs
and Malta from Brooklyn. During
raids at the two homes, police found
four guns, thousands in cash, 150 vials
of crack cocaine, 150 packages of co-
caine and extensive drug records.
That was one of the first organized
crack gangs to move into this area
from New York, Bleyman said. Six of
the eight\ were convicted and sen-
tenced to 20 years or more in prison.
Two were acquitted.
“We're inundated with cases, Our
caseload is heavier than it ever was,”
Bieyman said.
Most of the criminal cases today in-
volve drug dealers who also deal in
guns. That's a trend that came about
over the past 10 years. Before that,
most criminal cases involved those
who sold just guns illegally, he said.
“The magnitude of the cases has be-
come greater. What I mean is we're
seeing less of the type of individual
who makes one or two mistakes in his
life,” Bleyman said
“T'm talking about violent criminals
who are recidivists,” he said,
But Blevman is confident about his
work.
“Eventually,
caught,” he said.
When the Albany ATF office
opened 16 years ago, agents handled
15 cases in the first year.
Last year, agents forwarded 41
eriminal cases to the U.S. Attorney's
office, a record.
Local police also see the increase
in the illegal gun trade, both in the in-
crease in violent crime involving a
weapon, and in the number of guns
they are finding on criminals.
In a three week period in July,
Schenectady police found 10 hand-
guns either on suspects or at crime
scenes. Never before have city police
found so many guns in such a short
time, police said,
The increase in the use of guns in
the commission of violent crimes is
more telling.
everybody gets
Since 1982, guns have begun to ap-
pear as a factor in Schenectady
County rapes, according to state sta-
tistics.
Of the 11 rapes in Schenectady
County in 1982, none of the rapists
had a gun. Of the 46 reported rapes in
the county in 1992, six of the rapists
used a handgun.
Armed robberies in Albany County
increased at a much faster rate than
other robberies in that 10-year period.
Of the 320 robberies reported in 1982,
22 were armed robberies. Of the 561
robberies in 1992, 78 were armed.
That translates to an increase of
about 250 percent for armed rob-
beries, but only a 62 percent increase
in robberies in which guns weren't
used, according to the statistics.
Armed robberies in Rensselaer
County also increased by 250 percent
between 1982 and 1992, whereas the
number of robberies without guns
was the same, according to the statis-
tics.
Other counties in the region had too
few violent crimes to draw a compari-
son.
“] would have to say there’s more
guns out there and more violence
with guns,” said Schenectady Police
Commissioner Charles M. Mills.
Schenectady police teamed up with
ATF agents in October during an un-
dercover investigation into an illegal
gun dealer, Mills said. He would not
be more specific because of the ongo-
ing investigation.
Mills agreed that the illegal guns
generally come from out of state.
“It's virtually impossible to get a
gun permit in Schenectady County,”
he said,
Aside from bringing in an illegal
gun from out of state, the second most
common way guns get to the streets is
through burglaries and thefts, author-
ities said.
A handgun bought legally from a
wholesaler at $75 to $90 will seil ille-
gaily in New York City for $400 to
$1,000, said Marciniak.
In the Capital Region, an illegal
gun will sell for $250 to $800 on the
street, Marciniak said.
However, there are stories of guns
being traded for crack cocaine or for
small amounts of cash by an addict
looking for a fix, they said.
Eighty percent of ATF’s work has to
do with guns. The remaining 20 per-
cent of the time is spent investigating
illegal alcohol and tobacco trafficking
and arson investigations that cross ju-
risdictions, such as the 1992 Mohasco
industries arson in Amsterdam.
Agents also work undercover with
local, state and other federal law en-
forcement agencies.
Local and state police will search
the computerized data banks of the
National Crime Information Center
and the New York State Police
Information Network for stolen gun re-
ports after searching their own reports.
In one case, the gun used to kill
Eugene Holmes on Paige Street,
Schenectady, on New Year's Day 1992
was reported § stolen from = a
Schenectady resident in 1988.
Local police found the stolen gun
report and talked to the owner. The
police discovered that the man had 17
guns stolen from his home in a bur-
glary, police said.
Police passed that information
along to the ATF. Since then, five of
those guns besides the murder
weapon have been recovered.
Schenectady police found two of the
six. One was used to kill Holmes and the
other was used in a random shooting in
which no one was hurt, police said.
ATF found the other two after
shootings in New York City.
ATF becomes involved when the le-
gal owner cannot be located and the
weapon has to be traced from where it
was manufactured, or when the inves-
tigation crosses jurisdictional lines.
About a year ago. ATF and the state
police formally teamed up in a gun-
tracing program. The troopers collect
raw data on illegal guns and start a
trace, If a gun used in a crime has not
been reported stolen and is illegal.
the information is passed on to ATF
for further investigation.
ATF hopes to establish a data bank
to better see the big picture.
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out of state, according to the stat
Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Despite those arrests and countless
others, the illegal gun trade is flour-
Two were acquitted.
“We're inundated with cases. Our
caseload is heavier than it ever was,”
Bleyman said.
ATF hopes to establish a data bank
to better see the big picture.
See SMUGGLERS, Page 5
North Swan Street two worlds by day and night
Continued from Page 2
Nighttime, it changes. It's a whole dif-
ferent people. The ones out here now
won't be here at night.”
Back in the 1960s, North Swan was
integrated with Polish, Italian and
African-American residents. Leaders
at St. Joseph's Academy and the Sons
of Arbor Hill men's group were active
in the neighborhood, Carter said.
“There was none of that white-
black stuff [that] people are feeding
on now.” These days, white faces are
4
rare on North Swan Street, with the
exception of police.
Guns and drugs have brought a “to-
tal deterioration” of the street, he
said,
Still, many remain optimistic.
The street and nearby blocks sport
several new homes, new sidewalks
and brighter street lights.
The Bethany Baptist congregation
built a new church last fall. One fea-
ture is a new security system — the
church has been burglarized many
times,
Police need to forge links
BRUCE SQUIERS Gazette P: ,
Albany potice officer Robert Tierney, left, and his partner Leonard Croske cheok an Orange Street house for 4
young man they've been keeping an eye on.
“We wanted to stay in the area be-
cause there is a need, and we do have
hope that things will change,”
Headley said.
Most agree that real change can
come only through the combined ef.-
forts of community leaders, police, hu-
man service agencies and educators.
“It's not only the responsibility of
the police,” Headley said. “The eco-
nomic situation has to get better so
that young kids are not making more
money than their parents. So that par-
ents can take care of the children in-
(razette Reporter
A white-and-blue
car turns up the block,
Crack dealers scatter
MOVES on
Crack dealers come back,
head Set. John Fischer said,
cated
1992.
wide open gunfire,”
hustle belongs to us,” he added.
street and sell from either side.
rarely cooperate
+
LBANY — It's a common
sight on North Swan Street.
prowl
The police car cruises by, then
With just nine officers assigned to
foot patrols citywide, a constant
watch on North Swan Street is im-
possible, Community Police Unit
The officers work out of three
community outreach offices in the
South End, West Hill and in Arbor
Hill, where North Swan Street is lo-
But residents say a full-time offi-
cer is vital on the street that had the
most police gun-related calls in
Meanwhile, to combat the heavily
armed New York City crack dealers
coming to the Capital Region, local
drug dealers are ganging up in
“posses” and arming themselves for
protection, local law enforcers say.
“That's the only way. It keeps
peace that way,” one local gang
member said. “Otherwise, it'd be
On North Swan Street, “all the
Police say they find fewer down-
state dealers on North Swan Street
than at Lexington and Clinton av-
enues, for example, where out-of-
town and jocal peddlers split the
When shots are fired, residents
with police
“Ryeryone sticks together. They're
all getting paid” to hold drugs or
guns or work as lookouts, the posse
Stead of the children taking care of
the parents.”
Sunset. As the sun sets over the
crest of the hill, a dark, empty brick
building looms at First and Swan
streets, encircled by a freshly laid
concrete sidewalk.
Inside, prostitutes and crack deal-
ers entertain members of the under-
world on the upper floors. A wary
male lookout lurks two feet behind in
a first-floor window
Outside, a white BMW parks at the
curb. An angular young woman steps
jeopardize their livelihood?”
port with the community.”
But police don't develop relation-
ships with residents, Headley said.
outsiders.”
one local added.
change that.
continual sensitivity
Jennings said.
ing to the people.”
program.
help curb crime.
said expanding
Aid solution.
Breaking down such barriers is a
job for neighborhood police, “not
somebody riding through the area”
in a car, said the Rev. Richard I.
Headley of Bethany Baptist Church.
“You need the same officers, day in,
day out, to create some type of rap-
They're “usually very stern —
white or black. I've never seen po-
lice officers walk through Swan
Street and a bunch of kids run over
and talk to them, and they'll take
time to talk. We've never had a beat
officer trying to become a part of
that neighborhood. So now they're
Police “don't think we're human,”
Mayor Jerry Jennings hopes to
“I'm not going to tolerate that
type of treatment of anyone in the
city. [Police] rank and file will be
held accountable. There has to be
training,”
“By and large we have a good
Police Department. I want the po-
lice to feel more comfortable talk-
To achieve that, Jennings plans to
expand the city’s community police
Community policing combines
foot patrols with social programs
and other preventive measures to
In years past, city leaders had
the Community
Police Unit was too costly. Police
union leaders complained the foot
patrols were an ineffective, Band-
out. Gold beads dot her French twist
hairdo. She wears a halter top and
tight pants.
Just then, a striking, heavy woman
in a white silk dress emerges from the
seemingly vacant building. A large,
sweeping black-and-white hat shades
her brow.
The larger woman, who runs the
whorehouse, breezes to the car.
She is smiling.
She has a police record.
To many, she is the picture of suc.
cess on North Swan Street.
with the community, residents say
member said. “Why should they
“Whether some people like it or
not, [police] have to be where peo-
ple can touch them, where people
can see them, where they can com.
municate with them. blend in with
them. Until then, I feel sorry for
the street, I really do,” former 3rd
Ward Alderman Nebraska Brace
said,
Brace fought the 1986 closing of
the Arbor Hill Neighborhood Police
Unit, which residents say had left a
void. The unit had operated for 14
years.
A substitute “park, walk and talk”
program fizzled out as citywide calls
for service jumped 20 percent each
year and officers became too busy
racing to calls to get out of their
cars, Assistant Chief William M
Murray said.
Jennings plans to hire 25 more of.
ficers and use federal funds to help
expand foot patrols. Identifying
trouble spots that require foot pa-
trols, such as North Swan Street,
will be easy, he said.
Swan Street “is one of the worst.
I've walked it and I’ve driven
through there at night and I've seen
it,” said Jennings.
“What they need to do is stick a
couple of policemen on that block.
Put them there and let them stay
there,” said Gary Pickens, president
of the Colonie Street Neighborhood
Watch.
Instead, police let the dealers
“set up and keep their business.
And they do their little rounds and
every once in a while they do a raid.
And it’s not effective,” he said.
“They've got to be there 24.7 (24
hours a day, seven days a week),
When it comes to drugs and guns,
it’s not going to change unless you
have something to Stabilize it. The
neighborhood can't do all that.”
Smugglers feed
guns to region’s
violent felons
Continued from Page 4
“When we establish a
man said.
The states where it's easiest to
include Florida,
Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennes-
buy handguns
see, Ohio, and, close te home,
Vermom.
Federal agents would have
placed Virginia on the top of that
list a year ago, but tougher laws that
took effect in July will make it diffi-
cult frem now on to traffic in guns
from that state.
In 1992, 26 percent of the illegal
guns confiscated in New York state
highest
amor the top four “source states,”
Florida, Texas and
came from Virginia, the
folloved by
Geogia, according to the state po-
hee
“The Virginia State Police have
begun an initiative to work with
a#ents down there. Any intelligence
gathered there is given to New York
and vice versa,” said Bleyman. A
similar agreement has been
reached with Florida.
There are 50 ATF agents in
Rockville, Md., who do nothing but
conduct nationwide traces of illegal
guns from manufacturers to whole-
salers, When they find out where a
particular gun went, they will pass
that information along to the appro-
priate agent in the field, who then
tries to complete the trace.
Nationwide, ATF conducted
$0,000 gun traces in 1992.
One problem agents working on a
trace run into comes when a feder-
ally licensed dealer says he doesn't
keep records. Federal law requires
licensed dealers to keep records of
whom they buy firearms from and
sell to.
“You would think the people with
a license would be responsible and
keep proper records, but it doesn't
always work that way,” Bleyman
said.
He points to Zodda as a perfect
example, Zodda had a federal 1.
cense to buy and sell guns, so he
could avoid the middleman.
“He was in the firearms business
legally! for 10 years, but it wasn't
until the last few years that he
{branched} out in the illegal mar-
ket.” Bleyman said.
Once Zodda started dealing guns
iHegally, mostly in New York City,
he. transferred his license to
large
enough data bank, we'll use that in-
formation to establish trends, gather
statistics and develop leads,” Bley-
Middieburgh. However, there was
no evidence Zodda was dealing
weapons in this region, just that he
had relatives in Middleburgh and
was forging licenses there.
“He probably figured no one
up here,”
would ever check
Bleyman said
Zodda was caught selling hand-
guns to undercover agents working
the Fulton Fish Market in lower
Manhattan. Federal authorities said
the fish market is controlled by the
mob and that it is also a market for
illegal goods.
Zodda would buy his guns from
distributors in
major wholesale
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massa-
chusetts, Georgia and Delaware.
“He would just drive to these
places and load up his trunk,”
Bleyman said. “He was so arrogant
he would take orders.”
Bleyman said it may look unusual
for someone to drive to a whole-
saler and load up a trunk full of
weapons, but the wholesaler gener-
ally will not report the sale to au-
thorities,
“They're not going to call us be-
cause they don’t want to give up that
profit,” he said.
Zodda “was known as the number
one man in the New York state un-
opens gun trade,” Bleyman
said,
The agents point out that 99 per-
cent of the sales by wholesalers are
to legitimate dealers. But that one
percent can put thousands of illegal
weapons on the streets.
“One bad gun dealer can put 2,500
on the street,” Bleyman said.
They cite as an example two deal-
ers in Virginia who ordered 5,000
handguns from RSR Wholesale
muns in Rochester between 1989
and 1991.
The dealers later were arrested
and charged with buying the guns
legally and selling them illegally.
One of the suspects committed sui-
cide, The other, who got 2,700 of the
weapons, is awaiting trial. The
agents would not release the sus-
pects’ identities,
“A lot of them are starting to ap
pear in New York,” Marciniak said
of the 5,000 guns.
“We'll be finding these guns for
20 years,” said Bleyman “Eighteen
of these guns were picked up in
New York City in murder cases. rob-
bery cases ... from Russian mob-
sters,” said Bleyman
“There's a story behind every one
of those guns,” he sara
A legitimate
Gazette Reporter
CHENECTADY ~— Like most
handguns, this one started out be-
ing legal.
The Ruger 9mm semiautomatic pis-
tol, serial number 300-02889. mode! P-
85, now sits in a bin at the Schenectady
Police Department, waiting to be de-
stroyed,
It is black with a silver trigger —
mean-looking to those who are not used
to seeing such weapons,
Bullets can rip out of the chamber as
fast as the trigger can be pulled
A fully loaded clip shoved into the
handle can hold 9 bullets, The gun's
chamber can hold a 10th.
That's the beauty of the 9mm to gun
enthusiasts — more firepower than the
average revolver. Some models can
hold as many as 17 bullets.
And that's why the gun has become
80 popular among criminals. They can
fire more bullets at a faster rate and
they can reload it much faster than
they can a revolver,
But 9mm guns have their drawbacks.
Experts say they are not as accurate a8
revolvers and they frequently jam.
This 9mm showed no sign of those
problems the last time it was ysed, on
New Year's Day 1992.
Today, it is scratched a bit and still
has traces of fingerprint powder on it.
The gun was manufactured jn the
mid-1980s by the Sturm Ruger
Company, based in Southport. Conn.
in uaaelly sola for self pre-
i even amall-game hunting,
Courtesy,
Schenectady
County District
Attorney's Office
gun ends up as evidence
less often for target shooting. Also, po-
lice agencies across the country have
been trading in their revolvers for
semiautomatics, boosting sales of 9mm
weapons,
Sturm Ruger would not say what
dealer purchased this particular gun,
but city police said it eventually wound
up in the handgun case at Goldstock’s
Sporting Goods when the store was lo-
cated on Broadway.
Most likely a wholesaler bought the
gun from the manufacturer and then
sold it to Goldstock’s,
Goldstock’s would not search its
records for The Gazette to find out
where the gun came from and whom it
was sold to, citing confidentiality of
those records.
But police said a Schenectady gun
collector bought the weapon in 1988 to
add to his collection of. about 70
firearms,
Seventeen of those guns were stolen
in a burglary at the man's home.
Police would not release the name of
the man because of an ongoing investi-
gation into the whereabouts of those
guns. They did say the man is in his 80s
or 90s and is an invalid.
Police could not say what interest an
elderly and bedridden man would have
in a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.
They know that he collected all types
of guns, both antique and new.
Police said they suspect that a visit-
ing nurse who cared for the elderly
man told her boyfriend about the guns
iend then broke into the
eng more the weapons. However,
no arrests were ever made in that
break-in. The boyfriend was never lo-
cated.
Six of them have been recovered.
Assistant Police Chief Louis J. Pardi
said four of the guns were used in
shootings, including the Ruger. .
Two of them were used in shootings
in New York City. Two, including the
Ruger, were used in shootings in
Schenectady, police said.
Christopher “Slick” Carpenter, now
20, used the Ruger on Jan. 1, 1992, to
gun down 23-year-old Eugene Holmes
on Paige Street.
A fingerprint matching Carpenter's
third finger on one of his hands was
found on the gun clip, authorities said.
Carpenter bought that gun on the
streets of Schenectady, police said.
Carpenter was arrested the day after
the murder. He confessed, telling po-
lice Holmes had robbed him three
times of cocaine and cash and that he
was sick of it.
He told police the first shot struck
Holmes in the leg. A second shot hit
him in the head as he was falling to the
pavement.
Carpenter walked up to Holmes to
finish him off. He stood above him and
fired two moré shots. One missed. The
other struck Holmes, who may have al-
ready died at this point, in the temple.
Carpenter ditched the gun under a
porch at 294 Paige St, He is now serving
2 years to life in prison,
Authorities are waiting to make sure
Ca
. before sending the Ruger to its ul-
timate fate -» to ris melted down with
other illegal weapons by the state police
enter has exhausted all legal ap-
eee
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{branched! out in the illegal mar-
ket,” Bleyman said.
Once Zodda started dealing guns
illegally, mostly in New York City,
he transferred his license to
bery cases ... from
sters,” said Bleyman.
wane
Jeans tare ran cnt ener neta
the Mad Lion so
Colleg
The Smith &
Wesson 9mm Luger,
roughly seven
inches long, can
hold two 12-round
magazines.
DAVID HEMINGWAY
LBANY ~— By all accounts they were best
friends. . . .
But gunplay ruined the fnendship, killing one
29-vear-old and landing the other in jail on a murder
charge. .
By all accounts, the shooting was unintended.
David “Rassan” Hemingway had just bought a 38-cal-
iber Smith and Wesson during a visit to New York City,
police said. | :
They said Hemingway was a mid-level marijuana dealer.
CARL J. HENZEL
OLONIE — A visit with New Jersey state prison
inmates as a young teen-ager was supposed to con-
Cin Carl J. Henzel of Colonie to clean up his act
before he turned 16. .
instead, it may simply have convinced him that no
matter what kind of trouble he got into, he could never
allow himself to be locked inside a state prison
Friends and family say it was a fear of prison that
drove the 18-year-old to shoot his friend Robert W.
ROBERT W. JENKS JR.
A t the funeral of 17-year-old Robert W. Jenks Ir. of
Colonie on Jan. 28, 1993, the Rev, David E. Noone
of St. Francis De Sales Church urged the young
man’s friends to take a lesson from his death,
“We ought to be far more careful about our choices
than we often are.” he told those who had assembled on
that somber morning.
But Colonie police detectives never could prove it was
Jenks’ choice to die the morning of Jan, 2A, when his
friend Carl J. Henzel shot him in the face with a 38cal-
iber pistol before taking his own life with the same gun.
ot these guns were picked up in
New York City in murder cases, rob-
“There's a story behind every one
of those guns,” he said.
The Glock 17, a 17-shot
Austrian-made 9mm, is praised
“Shoot to Kill,“
a popular selection on Siena
a's WYCR.
ade of plastic and steel, the Glock
is very lightweight and commonly
used by the police.
has traces of fingerprint powder on it.
The gun was manufactured in the
mid-1980s by the Sturm Ruger
Company, based in Southport, Com.
The 9mm is usually sold for self-pro-
tection and even small-game hunting,
POPULEI? WAC
Russian mob-
the
police officers prefer revolvers.
in the Capital Region
High-quality 9mms are often the handgun of choice for
dealers. They are also commonly used in drive-by shootings
and mass killings. The 9mm is light and easy to stick in a waist
band. Semiautomatics are loaded by magazine clips that are
inserted into the grip and hold from 9 to 16 cartridges.
The .380-caliber semiautomatics, which are smaller and cheaper
than 9mms, are algo common in the Capital Region.
of the nines, the .357-callber Magnum
Despite the ascendency
revolvers are stili popular, Semiautomatics tend to jam or
misfire. But revolvers, although heavier to carry, will fire
regardiess of the gun's condition. For those reasons, some
Ce he a ko
Police said they suspect that a visit-
ing nurse who cared for the elderly
man told her boyfriend about the guns
and the boyfriend then broke into the
home and stole the weapons. However,
no arrests were ever made in that
0 his The .38 Special is a popular
revolver for police officers, who ®=
uSé it aS a Second concealed
weapon, often stra
to their leg
of if a Shoulder holster. But since
most police departments have
switched to samiautomatic
handguns, these smail revolvers
are becoming extinct.
The .32-caliber semiautomatic
seven-shot pistol is popular
among amateurs because it is
cheap, sometimes costing $50 or
less on the street. The gun is also
favored because it is smail and
lightweight, making it easily
concealable, But the gun is of poor
quality and not as powerful as the
9mm or larger handguns.
PROFILES
On Aug. 10, Corey Scott Willis showed up at
Hemingway's 58 Ida Yarbrough Homes apartment, a cig
ar jutting from his mouth.
In the living room, large color photos of Hemingway's
é-year-old son, Jaquaad, and his girlfnend, Tamika
Lawyer, 22, shared the living room wall with a picture of
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Lawyer's mother, Bernice Norwood, was watching
soap operas with a neighbor.
Hemingway was in an upstairs bedroom. A heavyset
man also known as “Big Ra,” he had planned to open a
big and tall men’s clothing store uptown.
Police gave this account:
SHH SAH SHES H ET HH ERE RHH HTH R RHE HERERO EE
Jenks, 17, and then himself early on Jan, 24, 1993, when
it appeared the two were about to be arrested for rob
bing a Pizza Hut of $800.
Henzel had picked up a 38caliber pistol on the
streets of Arbor Hill in Albany only weeks before he
used it during the robbery. He wound up using the gun
to kill himself and his friend as they sat inside a car
during a traffic stop by police.
Police learned through interviews that Henzel had
bragged about his new weapon to friends, and showed it
to many of them in the short time he owned it.
Detectives later discovered the same gun had been
Police said the two had just robbed a Pizza Hut of
$800, and were about to be taken into custody. But gun-
powder marks found on the back of one of Jenks’ hands
left questions about whether he tried to block the fatal
shot. Was he really willing to throw away his life be
cause of a botched robbery?
One teen, who described himself as a best friend to
both Jenks and Henzel, believed it was Jenks’ choice to
die that night.
“I don't think Carl's a murderer,” the 17-year-old said
“| know he wouldn't fire on Bobby unless Bobby told
him to.”
Jenks’ life up until that Saturday night was far from
perfect, but he was showing signs that he was ready to
In an upstairs bedroom, Hemingway was cleaning his
new ee Willis kidded him. It was too small, he
joked,
As Willis sat on the edge of the bed, Hemingway
handed him the gun.
in an instant, Willis realized, the hammer was back.
in that instant it fired, hitting Hemingway in the
chest.
Hemingway apparently took the bullets out of the gun
while cleaning it but missed one, according to police.
After calling for help, Hemingway uttered his last
words.
“Lean't breathe,” he said. Minutes later, he was dead.
PSR HHSC THREES AREER HHH REMEBER Oe
reported stolen some two years before from the home of
a retired Albany police officer, who lived in Colonie.
Henzel, who lived with his family on Michelle Lane
before his death, had a troubled adolescence that in-
cluded problems with the law, and stints in reform
school and alcohol rehabilitation.
But his father said Henzel was starting to turn his life
around. For nine months, the younger Henzel had been
working for ARA Services, the food concession at the
Greyhound bus terminal in Albany. He was almost done
paying off his car, a 1978 Plymouth.
The teen-ager, who had graduated early from Colonie
~ the responsibilities of adulthood, his friends
said.
Having graduated early from Colonie Central High
School just days before his death, Jenks was looking for
full-time work, possibly in carpentry, a friend said. Not
only was he preparing to fend for himself, but his girl-
friend was expecting a child.
At his funeral, he was described as someone who had
a good sense of humor, as well as a serious side.
The Rev. Noone, after speaking with Jenks’ family, al-
s9 Tecounted stories about how the teen-ager always
made time for a boy in the neighborhood who was sick
with leukemia, and how he once counseled a young girl
who had thoughts of suicide.
POS OEE CS cone © OUARRT COE. PREP A EUW we Wor
20 years to life in prison. black males
Authorities are i el to make sure tor
Carpenter has exhausted all legal ap- 25 to 34, but it
peals before sending the Ruger to its ul- drops to the
timate fate -—- to be melted down with
other illegal weapons by the state police. fourth-leading
cause of death
among white
males in that
age bracket.
For ail males,
guns have been
used in 67
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After the shot, Willis ran outside to call paramedics:
He then dashed upstairs, slit a window screen and
tossed out a small bag of marijuana. He also hid the
gun. “
Police charged Willis, of 76 Maguire Ave., with see;
ond-degree murder for creating a “grave risk of death”
to Hemingway. A grand jury rejected the charge, indicts
ing him on a lesser count of manslaughter. No trial date
has been set. we
Norwood said the young men were like brothers;
They had been friends for at least 12 years, she said.
“I know deep down inside it was an accident,”
she
said. ‘
Central High School, was thinking about becoming a po-
liceman or going to business school. Mo
“He could have done anything he wanted to,” his fa
ther, John Henzel, told The Daily Gazette. “It was just a
matter of how much he wanted to study.”
But his possession of the stolen pistol gave Henzel
the power to act on what was either a split-second im.
pulse or a planned course of action. Shortly after 1240
a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24, he turned around from the front
passenger side of a white Monte Carlo toward his
friend, Jenks, who was sitting in the back seat.
After two shots from the gun, both teens were dead.
Equipped with a high schoo! diploma and surround-
ed by family, friends and his girlfriend, Jenks ap-
peared to have a leg up on many other people his agé,
but just what his future held in store will never be
known.
His immediate plans were to move in with Henzel's
family, where the two friends planned to set up their
own living quarters in the basement. a
Instead, the two, inseparable in life, died together,
shot with a pistol that surfaced some two years after it
had been stolen from the home of a retired police offf-
cer ,
More PROFILES, Page ?
DEAD ws
‘Tf they
don't have
a gun on
them, they
have a
gun near
them,
whether
the gun
1s On
somebody
else,
whether
the gun 1s
man
alley .
inspector
John F. Burke
Albany County
Sheriff's
Department
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eeneese
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eter eees
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1
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By KATE GURNETT
(razette Reporter —
A LBANY — Bes dealers know
it.
Police know it.
The US. Court of Appeals con-
firmed it in its 1987 decision, United
States vs. Crespo:
Guns are “as much tools of the
trade” as other narcotics parapherna-
lia, the decision states.
Why are dealers so heavily armed?
“They have the gun for self-protec-
tion [because] they're afraid of getting
robbed,” Albany County Sheriff's
Department Inspector John F. Burke
said
“If they don't have a gun on them,
they have a gun near them, whether
the gun is on somebody else, whether
the gun is in an alley, whether the gun
is in a house. Dealers would be fool-
ish not to (be armed], because they're
{handling} a lot of money,” Burke said
Take convicted mid-level cocaine
dealer Issac “El-Bar” Lanier.
Lanier was at home with his girt-
friend, child and three visitors at 29
McArdle Ave. in Albany when two
armed men burst in and demanded
money in April 1992
Rodney Henry, 21, and Eric “RB”
Robinson, 19, both of Brooklyn, fired
five shots from their 380-caliber semi-
automatic and 38caliber handguns,
hitting Lanier in the stomach, police
said. They made off with $5,000. Both
are now serving prison terms for the
crime.
Six months later, when police burst
into Lanier's new Slingerlands apart
ment tn a pre-dawn raid, Lanier react-
ed quickly.
He grabbed his 45-caliber revolver.
“At first he thought it was some-
body that was going to rob him,” said
Burke. “As soon as I said ‘Drop it,’ he
put it right down. He knew me.”
Lanier was later convicted of co-
caine distribution for a loose-knit
$400,000-a-week drug ring operating in
Albany.
The 1992 robbery of Lanier is a
classic example of the New York City
crowd muscling in on upstate drug
dealers, who arm themselves in re-
sponse, police said.
“The guns represent power. And if
you have power you have territory,”
said Burke. “The kids from New York
are saying, ‘Hey, I've got a 380-caliber.
Don't bull... me or I’m gonna shoot
you.’ And they're going to take a
block.”
“Just as during Prohibition gang-
sters and booze and guns went togeth-
er, now you have drugs and criminals
and guns,” said Assistant Police Chief
William M. et of the Albany
Police gg ogee
“They have the guns to protect
themselves from other drug dealers,
more so than protecting themselves
from police,” Albany narcotics
SY eenememeilig
For drug dealers, guns a tool of the trade
JIM CASSIN Gazette Photographer
Racks of rifles and shotguns seized in criminal cases line one wall of a room at the New York State Police head-
quarters in Albany. The state police try to keep one model of every gun in existence for identification purposes.
Detective Sgt. Thomas Fitzpatrick
said,
In 1992, violent crime rose 1.1 per-
cent upstate and declined 64 per-cent
in New York City, according to a re-
port issued by state Police Superin-
tendent Thomas A. Constantine
The murder rate rose 17 percent
from 1990 to 1991 in upstate counties,
That upstate rate jumped another 12
percent, from 117 to 131 murders in
the first six months of 1993 over the
same period in 1992, according to FBI
statistics.
The figures are closely tied to the
“explosion” of crack cocaine abuse,
Constantine said.
“Ninety-five percent of the gunfire
or gunplay we've had and seen in-
crease since 1989 has been directly
connected with the proliferation of
drugs,” Murray said
There are “at least 200 percent”
more guns on the street in 1993 than
in 1989, adds Fitzpatrick. “There's
guns all over the place.”
The street value of crack upstate -~
twice that in New York City — has
drawn dealers north, Constantine
said. With the best New York City
street corners taken over by violent
gangs, other dealers are opting to
bring their goods upstate.
In the Capital Region, a steadily
employed base of state and federal
workers and a fairly stable economy
create a healthy market for recre-
ational cocaine use, officials said.
While police have a harder time ar-
resting suburban drug dealers, who
are more apt to ply their trade in-
doors than on a street corner, the
drugs and guns are there, too, Gray
said: “There are loads of guns.”
Many guns that suburbanites buy
for protection are eventually involved
in injuries or deaths, Gray said.
A recent study published in the
New England Journal of Medicine
supports Gray's claim. The study
showed that people who keep guns in
the home ~- nearly half of all
Americans -—- are three times as likely
to be shot to death at home than resi-
dents who don't have guns.
Drug dealers who keep guns at
home are also at risk.
David “Rassan” Hemingway, 22,
was cleaning his new 38-caliber
Smith and Wesson when it fired,
killing him at the Ida Yarbrough
Apartments on Aug. 10, police said.
The death of Hemingway, whom po-
lice called a mid-level marijuana
dealer, was the result of “easy ac-
cess," said Gary Pickens, president of
the Colonie Street Neighborhood
Watch group. “Everyone carries them
around for protection and anything
could happen.”
Meanwhile, drug dealers are “get-
ting younger and more reckiess and
their regard for life is practically nil,”
said Walter “Bud” Bleyman, resident-
agent-in-charge of the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office
in Albany,
“Drug dealers shoot each other,
they steal each other's money and
drugs,” he said. “They shoot each oth-
er over territory disputes ... They'll
shoot at bad guys, they'll shoot at cops
and they'll kill kids in the street if
they get in the way.”
In the inner city, dealers recruit
children between 12 and 15 to act as
lookouts or couriers, police said.
“They start young and they make a
lot of money and they don't think they
can get in trouble,” Albany County
Probation Director Charlotte Gray
said. “They absolutely do not see the
results of their actions. At that age,
they see on television that somebody
gets shot and is up walking around, So
many kids don't understand the dif-
ference between TV shows and real
life.”
A shocking double murder in 1988
in Albany was the Capital Region's
first hint of the drug-related violence
to come.
The convicted killers, dubbed “The
Brooklyn Six,” received prison terms
of up to 82‘h years to life.
The victims, George Jones Mosley,
21, and William Patterson, 20, had
come to Albany from Brooklyn to sell
cocaine and were renting a First
Street apartment.
When Mosley and Patterson fell be-
hind on payments to their “Brooklyn
Six” suppliers, the group drove north
on a cold March morning and execut-
ed them with shots to the head.
In Schenectady, Christopher
“Slick” Carpenter, 20, also of
Brooklyn, was sentenced to 20 years to
life for the Jan. 1, 1992, killing of a ri-
val Hamilton Hill drug dealer.
Carpenter admitted shooting Eugene
Holmes, 23, twice in the head with a
9mm handgun after Holmes repeated-
ly stole his drugs and cash.
Carpenter's lawyer called him a
“typical throwaway kid” who turned
to drugs and street crime for survival
In 1990, a rival drug dealer shot to
death 19-year-old Bronx crack ped-
dier James A. Mannix in Vale
Cemetery. He then stole Mannix’s 4-
ounce cocaine stash from a nearby
house, according to police. Authori-
ties said this was the first murder in
Schenectady involving drug dealers
who moved here from New York
City.
Dionisio “Born” Somerville, 24, and
Darrell “Maleek” Thomas, 23, beth of
Schenectady, were convicted of plot-
ting to rob and kill Mannix
In Troy in 1993, police launched
CRASH, or Community Resources
Against Street Hoodlums, a special
task foree to counter drug violence
after Shawn “Shabazz” Robinson, 21,
of Queens was shot to death on Fifth
Avenue in what police described as
a drug-turf battle Jan. 7. One sus-
pect, Anthony Dunbar, 19, was ac
quitted of the murder charge Nov. 24
by a Rensselaer County Court jury; a
second, Robert Roy Cephas,
Dunbar'’s half-brother, remains at
large.
With cash on hand, dealers can now
afford “good quality semiautomatic
handguns for] assault rifles.” said
Bleyman, The 9mm semiautomatic
handgun is a favorite
They're not going for “Saturday
night specials,” Fitzpatrick said.
“They go for Smith & Wessons,
Walthers. It's a status symbol to have
‘a piece.’ That’s why a lot of them have
them.”
A 380-caliber handgun, smaller
than a 9mm, is common, as are 45-
caliber and 38caliber pistols.
Shotguns, sawed off for easy conceal.
ment, are also popular. “They saw
them off with a hacksaw,” Fitzpatrick
said.
Drug or gun dealers can travel to
Southern states and buy weapons
legally, then sell them illegally on
the streets of New York, Fitzpatrick
said.
Virginia was the leading state for
such sales until a new law took effect
in July limiting handgun sales to one
See DEADLY, Page 7
KR URAL ES AOR E404 HRI HAe,
“They ve the guns to protect
themselves from other drug dealers,
more so than protecting themselves
from police,” Albany — narcotics
bring their goods upstate.
In the Capital Region, a steadily
employed base of state and federal
workers and a fairly stable economy
Nee ee ee Oe
Department
OUR eee eee
Went
BRUCE SQUIERS Gazette Photognephe
North Swan Street in Arbor
ice Department community police officers walk the beat on Hill, a
neighborhood notorious for drug activity and gun incidents.
around fer protection and anything
could happen.”
Meanwhile, drug dealers are “get-
ting younger and more reckless and
of up to 82'h years to life.
The victims, George Jones Mosley,
21, and William Patterson, 20, had
come to Albany from Brooklyn to sell
20 Qape tenn wee ¢
such sales until a new law took effect
in July limiting handgun sales to one
See DEADLY, Page 7
Living the life of the streets
can make a man tough or dead
By KATE GURNETT
Gazette Reporter
LBANY ~—- Somewhere at the
murky bottom of the Hudson
River is a .22-caliber pistol
used in a drug dispute a couple of
years ago
Born, a 38-year-old Arbor Hill
drug dealer, says he shot a man who
owed him $600 on a half-ounce co-
caine debt, then tossed the gun in
the river
“There's a lot of guns in the riv
er,” he says.
The debtor wasn't critically
wounded. And he did not call the
police.
He simply went to the hospital,
“got fixed up and came right back
out here,” says Born (not his real
street name)
‘He knew he deserved it. I've got
inv little bit of respect 've got to
keep, You need yours, I need mine
Don't play me short.”
A jean, quick-tempered man with
a thin, sharp mustache and fiery
eyes, Born makes his living selling
drugs
Like many street dealers, he car-
res a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.
He also has a 38-caliber pistol and
a sawed-off shotgun
‘Everyone doesn't have a gun. But
everyone has access to it. If you
don't have it, you can get to it short
ly,” he says
“Six out of 10 {dealers} carry a
vun, Nine out of 10 have access. And
the other one is an idiot. He's the
one that’s gonna get shot.
“You know who the gun intimi-
dates? The man who ain't got one.”
Most dealers prefer 9mm pistols,
which can be bought illegally for
about $200 in New York City, Born
says
“And if you find a crack head
you'll get one for $80... I saw a man
sell a 38caliber and a .22-caliber
pistol near the liquor store for a $50
hit.”
Born says he turned to the street
as a young teen-ager after his moth
er went to jail.
Rack then, he would steal money
from the cash registers at Franze’s
grocery on North Swan Street, go to
the pool room and “buy weed.”
‘T've had guns around me all my
life. When | was a kid walking my
dog I had a | 25-caliber pistol]. I car-
ried it in my pocket. You could put
it in your hand, It's small enough.”
“This ain't even new to me,” he
adds, pointing to an
wound on his left leg.
“You're gonna die. Live as hard
as you can. Nebody gives a damn
when you die up on that block
{North Swan Street.”
Acquaintances know Born as a
small-time dealer who peddles guns
or works as a gun-for-hire to intimi
date other dealers.
“He'll use a gun if he’s forced to
use a gun,” one friend says.
His police record is limited to mi-
nor drug and robbery charges
The cash he earns supports his
own crack cocaine habit, friends
say.
“I'm well educated. I can read
and write, and I went to college,”
Born says, his voice rising. He was
expelled from a local college after
officials accused him of selling
drugs there
And, he notes, in spite of street
dealers’ reputation for ruthlessness
he respects children and the elder
ly
Each month “the old people cash
their checks at Dargan’s and they
walk all over the block all day and
nobody bothers them
“They made it and you owe it to
them, so you give them your respect
Same with the babies. Because thes
might end up doing something {or
themselves.”
“{ have to say the gun people haw
respect for Arbor Park Child Gare
Center,” says Director Jane
Parker. The center is half a lock
east of North Swan Stree on
Second Street
“Gun carriers, drug dealeng, they
seemingly all have a respée for
children, mothers and apyle pie.
We've had that saving gae of
‘Don't bother the kids,’ man,’”
Parker says,
The migration of armed New
York City drug dealers has brought
more violence to Albany. Bern says
“You've got a bunch of yung guys
coming up from New York. They'll
just do {shoot} you, Andthey’ll make
you have to go back ad do them to
pay them back. It's nut
“You mess with thamat your own
risk. But not at my fe. As far as
shooting you, they dgn! give a damn
at all. They grew ¥p with it even
larger {worse} thaf being up here
They come from #¢ South Bronx.
from Harlem, thegpmbably already
lost a brother of me family" to
guns.
If necessary,
m says. “I'd shoot
old bullet
a {guy} in a minute. I'm prepared to
do the time. U'll do the time standing
on my head. I've done 27 months,
I've done six months, I've done 10
minutes. Murder don’t mean noth-
ing to me,”
In a gun fight, he prefers his 9mm
semiautomatic, which has “enough
shots to take care of a man and his
friends.” His two clips hold nine
rounds each
“Hell, f you shoot {a big man]
with a 2 it'll just sit in his mus
cles,” hesays
He cies what he heard about the
July 3) shooting of Robert J. Jones.
Aceerding to police records.
Jones, 21, pulled up in his brother's
black Cadillac to the A& M Market
at 32N. Swan St. at 4 am. Outside
the dore, he had words with a man
whe pulled a small gun and shot
Jones in the chest.
Undeterred, Jones “jumped up and
eat the ... out of him,” Born says
Jones later refused to cooperate
with police. So far, no arrests have
been made
Such spur-of-the-moment violence
is typical of Arbor Hill shootings,
Born says
“It's random. Nobody sits up
there and plots a murder. We don't
sneak into a bedroom with a chloro.
form-soaked rag and hold it over
someone's mouth” (as in the case of
convicted former North Greenbush
Councilman John Ramahlo)
Shootings are most often sparked
by “drugs or money or you really dis
idisrespect} somebody's lady or fam
ily. It’s life as we know it. It's black
men in America.
“There goes one now,” he adds, as
a shotgun-like boom resounded
from the Robert Whalen Homes on
Colonie Street. (Police have no
record of anyone reporting a gun-
shot on Colonie Street at the time of
this interview)
For Born, guns are just “a part of
life. White people like us to have
RUNS $0 We can shoot each other.”
But he insists he has no regrets,
His seven teen-age or college-age
children, who live with their moth-
ers, have managed to escape a life
of crime, he says.
“Tt was “ky enc 1 the
with ipa ey a = oe
ad means. Maybe
that could be why we're not togeth-
er,” he adds
“I'm thinking about all the people
1 know that didn't make it I'm 38. I
hope to make 40. Then f°
make 50.” en I'll hope to
VOREP x
DEAD ENDS
JiM CASSIN
Gazette
Photographer
Shooters say
By TIM McGLONE
Te Reporter
CHENECTADY Bill Leguire
Was standing around with some
trends at a shooting range back
in [9st when he told his 4-vear-old
an Patrick to go get the 44-caliber re
H Ht the table
The young Leguire picked the gun
JIM CASSIN
Guzette
Photographer
Schenectady
County Sheriff's
Department
Correction
Officer Theresa
Miller fires an
Uzi 9mm semmi-
Butomatic rifte
atthe Rotterdam
police target
range.
up carefully, with the barrel pointed
to the ground. He carried the gun to
where the men were standing.
“He asked them could they please
step behind him,” Bill Leguire said
The 4-year-old opened the cylinder.
loaded the chambers with bullets that
were bigger than his fingers and
snapped it shut.
Then he fired at the target. When
he was through, he opened the eylin-
der, emptied out the shells and hand-
ed the gun back to his father with the
barrel pointing down.
Bill Leguire’s friends were stunned.
he said.
Not every gun owner would allow
his or her young child to handle a gun
like this, but Leguire has strong be-
liefs about guns. .
“Ef they
learn how to
respect them
and how they
function, I
don't see any
reason why
anyone can't
have one,”
Leguire said
of handguns.
Leguire, an
ex-Marine who
works as a
Schenectady
County sher-
ifs deputy,
has been 4 gun
aficionado all
his life. He
travels around
the world com
peting in
marksmanship
contests,
He has
tremendous
respect for
guns, enjoys
shooting them
and talking about them and believes
that anyone besides criminals and the
mentally ill should be able to own one
if trained properly in handling them.
He is an adamant supporter of the
Seeond Amendment right of the indi-
vidual to keep and bear arms. He dis
misses the argument by gun-control
advocates who say the Second
Amendment only gives members of
the militia the right to own guns.
Besides enjoying guns for sport, he
said he believes guns are important
for self-protection as well. He also
supports those who collect guns as a
hobby.
But with the right comes responsti-
bility, he said. Gun owners need train-
ing and good sense.
“It’s dangerous for a person to bay
a gun and turn around and stick it in
his pocket. We have to be responsible
for where those bullets are going,”
Leguire said.
He said he taught his son Patrick.
now a police officer with the city of
Schenectady, to respect guns as soon
as his son was old enough to under-
stand. That turned out to be soon after
he started walking and talking.
However, Leguire stops short of
calling for state-mandated training.
Instead, he said, gun owners should
train themselves.
“It's not practical,’ he said of
mandatory training. “1! don't think it
would work — the cost, the time.”
Leguire shoots two to three times a
week at local gun ranges. On a recent
chilly afternoon at the Rotterdam po
ae
more red tape not the answer
lice range, Leguire showed off a
Thompson fully automatic subma-
chine gun and two semiautomatic as-
sault rifles. One was an Uzi and the
other an AR-15, the civilian version of
the military M-16
Two novice shooters and = two
trained shooters went along.
The machine gun was made in 1921
and first used by the Pinkertons to
guard the Delaware & Hudson trains.
When the federal government began
to license machine guns, the gun was
given to the Sheriffs Department,
Leguire said.
Civilians cannot buy machine guns
anymore and there is only one manu-
facturer of fully automatic guns left in
the country — a company based in
West Hurley, Ulster County, that sells
them to the military here and abroad.
The guns are intimidating and men-
acing to look at, the shooters said.
But when fired, the feeling changes
to one of power.
“You feel like you're the strongest
person in the world,” said one shooter
after firing the Uzi.
“You could take out the whole
world with that thing,” said another.
The Uzi was by far the favorite of
the three guns. It is the smallest, but it
also was the most comfortable and
had the least kickback.
The Uzi is the type of gun most of.
ten seen in the movies, “It’s the
coolest,” said another shooter.
“Remember when Reagan got shot?
See REGULATIONS, Page 8
RESSSRERS ESSER SE PES ERSTE LESSEE OED SE OE EES APSE SEELEHESEES EOD EREERSEO EE OESERSAOHEEEESESSO RESET SE EOES SES ESES OED EP ED FEEEH HF EEE ESE S ESSER PEED SOO HS ESSE ESTE HE EEEEEES HS EEESHOOESESESERESS ESSE OESES SER OSSERSE OED ERE ESSER ERE SHEED eeeEeeseerses
in Kennesaw,
Ga., about 20
miles northwest
of Atlanta,
every citizen is
required to own
a gun,
according to
legislation
passed in 1982.
The exceptions
are convicted
felons, the
mentally ill and
conscientious
objectors. The
town’s
population
doubled since
then, but crime
decreased.
Cities with the
strictest gun
laws such as
New York City,
Chicago and
Washington,
D.C., have the
highest
homicide rates.
in 1987, Japan,
with a
population of
about 121
million,
recorded eight
gunshot
homicides for
an annual rate
of 0.5 per
100,000
population.
That’s about as
many as New
York City has in
a weekend.
New York City
had a homicide
ee ee
ae they the militia the right to own ” guard the Delawére & Hidson Wains. | homicide rates.
learn how to eaides caleptan guns for sport, he When the federal government began :
respect them said he believes guns are important to license machine guns, the gun was :
and how they for self-protection as well. He also given to the Sheriffs Department, :
function, i supports those who collect guns as a Leguire said. :
don’t see any Civilians cannot buy machine guns: in 1987, Japan,
reason why But with the right comes responsi- anymore and there is only one manu. : with a
anyone can't bility, he said. Gun owners need train- _facturer of fully automatic guns leftin :
have one,” ing and good sense. the country — a company based in : population of
JIM CASSIN Leguire said “It's dangerous for a person to buy West Hurley, Ulster County, thatsells ; about 121
Paotocrasnar of handguns. a gun and turn around and stick itin them tothe military here andabroad. :
Leguire, an his pocket. We have to be responsible | The guns are intimidating and men- : million,
«Schenectady ex-Marine who for where those bullets are going,” acing to look at, the shooters said. : precerded eight
County Sheriffs works as a Leguire said. But when fired, the feeling changes :
Department Schenectady He said he taught his son Patrick, to one of power. : gunshot
Correction County sher- now a police officer with the city of “You feel like you're the strongest : homicides for
Officer Theresa ifs deputy, Schenectady, to respect guns as soon _ person in the world,” said one shooter : an annual rat
Miller fires an has beenagun as his son was old enough to under- after firing the Uzi. : e
Uzi 9rn semi- aficionado all stand. That turned out to be soon after “You could take out the whole : of 0.5 per
nutomatic rifle his life. He he started walking and talking. world with that thing,” said another. :
ng,” sa 4 100,000
atthe Rotterdam travels around However, Leguire stops short of The Uzi was by far the favorite of :
police target the worldcom- calling for state-mandated training. the three guns. It is the smallest, butit + population.
range. peting in Instead, he said, gun owners should also was the most comfortable and : ‘That's about as
marksmanship train themselves. had the least kickback. 5
contests, “It’s not practical,” he said of | The Uzi is the type of gun most of : many as New
He has mandatory training. “I don't think it ten seen in the movies. “It's the ; York City has in
tremendous would work — the cost, the time.” coolest,” said another shooter. ;
respect for Leguire shoots two to three times a “Remember when Reagan got shot? : a weekend.
aan ng cadtty eiheres fo or es teenies oo. ; New York City
shooting them ¢ rnoon e po- See REGULATIONS, Pages :
: had a homicide
spe : rate of 23 per
s ° : 00,000 people
Deadly force an integral part of the illicit drug business “’wser
Contaued from Page 6 A safe house might be a vacant used to it, will dog up [jam] or catch,” shots in a marijuana turf battle on they found five ounces of cocaine, :
building or the home of a friend or Burke said. North Swan Street on Dec. 1, 1991, $15,000 in cash, computers, beepers : in 1991
gun per person per month, Bleyman _ relative. A jammed 9mm saved the life of — they missed their intended targets —- and a fax machine. Burke described : ’
said Keeping the guns in a remote spot Laura Amos during the ; 1988 Jamaican nationals and alleged pot Holmes as a “sophisticated” drug ; firearms were
Once drug dealers get a gun, they also helps prevent heat-of-the-mo- “Brooklyn Six” First Street killings dealers Samuel Cassell and Paul dealer who bought drugs in New York : used in 70
usually hide it in a secure but accessi- ment shootings over petty disputes, when it failed to go off, trial testimony “Demus” Miller, police said. City and sold them in Albany for the :
hiseok one gang member said. revealed. a . But ricocheting bullets struck and _ past five years. : percent of New
Deakers stash their guns “in any “Otherwise they'd be blasting each However, little training is required killed an innocent bystander and He did not own a gun. : York state’s
number of places,” Fitzpatrick said. other all over the place,” he said. to fire a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, pierced one gunman’s jaw. Because Holmes didn't deal on the ;
“A safe house, a girlfriend's house. Drug dealers may be heavily notes Bleyman. Despite the glut of guns, some drug street, he was much less likely to be = homicides,
Somewiere they can get them if they armed, but they're not trained marks “When you shoot somebody from dealers avoid them, Fitzpatrick said. robbed, Burke said. : compared with
need them, for a vendetta or a threat men, police said four feet away, you're going to hit Such dealers “don't feel threatened “He had a lot of select clientele, up- :
or if they anticipate some compet “It’s not like they went through any them. A 9mm might held nine rounds = by other drug dealers.” per-class people, lawyers,” Burke : 54 percent in
tion. Or at times they do carry them classes,” said Burke of ammunition. You shoot nine Michael A. Holmes, 37, of Albany is : 1985
“4 | 45-caliber revolver] will kick rounds from 10 feet away, youre going one example, Burke said. Police arrested him after he al- :
on the dreet. [But] usually it’s a ques
tion of going to get them when they
need them.”
like hell and they're not going to be
that good with it. A 9mm, if you're not
to hit them,”
When a trio of gunmen fired eight
When Burke and others raided
Holmes’ apartment on July 2, 1993,
PROFILES
legedly sold drugs to a police infor. ;
mant. That case is pending. ‘
ELLIOT HEWITT |
Tries .. Someone fired a bullet into Elliot Hewitt's
HO enim yaar MN aimee eR
ore cancer AA ERC EEE
head on Sept. 5 in Troy, but police don't know who
did @ or why. |
Tenants at 2916 Fifth Ave, found Hewitt, 29, of the
Bronx, ina puddle of his own blood at the bottom of
their hallway stairease. He had been shot through the
mouth.
JAMES HILL
G ise atte _ Kimberly McGuire pointed to 4
vase of violet miniature carnations her boyfrien¢
had bought her a few days before his murder, say
2 enerous person. :
oi: a poe pha seals from {New York City] trying to
make a better life for himself,” she said, in the —
Street apartment they had shared for a year anda ro
In the kitchen, her boyfriend's ring-necked doves
cooed from their cage.
MeCuire and othe
James Hill said his dea
expected — that he was no
rs who had known 30-year-old
th in April was senseless and un-
t a person prone to violence
Two residents said police told them Hewitt was the
loser in a deadly game of Russian roulette.
But authorities are stil] not certain why Hewitt died.
“The case is still open,” said Michael McDermott,
chief assistant district attorney in Rensselaer County.
No charges have been filed against anyone in connec-
tion with the shooting.
“The information we have to date is that it was a
game of Russian roulette,” McDermott said.
“El” Hewitt had been visiting a friend who lives in
the two-story house on Fifth Avenue next door to the
Troy school board offices, tenants said.
At the time of the shooting, about 5:30 a.m., five adults
and five children were home at the second-floor apart-
ment.
One tenant said an electric fan drowned out the
sound of the gunshot, but she was awakened by the thud
when Hewitt's 6foot4, 250-pound frame collapsed
downstairs.
Neighbors said Hewitt had been staying in the Troy
SERA TSHR OEHSEOEEHSE SESE SSEEHESHESHEEHSSEFOH SPE SOHHRERSESOSHHEAHEOHHOOHHREO HTS
or crime, just a hard worker trying to get ahead in life.
Hill was fatally wounded by a shooter who fired two
bullets into him behind a State Street dance club
around 3:40 a.m. April 10. Police said the shooting fol-
lowed an argument; McGuire, a witness, said Hill him-
self hadn't even spoken to people at the club, though an-
other in their group had.
Three bullets were fired; two struck and killed Hill,
according to police,
His brother, Antonio Hill, drove frantically up State
Street with James slumped beside him, and flagged
down a police car near Brandywine Avenue. James Hill
was pronounced dead at Ellis Hospital a short time lat-
er,
Police charged a 17-year-old Schenectady High
School junior with second-degree murder, and said it
was a simple argument outside the club that erupted in
gunfire. The suspect, Cariton Brown, is still charged
with the killing, according to police, and is currently in
jail on unrelated drug charges.
Hill was a chef who friends say was generous and
well-liked. They also said he was a conscientious work-
er who often logged long hours at past jobs — at the
Ramada Inn in Schenectady, the OTB Imperial restau-
rant and the Jewish Community Center in Albany,
where he was head chef when he died.
A few days after the shooting, friends who gathered
in the apartment downstairs from Hill's said he was
not rf person they would have expected to be shot to
death.
area for several months after moving from New York
City. They did not know whether he was employed.
A tenant said Hewitt had recently bailed her cousin
out of jail and had given money to another tenant to buy
diapers for her l-year-old daughter.
Police said Hewitt had been charged with selling and
possessing drugs in Massachusetts.
Hewitt was a father, but police said they did not
know how many children he had or whether he was
married.
“He was a just a very nice guy,” said William
Marshall, who remembered Hill helping people fix cars.
“Everybody liked him.”
Others said he was devoted to his 4year-old son,
James Anthony Hill Jr., born to a prior girlfriend.
Born in Amityville, Suffolk County, Hill had come to
Schenectady to escape the New York metropolitan area,
McGuire said.
He had lived in Schenectady about five years, earning
a degree in culinary arts from Schenectady County
Community College.
Hill was determined to succeed in life, and was an
optimist, she said.
More PROFILES, Page 9
DEAD ENDS
‘T prefer
not to call
any of
these
weapons.
I prefer to
call them
precision
instru-
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Legislators, advocates get ready to do battle
By TIM McGLONE
Gazette Reporter _
he way members of the Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep
and Bear Arms see it, more citi-
zens own guns legally than voted for
President Bill Clinton
The president received 44 million
votes, There are between 60 million
and 80 million firearm owners.
Citizens are arming themselves at
unprecedented rates — roughly two to
three million new handguns are sold
each year, said John Snyder, chief
congressional lobbyist for the commit:
tee,
Fear of crime and new federal gun
control laws sparked a gun buying
frenzy across the country in late 1993.
Estimated holiday gun sales were up
more than 100 percent over the previ-
ous year, according to an industry an-
alyst.
‘Td like to translate that political-
ly,” Snyder said: Gun control is not
what the majority wants.
“] think that’s so ridiculous.” said
state Sen. Emanuel R. Gold. the
deputy minority leader from Queens
who is one of the leaders in the gun
control movement in the Legislature.
“I think the public today is much,
much more concerned,” he said.
Though no gun control legislation
passed last session, Gold said legisla-
tors are negotiating vigorously for the
passage of a law requiring back-
ground checks on those who want to
buy rifles and shotguns, and licensing
those weapons.
A bill that would require comple
tion of a gun safety course before a
handgun license is issued or before a
rifle or shotgun is purchased appears
to have the strongest chance of pas-
sage this session, he said.
Pending legislation would also out-
law the possession and sale of assault
rifles, The bill exempts collectors and
the use of assault rifles at authorized
target ranges and by competitive
marksmen.
But Senate Majority Leader Ralph
Marino, a Conservative-Republican
from Long Island, has refused to let
any gun control legislation out of com-
mittee. Marino has said that New
York already has enough gun control
laws. He would prefer that the federal
government pass tougher laws with
stiffer penalties
Gov. Mario Cuomo, in several
speeches in recent months including
his State of the State address
Wednesday, called for a combination
of federal and state action to control
gun violence.
His state proposals include a ban
on assault rifles, leading some insid-
ers to believe passage is imminent.
He also said the state is working to
pass a law lowering legal capacity to
10 or fewer bullets.
New York state has some of the
toughest gun control laws in the coun.
try, so to some it is not unusual that
bills to make the laws tougher have
stalled in the state Legislature.
Those bills have been doomed in
recent years because of the strong an-
tigun control lobby and Marino’s
stance.
The lobbyists argue that New
York’s tough stance on handgun pur-
chases has not worked to reduce
gun-related violence. Further re-
strictions would not work any better,
they say.
But Gold is optimistic about the
passage of new gun control legislation
this session.
In July, Cuomo signed a law creat-
ing a new felony crime of criminal
sale of a firearm to a minor, but gun-
control proponents consider the law
weak because it only outlaws the sale
or transfer of a handgun to a person
under 19 by a person who is not au-
thorized to possess the gun.
Before that law was signed, the last
time any type of control legislation
passed was in 1986, when armor-piere-
ing bullets and sawed-off shotguns
were outlawed.
Statistics show that handgun vio-
lence is at an all-time high among the
nation’s youth, according to a study by
Northeastern University.
Despite years of watching this vio-
lent trend reach record heights, state
and federal legislators have done lit-
tle to quell the violence, according to
gun-control lobbyists.
Even the federal Brady bill, signed
into law last month, took 10 years to
pass. The law requires a five-day wait-
ing period and background check be-
fore a handgun can be purchased, but
won't bring any changes here, since
New York already has tougher re-
quirements
“What it really comes down to is
we're not to the point of putting down
the rhetoric,” said Jack McePadden, a
spokesman for Gold.
Gold has been an advocate of gun
control legislation for years, but his
efforts have been stymied because he
is in the minority.
Once a year, he makes a show of it
by walking into a local gun shop and
purchasing a shotgun, rifle or semi-
automatic assault rifle. He has been
trying to ban the semiautomatic rifles
for four years.
Last spring, Gold walked into the
Service Merchandise store in Colonie,
dropped $69 and walked out with a
shotgun.
He sawed off the barrel and held
press conferences here and in New
York City to show the media how easy
it was to purchase a deadly, conceal-
able weapon. He said the New York
City reporters were shocked, but he
got little media attention in this re
gion
Qne day in the spring of 1991, he
bought an AK-47 bayonet-tipped
semiautomatic assault rifle from B&T
Inc. on Central Avenue, Albany
Fifteen minutes later he bought a 12
gauge shotgun from the Pistol Parlor
in Rensselaer.
He then took out a newspaper ad
vertisement offering the AK-47 for
sale at nearly twice the price he
paid. He said he received several in
quiries from people eager to buy the
See OPPONENTS, Page 9
Courtesy, Sen
Emanuel R. Gold
State Sen.
| Emanuel R, Gold
stores in 1991.
4 preer w
call them
precision
instru-
ments. It’s
only a
weapon if
you take it
and use tt
as one.”
Bill Leguire
Marksman;
Schenectady
County sheriff's
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JAMES PANETTA
For The Sunday
Gazette
| Scotia resident
Regulations won’t impede criminals, gun proponents say
Continued from Page 4
The Secret Service men came out
holding a gun up like this,” Leguire
said, holding the Uzi straight up in
the air. “This is exactly the same
gun,” he said.
“People who can acquire them use
them legally,” he said. Those people
are sport shooters and hunters.
Leguire, a member of the National
Rifle Association, is very sensitive
when it comes to the debate over
guns.
JIM CASSIN. Gaucette Photographer
Schenectady County Sheriff's Deputy Bill Leguire watches as Schenectady
County Court Security Officer Jacqueline Paniccia practices firing a
Thompson submachine gun at the Rotterdam police target range. The fully
automatic machine gun, which would be illegal for a civilian to buy, belongs
to the Sheriff's Department.
“| prefer not to call any of these
weapons, I prefer to call them preci.
sion instruments. It's only a weapon if
you take it and use it as one,” he said.
He does not believe more laws are
necessary to prevent handgun vio-
lence, What is needed is more train-
ing and education and instant back-
ground checks,
He said it is already too difficult to
get a handgun permit in New York
state. He should know — he processes
all the handgun permits for the coun-
tv.
“{ think it’s necessary to make these
checks, but it’s not the law-abiding cit-
izen who's ruining it,” he said.
The Brady bill, which President
Clinton signed into law in December,
is useless in New York, he said. The
law creates a five-day waiting period
and background check before a hand-
gun can be purchased,
in New York state, first-time gun
buyers must be fingerprinted. Those
prints are sent to three agencies --
the FBI, the state Division of Criminal
Justice Services and the state office of
Mental Health. The resulting wait ts
far longer than five days.
if the potential buyer has a crim)-
nal record or a history of mental wl
ness, the application ts denied.
“| process handgun permits every
day of the year, There are people
waiting six, eight, 10 months.” he said,
viting the bureaucratic red tape that
must be endured by law
ieguire, like the NRA, wants 4 com
puterized instant background check
system. The federal government is
working on such a system and there
will be funds available from the
Brady law to improve computer sys
tems on the state level. But the new
systems are years off.
One of the shooters debated with
Leguire about how in some places it
is easy for criminals to get their hands
on dangerous weapons like Uzis and
other semiautomatic guns.
“I see where you're coming from
There is no purpose for this gua,” he
admits of the Uzi. "If you've got crimi
nal intent, no law is going fo stop
you.”
Leguire equates the Uzi to someone
buying a Cadillac over a Chevrolet.
He said the Uzi is more prestigious
than other semiautomatic guns. It's a
status symbol among legal and illegal
gun owners.
The others at the range in
Rotterdam have their own feelings
about guns. They end up debating
Leguire.
Jacqueline Paniccia, 4 security offi-
cer in the County Courthouse, carries
a 38caliber revolver on her side
every day at work.
“It was real excitimg to go out and
shoot the guns,” Panitcia said
“| felt like I had 4 lot of power. It
was definitely a h&h -- the excite
ment of it,’ she #id. “But | dont
think I'd make it a habit.”
She is required lo practice shooting
her 38 revolver ofte a year
But Paniecia said she’s cenfused
over the constitutional right © keep
and bear arms and the toll guis have
taken on the lives of Americans.
“I don't think you should be able to
#0 into a store and buy a gun. But it's
a Catch-22. Then what do you do
about hunters? I'm confused just like
everybody else. What are wu sup-
posed to do, not let hunters hunt?”
she asked.
But she agrees with Legsire that
waiting periods do not work to deter
crime. She cites as an example Colin
Ferguson, the 35year-od man
charged in the Dec. 7 commater-train
bloodbath on Long Island.
Ferguson followed all the proper
procedures in purchasing a Ruger
fmm semiautomatic handgun = in
California, The only thing he may
have done wrong there is lie about his
address, authorities said.
us | § people want to get a weapon to
commit a crime, they're going to get a
gun,” Paniceia said
“It's only because I work here that I
carry a gun. I've been in this building
with crazy people. | don't need my
gun to calm them down,” she said
But what if she came face to face
with a man holding a gun?
“Somebody could walk in here and
start shooting. What are you going to
do?” she said.
“There is no training that will get
you ready for that. I'm going to have to
pull my weapon and start shooting,”
she said
Continued from Page 8
gun and avoid retailer registration
forms
“Tm concerned about people who
have an argument and can run in and
buy one of these things,” Gold said.
All that someone needs to buy a ri-
fle or shotgun is a driver's license.
The buyer has to fill out a form devel
oped by the federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, but
the form stays in the store. It is never
verified
Gold has proposed legislation re
quiring statewide licensing and regis.
(ration for shotguns and rifles, similar
fo what is currently used for drivers
and their cars
The licensing bill calls for a seven.
day waiting period prior to the pur
chase of a nile or shotgun. The loca!
police department would check the
buyer's name, date of birth and O-
cial security number. If the check
showed 4 possible criminal record.
the buyer would then have to submit
his fingerprints to the state for fur.
ther verification if he wanted to pur
sue the sale
The bill allows up to a month for a
more thorough background check of
the person's fingerprints. If a crimi
nal record is verified, the application
vould be denied
The bul requiring registration of ri.
‘les and shotguns would require these
steps whenever a sale is made,
whether in a store or between two
private citizens
Gold said California, which licens
es rifles and shotguns, stopped more
(han 2,000 sales because the cus-
too much fear,” said MePadden, Sen.
Gold's spokesman
there is going to be a disastrous crime
involving a gun and then the public
will be demanding gun control. |
tomers had criminal backgrounds or
a history of mental iliness.
He also proposes mandatory
WCUDONS [raining prior to purchase of
4 pistol or revolver
Gun advocates fear that if the
Legislature passes one bill, even if it
‘id little to control purchases — for
example, mandating a handgun safety
course —- then the floodgates would
Open
“T think it’s just a way to get their
foot in the door.” said Frederick
Rossi, a Scotia resident,
Rossi was named the 1993 Citizen
of the Year by the Citizens Com-
mittee for the Right to Keep and
Bear Arms,
Rossi, also a member of the
National Rifle Association, won the
award for his work in the fight against
further gun restrictions.
About 1,000 of the committee's
550,000 members nationwide receive
the award annually.
Massachusetts, you saw the reaction
It's only a matter of time that people
will begin saying, ‘Who are We pro-
tecting”’ ” MePadden said.
Rock College in Great Barrington,
Mass, is accused of roaming the
campus with a Chinese-made semi
automatic assault rifle and gunning
down a teacher and a student and
wounding four others. Lo purchased
the gun legally and bought 200
rounds of ammunition through the
mail.
ple. The day is going to come when
that dam is going to burst,” he said.
Rossi, like the NRA, believes in a
proposal before Congress that sup
ports instant computerized back-
ground checks for handgun purchas
es
That system needs a national data
bank of criminal records.
Opponents of that plan say it would
take years to set up such a computer:
ized program.
Snyder, the committee's lobbyist in
Washington, said a computerized pro-
gram could be in place in a matter of
months and would work much the
same as credit-card checks currently
in use
He said federal criminal records al-
ready are computerized
The main difference between pro-
ponents of the Brady Bill and propo
nents of instant background checks is
the waiting period
“The Brady Bill is a cop-out. It sim
ply puts a burden on the person who
wants to buy a gun,” said Snyder
Rossi cites the April 1992 riots in
Los Angeles as a reason against a
Waiting period
“When the rioting went on, the PeO-
ple were at the mercy of the thugs,”
Rossi said
He said those in fear for their
lives should have been able to walk
into a store and buy a handgun for
protection in the midst of the riot
ing.
“There's too much rhetoric: there’s
He said he believes that one day
“When Wayne Lo went crazy in
Lo, 18 a sophomore at Simon's
“I really believe in the dam princi-
For example, the lobbyists said.
New York City —- which already re-
fingerprint checks for all
firearm purchases, including rifles
and shotguns —~ has one of the highest
murder rates involving firearms in
the country. as
A recent study by Tulane Univer-
sity showed that 17 percent of con-
victed felons who used guns in the
quires
JAMES PANETTA For The Sunday Gazette
Vincent Popolizio, owner of Taylor and Vadney Sporting Goods on Central Avenue, Albany, displays some of the
handguns for sale in his store. Gun sales hit record levels last year due to fears that tighter federal regulations
The anti-gun control lobby argues would restrict the ability to purchase quns legally.
that tougher laws will not make the
country any safer; it will just make it
more difficult for law-abiding citizens
to obtain guns, while the criminals
will continue to buy their weapons
from the black market,
commission of a crime purchased
their weapons from licensed gun
dealers.
The remaining & percent bought
them on the black market.
po
Between 80
percent and 90
percent of the
guns that police
seized
throughout the
state come
from out of
state. in New
York City, the
percentage
stands at above
90 percent.
*
SHEP eeeseeereeeeeeees
CESSES ERE SHEERS EREROEP ERS THEATER ETRE EHETCHRRBES
.
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in 1980,
handguns killed
77 people in
Japan, eight in
Great Britain,
24 in
Re HETERO EEDA REEE
Sweden, 23 in
israel, four in
Australia and
11,522 in the
United States.
victims rose to
34,000 in this
country.
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4 sf
Bear
Rossi, also a member of the
National Rifle Association, won the
award for his work in the fight against
further gun restrictions.
About 1,000 of the committee's
650,000 members nationwide receive
the award annually.
i das odie est
qt seers
more difficult for law-abiding citizens
to obtain guns, while the criminals
will continue to buy their weapons
from the black market.
just
make it
For example, the lobbyists said,
New York City —- which already re-
quires fingerprint checks for all
firearm purchases, including rifles
and shotguns ~~ has one of the highest
murder rates involving firearms in
i Se ea Sy
the country.
A recent study by Tulane Univer-
sity showed that 17 percent of con-
victed felons who used guns in the
commission of a crime |
uy er
purchased
their weapons from licensed gun
ag
@ remaining 83 percent bought
them on the black market. -
By TIM McGLONE Gov. Mario Cuomo’s proposed laws could have been subjected to this The report calls on the federal gov- state and local laws before a license with 2.7 per
Gazette Reporter would: mandatory sentence in 1992, only 36 ernment to: is issued. A federal firearms license
ee en ere ® Ban possession of more than 40 percent received one year or more of —_— @ Pass the Brady Bill, which it did allows for the wholesaling of guns and 100,000 and
LBANY ~ The governor and types of assault weapons. incarceration, according to the re- in December. The president signed it allows them to be purchased in large Japan had the
the director of criminal justice @ Prohibit large-capacity ammuni- port. into law on Dec. 1. It takes effect quantities. f st of
services in June issued the sec- _ tion-feeding devices. ® Require renewal and recertifica: March 1 and mandates a five-day ® Deny federal firearms licenses to owe the
ond-annual joint report titled “A ® Hold juveniles who possess tion of handgun licenses every three waiting period and background check convicted felons. even if their civil industrialized
Strategy for Action Against Gun- deadly firearms responsible as adults. years, The objective is to improve the before anyone can purchase a hand- rights have been restored. nations with
Related Violence.” @ Reduce parole eligibility for peo- records kept by the state police. The gun from a licensed dealer. The law ® Require fingerprint-based crimi-
fees raised would go toward law en- does not apply to private transac- nal background checks for federal 0.8.
The report is their wish list for
stricter gun control laws.
On the first page, the report calls
for “a national gun control strategy as
a cooperative endeavor between fed-
eral, state and local officials to con-
trol illegal firearms trafficking.”
ple convicted of gun crimes.
® Require a firearms safety course
before a handgun license is issued.
® Close loopholes in an existing
state law that mandates a one-year
jail term for illegal possession of a
handgun. Of the 3,000 offenders who
forcement.
But the report states that the effec-
tiveness of the state’s gun control laws
is weakened by the absence of “mean:
ingful” federal gun control regula.
tions.
tions.
® Ban the transfer, transport, ship-
ping and receiving of assault
weapons,
* Require those who apply for fed-
eral firearms licenses to comply with
Cuomo seeks state, local and federal cooperation :
PROFILES
firearms dealers.
® Raise the penalty from a misde-
meanor to a felony for a federal
firearms dealer's intentional failure
to maintain proper firearm transac-
tion records.
JAYNE E. LYNCH
REENFIELD — Jayne E. Lynch, 43, is remem-
bered as a bright woman with a keen interest in
history. Yet, on Feb. 21, she shot herself to death
with a .22 caliber rifle, after earlier firing the rifle at a
friend,
Police said Lynch, a former Greenfield town council-
woman, had lived with Valerie Dominick on Bump Hill
Road for 16 years.
The couple broke up in November 1992. Lynch, jealous
over Dominick's alleged involvement with another
woman, moved to Saratoga Springs, according to city police.
DALE 0. LABARGE
OREAU —- People who knew Dale O. LaBarge
well said the friendly grandmother never said
an unkind word about anyone.
“She was a lovely woman,” said Eileen Weeks, who
worked with LaBarge at Webb Graphics in West Glens
Falls.
A single shot from a 12-gauge shotgun took LaBarge's
life.
The bodies of LaBarge, 60, of Frankie Lane, and her
JEANNE MARIE TURCOTTE
€ tj) —- Jeanne Marie Turcotte, 36, was an at-
ree “bubbly” person who was a dedicated
worker and a caring mother sibs enjoyed shop-
ying, according to friends and co-workers.
Turcotte’s life was ended by a single biast from a 12-
shotgun on Nov. 6, while the mother of three was
pit at the home of her own mother, Dale 0,
Barge, on Frankie Lane.
Renin husband, Syivain, 37, of Newcomb, has
been charged with killing his wife and her mother.
Police said Lynch fired a rifle shot that went through
a car window and hit Veronica Coyner, 39, Dominick's
twin sister, in the left shoulder. The shooting came at
12:45 a.m. Feb. 21 as Coyner and Dominick were leaving
227 Nelson Ave. in Saratoga Springs, where Lynch was
living.
Police said that six hours later, Lynch took her own
life with the small-caliber rifle, shooting herself in the
head as she stood in a small closet in the Nelson
Avenue home
Back in the mid-1980s, Lynch had served as a deputy
town clerk for Greenfield town clerk Pauline Levo.
Lynch was also Greenfield town historian in the mid-to-
late 1980s and served as town councilwoman from
January 1988 to June 1989.
“She was very dedicated to town history,” said Levo.
“It's such a shame; she was bright and artistic.”
The Greenfield Town Board passed a resolution in
inemory of Lynch at its March 11, 1993 meeting.
‘As town historian she inaugurated the tradition of
Heritage Days for the town which have become an an-
nual, well-attended event,” the resolution says.
“And further, as town historian, [Lynch] engaged in
an active role for the preservation and dissemination of
historical information about the town and was instru-
mental in the publishing of the Greenfield Quarterly.”
A native of Saratoga Springs, Lynch was a 1967 gradu-
ate of St. Peter's Academy, now Saratoga Central
SHORMEHH ETE HEHEHE ETE H EE HEHEHE HEHEHE EFVEREFS OER e Ree RE EH EORERESESOHEHHRERO OS
%year-old daughter, Jeanne Marie Turcotte of
Newcomb, Essex County, were found on the morning of
Nov. 6 in LaBarge’s home.
Turcotte’s husband, Sylvain, 37, of Newcomb was
charged in the shooting.
Dale LaBarge was the wife of Jongtime Moreau land-
fill superintendent J, Frank “Pedie” LaBarge.
The LaBarge home is adjacent to the town landfill,
and many town residents visited with the family on
their way to or from the landfill,
Jeanne Turcotte was staying at her mother’s home
after serving her husband with divorce papers just
“{Jeanne} was a bubbly kind of person, usually up,”
said Arthur Anauo of Newcomb,
Anauo and his wife, Marie, were close friends of the
Turcottes, who lived in a colonial home on Winebrook
Road in Neweomb with their three children, Jason, 15,
Ryan, 13, and Sarah. 7.
The Tureottes were married for 15 years, but
Jeanne had filed for a divorce just weeks before het
death. She had moved temporarily into her mother’s
home.
Anauo said that Jeanne had some “severe problems
in her life” that sometimes turned the naturally happy
person into a more serious one.
weeks before the shooting.
People who knew Dale well said she enjoyed making
gourmet meals and having her friends and relatives
over for dinner.
She would arrive home from her job at Webb
Graphics, finding not only her husband but sometimes
Several of his friends visiting and looking for something
to eat.
“She would be just as pleasant to everyone there,”
said a friend who asked that his name not be used. He
ee that everyone was always welcome in the LaBarge
ome,
“We were trying to help her in her moments of dis-
tress, trying to lighten her load by spending time with
her,” said Anaou.
“We loved Jean,” he said.
The Anauos have organized fund-raising events for
the Turcotte children since their mother’s death and fa-
ther’s imprisonment. ae
Friends and relatives said Sylvain had a drinking
problem, which had strained their marriage.
“She put a lot of effort into her work, into her shop-
Ping ... but she had some emotional problems the last
year or so,” said Anaou.
Since 19869 Jeanne Turcotte, who was born in Glens
Catholic High, and later graduated from Elizabeth
Seton College in Yonkers.
She had been an assistant art instructor at Ballston
Spa High School and also worked at the Wilton
Developmental Center.
Former town supervisor Edward Stano Jr. with
whom Lynch ran for election in the fall of 1987, said he
got along well with her until she stopped coming to
Town Board meetings in 1989 and finally left the board
due to recurring back problems.
He and other town officials said they lost touch with
her after she stepped down from the board
Lynch is survived by her mother, Jean Shippey
Lynch, two brothers and a stepbrother.
“It didn't matter who was there, she would be nice to
them,” he said.
Anne Kusnierz, a Moreau town councilwoman, said
the LaBarges “were a unique couple. They had a great
relationship, mutual, sharing, warm ... always willing to
help people.”
“She was very well liked and was also a very good
friend to all of us,” said Weeks.
Weeks said Dale LaBarge had worked at Webb
Graphics for 13 years. She was an excellent employee
and worked in the credit, production and planning de
partments at one time or another.
Falls, had worked as a developmental aide at the Mix
Road group home in Long Lake, operated by the Wilton
Developmental Center.
“She was a very caring person, she had lots of
friends,” said Eleanor Yandon, director of the group
home, which houses 12 developmentally disabled peo-
ple.
Yandon said Jeanne “took a great deal of care” to
make sure the disabled people were properly dressed
and fed.
“She's going to be missed,” Yandon said.
More PROFILES, Page 11
] ?
“But
these kids
can tell
you what
you're
carrying
and the
capability
of your
firearm.
And these
teen-agers
are the
direct role
models for
the
younger
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Guns become way to settle disputes for som
LBANY — The nightclub was
dark and crowded.
On a second-floor platform
above the bar, a crush of 300 college
and high school students danced and
drank at an end-of-summer bash at
Panfilo's Sports Bar on Aug. 23, 1992.
Some wore plastic bracelets --
marking them as old enough to buy al-
cohol at the downstairs bar.
But the upstairs was so packed, a
detective said later, no bartender
could have edged through the crowd
to check for underage drinking.
Soon, it wouldn’t matter.
When the first shot was fired,
dozens of teens dove to the floor while
others bolted for the door, smashing
tables and chairs along the way, wit-
nesses and police said.
At first, Christopher Wright, 24,
didn’t realize he'd been shot.
“| thought I was getting trampled by
the crowd. Then I realized I couldn't
get up,” he said.
Sprawled on his stomach, Wright
fe a teen with a gun standing over
um.
“T thought: ‘I'm gonna die.’ I just
ae he was gonna blow my head
OL.
Instead, he was shot a second time
in the back. As he bled from the two
bullet holes, Wright tried to crawl
down the stairs, but passed out criti-
cally injured, he said.
He later learned his cousin, George
Proctor, 16, an honor student from
Central Islip, Suffolk County, was
killed.
Police arrested an unlikely pair of
suspects: Two college-bound Albany
High School students.
Taison Adams, 17, of Mount Hope
Drive, a pre-engineering student at
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's
minority mentoring program, was ac-
cused of shooting Wright. His good
friend, Devon Carter, 18, of Third
Street. was charged with killing
Proctor.
Adams and Carter said they never
fired any guns; police never found the
weapons,
Parents, police, educators and doc-
tors are increasingly concerned about
the use of guns by children as school
violence and increased health care
costs indicate that gunplay is taking
its toll on the younger generation.
Carter's murder trial is scheduled
to start this week. Adams’ trial is ex-
pected later this year.
‘They had mad guns in that place,
as the kids say,” said Amos Carter,
Devon's uncle, meaning several teens
were armed that night.
“The guns is what we have to keep
out of the hands of all people.”
Beatrice Adams said. “If there
weren't guns around, maybe this
wouldn't have happened.”
Police said a yearlong spat over a
girl sparked the shooting.
em ew eee
Ba coe etnies ses
that death is not a television stunt —
to be done and undone in a twin-
kling,” states Prothrow-Stith.
Research conducted by George
Gerbner, dean emeritus at the
Annenberg School of Communica-
tions at the University of Pennsylva-
nia, revealed that children who watch
television have trouble distinguishing
between fictional violence and reali-
ty.
Young people, particularly males,
are infatuated with firearms, said
New York State Trooper Clemmie
Harris of Troop G in Loudonville.
Harris heads the Black Male Training
mentoring program, which uses a one-
on-one approach to teach young black
men about community service, per
sonal health, higher education and
etiquette.
“The constant survival issues that
many minority and poor people are
faced with on a daily basis draws
them to this false sense of power,"
Harris said. “One, they recognize that
a firearm is a way to obtain what they
want through the threat or actual use
of this lethal force. [Two], it provides
them with a degree of safety.”
One 13-year-old boy was so drawn
to Harris’ 9mm Glock handgun that he
talked about the gun for five minutes.
He told Harris that he loved guns.
Harris stunned the teen by advising
him to love people, not guns. Most po-
lice officers never draw their gun, a
last-resort tool that should not be glo-
rified, he explained,
“I clearly remember as a child, I
was scared of guns. To this day, I'm
still scared of them,” said Harris.
“But these kids can tell you what
you're carrying and the capability of
your firearm. And these teen-agers
are the direct role models for the
younger kids coming up behind
them.”
“I don't know if they {realize} the
guns hurt,” Amos Carter said. “The
younger generation came up with
“Miami Vice” and all that. I really
don't think they know the effect of the
gun. What a gun will do. But they got
them.”
Spending the past 16 months in jall
awaiting trial has given his nephew
“one hell of an education,” added
Carter.
“My nephew was taught not to do
anything like that. Anybody knows
him, h@’s a passive guy. He's not into
thaterazy stuff. I could never imagine
him b@ing where he is right now. He
was in the wrong place at the wrong
time.” |
H
Cater said he thinks some young
peglé carry guns because they're
se
Nor¢ than 40 percent of the stu-
dents gurveyed in a Louis Harris na-
tional ‘poll in July said guns made
them feel safer.
“Guns are not just for drug dealers
and gang members,” writes Prothrow
Stith, “Good kids’ as well as ‘bad’
feel compelled to protect themselves
with a firearm.”
But weapons are much less com-
mon in public schools outside New
York City, according to the April 1993
New York State United Teachers re-
port, “Conflict in the Classroom.”
Upstate public school students “are
more likely to be toting a bad attitude
than a weapon,” the NYSUT report
states.
Student behavior is a societal prob-
jem that reflects the overall poverty,
drugs, and glorification of violence on
television and in the movies, the re-
port states.
“Because of what we're allowing to
go on in our communities, we're fore-
ing our kids into a defensive posture.
It almost puts them into a position
where firepower is the only solution,”
said Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, a
former vice principal at Albany High
School.
“It's not necessarily school-relat-
ed," said Michael Dutkowsky, assis-
tant superintendent for secondary ed-
ucation for the Schenectady City
School District.
Some students caught with small
pocket knives on campus told admin-
istrators they'd placed a knife in a
jacket pocket for self-protection in the
city, then forgot to take it out before
going to school.
Albany police arrested just one
teen-ager under 16 in 1993 for
weapons possession, Juvenile Unit
head Lt. Charles R. Geyer said. That
was a 15-year-old girl with a loaded
25-caliber semiautomatic pistol she
took from a parent.
In Albany, children are more typi-
cally caught with BB guns or knives,
Geyer said.
Teens arm themselves for a variety
of reasons, said Geyer. “One kid that
we dealt with was a recent immigrant
to this country and thought it would
make her look tough.”
In rural areas like Saratoga County,
lots of young people are around guns,
and use them to hunt with their fami-
lies. said Michael Gonroff, building
principal at Saratoga Springs Junior
High School.
But firearms haven't caused any
problems at school, he said. “The kids
have been very good about it.”
Last year, a 15-year-old boy was sus-
pended after he brought an old, bro-
ken .38-caliber revolver to school to
show his friends, Gonroff said.
Compared to New York City, guns in
the schools are “a minor concern” he
said.
To keep the schools safe, most local
administrators impose strict anti-gun
policies. Schenectady has an automat
ic five-day suspension for possession
of a weapon in school. It also refers
students to a hearing for further disci-
pline or removal to an alternative
school.
“We want the message to be that it
is a no-tolerance situation,” Dut-
kowsky said. .
Weapon-related incidents “de-
creased dramatically” to almost nil in
1993, Dutkowsky said. He could not
provide specific figures.
Dutkowsky credited a new disci-
pline committee and extra time spent
at the start of the year talking to stu-
dents about the weapons ban
All schools should provide gun edu-
cation, said Alan J. Lizotte, associate
professor of criminal justice at The
University at Albany.
Children need to learn how dan-
gerous guns are — that “when you
see this thing, you don’t touch it,
you go to an adult right away,” he
said.
A study of 1,000 juvenile delin-
quents Lizotte and others are con
ducting in Rochester has revealed
that those children are more apt to
carry illegal guns than use dangerous
drugs, he said.
“The basic thing that you need to
know when there are guns around is
~~ make it clear -—— you can die. This is
not a game.”
Part of the solution for Albany
schools has been dispute mediation.
Each year, teams of student-teacher
e children
mediators provide a conflict resolu
tion service to students at Albar:
High School and two middle schools
The program is important becatis:
it helps children see peaceful resolu
tion as normal and acceptable beha.
ior, said William Ritchie, president «
the Albany Public School Teacher
Association.
Mediators listen to both parties
then ask them to find common grounc
in a dispute, he said.
Ritchie hopes to see the program
expand in the future.
“This has to become a central!
theme of instruction, because [vio
lence} is a reflection of what is hap
pening on the outside, and at this time
there seems to be no abating of the
problem on the outside. So we have to
address it, because if we don't, our
schools are going to become more vio
lent.”
Schenectady also uses conflict me
diation at its middle and high schools
Dutkowsky said,
Children who ean resolve conflicts
peacefully stand a better chance 06!
“surviving to adulthood,” according to
Prothrow-Stith.
in fact, homicide and assault rates
would drop 50 to 75 percent if all chil
dren were taught how to manage
anger and aggression by their parents
she argues.
Most experts agree that violent be
havior starts in the home.
While parents can't rid the world 0!
guns, drugs or television violence
there are ways they can “inoculate
their children against violence
How?
By teaching them to function social
ly without the use of force, says
Prothrow-Stith.
It's important for teen-agers to
know that gangs and drugs cause a
mere 10 to 20 percent of all homi
cides, says Prothrow-Stith.
Like their adult counterparts,
young people “would rather think that
UZ toting, crack-selling gang mem
bers are responsible for the violence
No one wants to face how ordinary
most assaults and most homicides
are.”
In fact, most violent assaults and
homicides involve “plain people; ac
quaintances, family members, who
drink, who disagree. who have a gun,”
writes Prothrow-Stith
atrect role
models for
the
younger
kids
coming up
behind
them.”
Clemmie
Harris
N.Y. State
Trooper
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PIN AAAS AR MOREY 28 taxing
its toll on the younger generation.
Carter's murder trial is scheduled
to start this week. Adams’ trial is ex.
pected later this year.
‘They had mad guns in that place,
as the kids say,” said Amos Carter,
Devon's uncle, meaning several teens
were armed that night.
“The guns is what we have to keep
out of the hands of all people,”
Beatrice Adams said. “If there
weren't guns around. maybe this
wouldn't have happened.”
Police said a yeariong spat over a
girl sparked the shooting.
Like many teen-age handgun
deaths, the cause was minor — a dis.
pute that in earlier times might have
been settled by a fistfight,
But more and more, children are
imitating adults and television or
movies by turning to violence to re-
solve conflicts, experts Say.
Homicide is the second-leading
cause of death for Americans be.
tween 15 and 34. Gunshots cause 1 in4
American teen-age deaths, according
to the National Center for Health
Statistics. Homicide is the leading
cause of death for young black males
like George Proctor.
Such figures have prompted doctors
such as Deborah Prothrow-Stith, for-
mer Massachusetts public health com-
missioner, to declare handgun vio-
lence a health crisis.
“Americans too often resolve their
trivial arguments by shooting one an-
other to death,” writes Prothrow-Stith
in “Deadly Consequences, How
Violence is Destroying Our Teenage
Population and a Plan to Begin
Solving the Problem.”
“It's really completely out of hand,”
said Wright. “It's totally different than
when I was coming up. Fights was just
fights. And it would be over and you'd
probably be friends by the next week
anyways,”’
“It was real Silly over what it in-
volved,” he added. “Really, it wasn't
even over the girl anymore. It was just
bad blood.”
lronically, the Wright and Adams
families grew up together on Long
Island, he said.
“Often the victims and the perpe-
trators are too young to even realize
1 ib be ana RE
Passed the state
under considera-
tion by the Assembly Codes Committee.
eae like the one
As more and more chil-
used in the Spree. Weld’s bill also would
LBANY — Each day, 100,000 youngsters bring guns hike the possessi
ri misuse guns, state and feder- to school nationwide, according to a to 2]. — cnn en ee 1
a! governments are offering ways memo in support of the Senate bill. On a Colorado G f
to stem the tide of youth violence: typical day, 40 children are either killed — signed 10 anti-crime bills inte tage seat
; ® Last nonth, U.S. Surgeon General or injured by guns. Special legislative session on juvenile y ‘
oycelyn Elders, speaking at a congres- Gun incidents in New York City schools lence prompted by a string of sh t “yr
Sional hearing on handgun violence, rose from 20 in the 1989-90 School year to Denver last summer. One law hae yes d.
x _ parents to exclude toy guns as 129 in the 1991-92 school year. the memo = gun Possession for people 18 aed wees
*hristmas presents states, : except for hunting or other legal aetiy;
® President Clinton's proposed “Safe ein Massachusetts, ae
Students and ad. ties.
School Acy encourages schools to track ministrators at Simon's Rock College of e@ Last £ hin ay
crimes on campus. The U.S. Department Bard in Great Barrington have lobbied Signed ’ pred ‘wane Ang —
Of Education reports that 1 in 5 high state legislators for stricter eun control under 18 from having Py u : oe ei
School Students carries a weapon on a since Wayne Lo, 18, a sophomore from are hunting or target she xt meh sl saad
lar basis. Billings, Mont., allegedly went On a ram. lariue eune, ens
who sell Suns to underage customers face
up to 15 years in prison. The law was writ
ten after several teen-agers were charged
with serious crimes, includi hing
of a tourist. uding the Killing
® Last February, the New York State
Law Enforcement Council asked the state
Legislature to stiffen penalties for crimes
Committed with a gun within 1,000 feet of
page with an assault rifle, killing a profes.
sor and a student on Dec. 14, 1992.
Their efforts prompted Gov William F
Weld to reverse his position on gun con-
DEAD ENDS
JOHN BRAMLEY
Courtesy of Cnergi
Productions
The Ofd Weat
continues to
Firearms and violence reflections of culture
By KATE GURNETT
Crazette Reporter
LBANY -~ An Englishman
comes home to find his wife in
bed with another man
In a rage, he grabs his gun
He fires one shot
Into the ceiling
And?
is that it?
No dead, no wounded, no hostages?
“In the States evervone [would
have} died. And we'd be real lucky if
he didn't go on 4 shooting spree,” said
Alan J. Lizotte, associate professor of
criminal justice at The University at
Albany
Lizotte said the story, told to him by
a Scotland Yard inspector, illustrates
the difference between the gun cul-
tures of the United States and
England
The inspector, who does not carry ¢
gun, told Lizotte how he deals with
armed criminals:
He tells them to give up the gun.
Usually, they do.
“Don't try that in New York,” was
Lizotte’'s reaction,
“There's no question that we have a
lot of gun violence. We're a pretty vio-
lent crew,” said Lizotte. Without guns,
“there wouldn't be as much death, but
I bet you there'd be as much crime”
Americans have a unique attitude
toward guns, Since Colonial times,
firearms have been as integral to the
culture as Thanksgiving Here, the
right to bear arms is constitutional.
The per capita handgun ownership
rate is four times higher than in any
other nation
This connection with guns is rooted
in the country’s history, some scholars
argue.
Unlike the more dutiful, class-con-
scious English, Americans are
steeped in defiance, rebellion and in-
dividualism.
Frontier settlers who moved West
under the Homestead Act of 1862 took
guns and farm tools.
“tf you made it. good. If you didn't,
you were screwed,” said Lizotte. “They
were their own law enforcement.”
Contrast that with the Canadians,
who would send out the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, build forts
and secure the area before recruiting
western settlers.
“Those people didn't need guns be-
cause law enforcement came first,”
said Lizotte.
Remnants of the two settlement pat-
terns remain today. In western
Canada, only a few people have hand-
guns. In the western United States
“almost everyone” owns a gun, Lizotte
said. There are four times as many
handguns in Seattle as in Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Still, Canadians today are “as as-
saultive as their U.S. neighbors,” notes
epidemiologist Dr. Brandon = §.
Centerwall in his comparison of
Canadian and U.S. homicide and hand-
gun ownership rates. They just find
“other means of killing one another.”
The highly publicized deaths of
nine foreign tourists in Florida in
1993 underscored the contrast be-
tween American and other cultures,
The killings prompted South Florida
rental companies to remove telltale
stickers and license plates.
The German government issued
travel advisories after two Germans
were killed near Miami. British news-
papers warned visitors away from
Washington, D.C., after a 72-year-old
British retiree was shot to death there
last June.
An acquittal in the shooting death
of 16-year-old Japanese exchange stu-
dent Yoshihiro Hattori shocked
Japan; 1.6 million Japanese signed pe-
titions calling for tougher U.S. gun-
control laws.
Hattori was killed by Rodney
Peairs in Baton Rouge, La. after he
went to the wrong house looking for a
Halloween party. Peairs hollered
“Freeze!” and fired his 44caliber
handgun when Hattori didn't respond.
It was a term the teen did not un
derstand,
It was a death the Japanese did not
understand. In their country, guns are
illegal and gun deaths are so rare that
statistics are not kept.
“Our people don't think [visitors]
are dangerous,” said Toshiko
Takahara, of the Japan Information
Section of the Japanese Embassy in
New York City. “It's hard to under-
stand just ordinary people have guns
at home and shoot so easily at in-
vaders.”
Mourners created the “Yoshi
Fund” to help send American high
schoolers to Japan to experience first.
hand “the difference of safety,”
Takahara said.
In Japan, guns were banned 500
years ago and remain an oddity today,
said Lizotte.
But what really makes Japan peace-
ful isn't the lack of guns. It's the cultur-
al bent toward obedience, Lizotte said.
David B. Kopel, author of “The
Samurai, The Mountie, and The
Cowboy,” which examines the gun
cultures of Japan, Canada, Australia,
Jamaica and other countries, con-
trasts the United States and Japan us-
ing the following proverbs:
In America, “The squeaky wheel
gets the grease,” In Japan, “The nail
that sticks out will be pounded down.”
While many Japanese were sur-
prised by the verdict in Yoshihiro
Hattori's death, for those familiar
with the South, it was a foregone con-
clusion, Lizotte said
Louisiana is a state where female
gun ownership ranges from §) to 80
percent, Lizotte said. Nearly all the
men own guns
Owning guns is a tradition in the
South. So is protecting your home.
Like many cultural behaviors it began,
years ago, as a necessity, Lizotte said.
In the hilly South, shotguns were
the most efficient weapon because
they produced powerful blasts at
close range.
Colorado cowboys carried hand-
guns — the best tool to tote on a horse
or use to shoot a rattlesnake. In the
Plains states, people used rifles — the
best weapon to shoot buffalo or griz-
zly bear.
“In the short run, there's a need for
something. In the long run, once you do
that for hundreds of years ... it's built
into you ~~ and that’s what culture is,
it’s the built-in part,” said Lizotte.
“Dad hands down Grandaddy’s
hunting rifle, whether or not you still
need a gun, That's what we do -~ as a
family and as a people.” Lizotte said.
Today, 52 percent of all households
nationwide own guns, Lizotte said.
Most Southern and Western states
rise well above that mark. In the
Northeast — settled the longest and
populated by urban European immi
grants who didn't use guns — the av-
erage drops to 35 percent.
“A Southerner might say to the
Japanese, ‘Well, you stop eating
Japanese rice and then we'll talk
about the gun thing.’ These are cultur.
al things. We don't commit suicide
here. They do,” he said.
Switzerland presents another con-
trast
See ATTITUDES, Page 12
Alan J. Linotte
Much of the
increase in
violent crime
over the past
30 years has
reported in the
there were
same period,
the state’s
population
increased only
7.2 percent.
Of the 1991
homicides, 70
percent of the
victims were
: He tells them to give up the gun.
Usually, they do.
“Don’t try that in New York,” was
Lizotte’s reaction.
“There's no question that we have a
lot of gun violence. We're a pretty vio-
lent crew,” said Lizotte, Without guns,
“there wouldn't be as much death, but
I bet you there'd be as much crime.”
Americans have a unique attitude
toward guns. Since Colonial times,
firearms have been as integral to the
culture as Thanksgiving. Here, the
right to bear arms is constitutional.
The per capita handgun ownership
rate is four times higher than in any
other nation.
This connection with guns is rooted
RN NeeegetRTIee “a gun, Linote
‘said. There are four times as many
handguns in Seattle as in Vancouver,
British Columbia.
Still, Canadians today are “as as-
saultive as their U.S. neighbors,” notes
epidemiologist Dr. Brandon S.
Centerwall in his comparison of
Canadian and U.S. homicide and hand-
gun ownership rates. They just find
“other means of killing one another.”
The highly publicized deaths of
nine foreign tourists in Florida in
1993 underscored the contrast be-
tween American and other cultures.
The killings prompted South Florida
rental companies to remove telltale
stickers and license plates.
The German government issued
travel advisories after two Germans
Oo ee AR LVIROTS)
are dangerous,”
Takahara, of the Japan Information
Section of the Japanese Embassy in
New York City. “It’s hard to under-
stand just ordinary people have guns
at home and shoot so easily at in-
vaders.”
Mourners created the “Yoshi
Fund” to help send American high
schoolers to Japan to experience first-
hand “the difference of safety,”
Takahara said.
In Japan, guns were banned 500
years ago and remain an oddity today,
said Lizotte.
But what really makes Japan peace-
ful isn't the lack of guns. It’s the cultur-
al bent toward obedience, Lizotte said.
David B. Kopel, author of “The
Samurai, The Mountie, and The
they produced powerful blasts at
close é
Col cowboys carried hand-
guns —- the best tool to tote on a horse
or use to shoot a rattlesnake. In the
Plains states, people used rifles -~ the
best weapon to shoot buffalo or griz-
aly bear.
“In the short run, there's a need for
something. In the long run, once you do
that for hundreds of years ... it’s built
into you — and that's what culture is,
it's the built-in part,” said Lizotte.
“Dad hands down Grandaddy's
hunting rifle, whether or not you still
need a gun. That's what we do — as a
family and as a people.” Lizotte said.
Today, 52 percent of all households
nationwide own guns, Lizotte said.
Most Southern and Western states
rise well above that mark. In the
PROFILES
Alan J. Lizotte
SOSRESSSAHESTEPES OCHRE EES REESE ESO e SESE DOOD ENSOHREN
CARL MURTAGH
LOVERSVILLE -- The official cause of Car!
Murtagh’s death in August was a self-inflicted
gunshot wound to the head. But the death certifi-
cate could have listed alcoho! as well — at least as a
factor that heavily contributed to his death.
Murtagh died inside his 204 N. Kingsboro Ave. apart-
ment on Aug. 15 after an argument with his parents. It
was his 31st birthday.
Before turning the gun on himself, the record compa-
ny technician fired from his second-floor porch toward
his folks and police officers.
The blast missed his parents, but a few pellets struck
Officer Richard B, Miles, who sustained minor wounds.
Law enforcement officials said Murtagh was a big
SHAWN A. ROBINSON
jt ROY — On Jan. 7, Shawn A. Robinson became the
first person to die from gunfire in the Capital
Region in 1993.
Robinson, 21, of Queens was near a corner known as a
drug dealers’ haven when he and two companions be-
gan exchanging gunfire with two to four other men, Troy
police said.
A bullet from a 9mm semiautomatic pistol hit
Robinson in the chest and came out his back. He fell on
Rensselaer Street near Fifth Avenue about 7:15 p.m.,
and died less than an hour later at Samaritan Hospital,
police said.
KATHRYN SEELEY
: OOSICK FALLS -- Kathryn Seeley was not a life-
long resident of Hoosick Falls, and her violent
death Nov. 19 was as much a mystery to locals as
she was.
The 47-year-old Seeley was found shot to death in her
John Street home after her husband walked into the vil-
lage police station and reported that his wife had com.
pepverspanencrs to they soon found discrepancies
inv rs ey
in rad teclere pring decided he had killed his wife
4
drinker, and was very drunk at the time of his death.
An autopsy showed he had a blood-alcohol content of
.38, nearly four times the limit for driving while intoxi-
cated, and enough to kill many people, Coroner Paul
Decker said.
Susan Licardo, Murtagh’s downstairs neighbor, said
he was prone to an occasional tantrum, usually when
someone parked in his reserved space in front of the
house.
Still, she said, Murtagh was a good neighbor, mostly
quiet and helpful, as when it came time to shovel snow
or borrow a ladder.
“He had his little tantrums, but as far as him being an
upstairs neighbor, for the amount of times that he ever
made any noise or disturbed me it was very, very
minute,” she said.
“Most of his friends ... said he was pretty quiet and
kept to himself. He would do anything for his friends
and neighbors,” District Attorney Richard C. Giardino
said. “The one thing that many people commented on
was that he was a big drinker ... And he was pretty
much of a loner.” Giardino said.
Murtagh came to Gloversville from his native
Chateaugay, near Malone, Franklin County, and was an
avid hunter and fisherman. He was also a baseball fan
and played softball for Uni Distribution Corp., his com-
pany’s team.
An excellent cook, he made reservations at an area
restaurant that weekend to celebrate his birthday with
his parents, Genevieve and Gerald Murtagh.
He prepared drinks, shrimp cocktail, cheese and
crackers for his parents. The family spent the afternoon
visiting, and Murtagh, a graduate of Canton Agricultural
and Technical College, talked about a cabin he planned
SOHO HAO HSE HE SEO MEOHOHHESESOOSERE SOE DESEOEE ESTEE SreeeeseEeeHneeeeesebeee
Two Brooklyn men were charged with murdering
Robinson.
About two hours later, the witnesses said, they and
Robinson passed Dunbar and Cephas on Fifth Avenue,
One suspect, Anthony Dunbar, 19, was acquitted of and were fired on.
the murder charge Nov. 24 by a Rensselaer County
Court jury.
The other suspect, Robert Roy Cephas, Dunbar’s half-
brother, remains at large.
The jury did not believe the two people who testified
Prosecutor Michael McDermott noted that the wit-
nesses admitted they were in Troy to sell drugs, and
that the jury knew each had been in trouble with the
law.
The nature of violence in Troy is changing, according
that Dunbar shot Robinson, according to prosecution and to Sgt. Anthony Magnetto, a Troy police detective.
defense lawyers, who spoke with jurors after the trial.
The witnesses, both friends of Robinson from New
“It's a downstate type of violence that's been trans-
ported up here,” he said. “That's how they settle their
York City, testified that Dunbar and Robinson had an disputes. With guns, rather than a few years ago, with
argument at about 5 p.m. on the afternoon of the shoot-
ing. They said Robinson lifted his jacket to expose a
handgun as a means of threatening Dunbar.
clubs or with chains."
Police know little about Robinson, nicknamed
“Shabazz,” who lived on 99th Street in the Rego Park
TECH ET ESTES ORTH EEE REET ERE EERE EE EEHTEHEEEOR EERE RSER OH ERE SEO UR ER ORO ES REO
with a 12-gauge shotgun, and then tried to make it ap-
pear that Kathryn Seeley had killed herself.
Carl Seeley, 37, was eventually charged with second-
degree murder, and the case is pending.
The alleged murder was the first in 12 years in the
quiet village in northeastern Rensselaer County near
the Vermont border. Mayor Donald Bogardus called the
news “a shock.”
Bogardus and several other village residents said
they knew little of the Seeleys. The mayor said he had
passed Kathryn Seeley on the street and found her
— enough, but “really didn’t know these people
very well,”
One man in a local tavern, who did not wish to give
his name, said the couple had stopped in for a drink a
few evenings before the shooting. They showed no signs
of trouble, he said.
But a woman who worked with Seeley at the Rite Aid
store in the village — one of the few Hoosick Falls resi-
dents who came to know Kathryn Seeley — said she was
not entirely surprised by what police said had hap-
ned.
ago Tilley was Kathryn Seeley’s co-worker during
the summer of 1992. She said the Seeleys, who had
moved to the village from the New York City area about
three years ago, had a troubled marriage.
to build. He showed his father the tools he bought for
the job.
But when it came time to go out to dinner, “he got in-
to the car and started mumbling incoherently and
passed out,” said his aunt, Teresa Fobare of Albany.
Murtagh’s parents ate alone at McDonald's, leaving
their son asleep in the vehicle outside his apartment.
When they returned to get their things and leave, “he
went from being asleep and flew into a violent rage,”
Fobare said.
“There was no provocation. They don't know what
happened,” she said.
Fobare said Murtagh's suicide devastated her sister
and brother-in-law.
“You cannot imagine how my sister and my brother-
in-law feel unless you go through something like this
yourself,” she said.
section of Queens. He was buried Jan. 13 at Amityville
Cemetery on Long Island.
A woman who answered the phone at Robinson's
apartment and identified herself as his mother called
on Troy authorities to find his killers. She described
Robinson as a “nice, gentle, kind person,” but declined
additional comment.
Robinson had a criminal record, however, He had
been convicted of first-degree burglary and sentenced
to serve five to 15 years in the Queensboro Correctional
Facility in his home borough.
Robinson, who would have been eligible for release
in December 1993, had been working in a Queens store
through a prison work-release program, according to
the state Department of Correctional Services,
Kathryn Seeley was troubled by health and marital
problems,” Tilley said.
She never managed to endear herself to her new
neighbors, Tilley said. Her “gruff exterior” made her
hard to get to know,
But Tilley called Kathryn Seeley “a real decent hu-
man being.”
“If people had known her, they wouldn't be gossiping
about ‘the woman who got shot in Hoosick Falls,’”
Tilley said.
“She didn’t deserve what she got.”
More PROFILES, Page *~
*
a
Section editors
Thomas L. Woodman
Nick Cantiello
Reporters
Kate Gumett
Tim McGione
Contributing
reporters
lan Clements
Lee Coleman
Mark Hamrnond
Morgan Lyle
Joseph Maher
Karen Roach
Matt Roy
Stephen Williams
Sylvia Wood
Photographers
Jim Cassin
James Panetta
David J. Rogowski
Bruce Squiers
Page designer
Phillip S. Langkau
Copy editor
Paul Dwyer
Cover ilustration
John MacDonald
Sources for gun facts:
The U.S. Department of
Justwe, the state Daxsion
of Creminal Justice
Services, the state Health
Department, the
governor's office, The
Centers for Disease
Control, the National
Rifle Association, the
New England Journal of
Metiome, Lanix Harris &
ASSOCIGLES
ESTOS ESE BEBO TEESE
FHSS H HH SSSOHOSSHSHHESSSEEDESESEESSEHESESOSSESSOOHEREHEHEREEHROEEDRESESESEESEDEE
PROPHET EEE HH SEES
**
SHSM HSSEHHOSHEK SES ESCHH HERES SESE SRE THERESE HSER E SETS EOS e ee HERETHHEFSASSSSOSHSHHRHHSHH EES AEE ETAES HEH ESOREE®
eeneaeeeear
Attitudes toward firearms rooted in culture
Continued from Page 11
There, every adult male is required to keep a
working, fully automatic machine gun at home.
“The Swiss don't have an army — they are an
army,” one factor that protected them from inva
sion by Nazi Germany, Lizotte said.
Yet Switzerland has very little crime today.
Why?
Switzerland has “a very homogeneous popula-
tion, a fantastic social welfare system and nearly
full employment,” said Lizotte.
With more than 200 million guns in the
:
United States —- more guns than cars — the gun
culture is “not a light or transient thing. It’s the
very fabric of the being of people. It's a way
of life, in essence, that’s being preserved.”
Lizotte said
That's why 75 percent of the gun owners
Lizotte surveyed in Illinois said they would
refuse to give up their guns if they were out
lawed ,
“It's like saying, ‘You can't be Catholic any
more. You can't be Jewish. You have to give up
your culture because we don't like what it’s
about.’ ”
Courtesy of Warner Bros
Action movie heroes like Steven Seagal, star of Above the Law, frequently shoot their way out
of jams. Critics argue that pgpular movies often give a romanticized impression of guns.
DEAD ENDS
In fact. the gun culture is beneficial, some
scholars argue.
For families who join gun clubs, firearm use
is highly regulated.
In John Steinbeck’s “The Red Pony,” for ex-
ample, part of the boy's rite of passage is the .22-
caliber rifle his father gives him.
The boy must keep the gun — without bullets
— and use it safely for an entire year to earn his
ammunition
At the end, he points the gun at a bird and im-
mediately realizes: If my father saw me do that,
I'd never get bullets.
“Well, that’s good,” said Lizotte. “If you're go-
ing to have guns around it’s real nice to train
young people to their safe usage.”
Today there are more guns and more people.
But statistics show there was much more gun vi-
olence in America in the 1880s and the 1930s,
Lizotte said.
“The gun culture hasn't changed. The media
has changed,” he said
Now, we're inundated with news, “so when
somebody robs a McDonald’s and blows five
people away, you hear about it. And when you
hear about a bunch of kids shot in Stockton,
Calif, you say, ‘Oh, my God, that could happen to
my kid in Albany.’ ”
While news programs report mayhem, movies
and TV dramas romanticize the gun as an easy
solution, experts say
“It's swift, it’s cool, it’s effective, it's thrilling
and it always leads to a happy ending, because
you have to deliver the audience to a commer-
cial in a happy mood,” said George Gerbner,
dean emeritus of the Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of
Pennsylvania.
About a third of the highest-grossing films
from 1990 to 1992 featured gunplay prominently
In best-selling movies like “Lethal Weapon 3,”
“Die Hard 2° and “Total Recall.” Hollywood he
rees routinely rely on guns to solve their prob-
lems
“You can't turn on an HBO movie today with
out seeing some {kind] of irresponsible social be-
havior,” said FE. Scott Geller, professor of psychol
ogy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University. “And it's not just the guys with the
black hats. It's the guys with the white hats, too
“The people we look up to are violent. Maybe
it started with ‘Dirty Harry’... There are people
who believe that the gun is a statement of my in-
dividual freedom, And everyone likes to be free
I'm free, I'm American, I'm an individual.”
But popularity isn't driving the production of
violent films, argues Gerbner
Global marketing is. .
American television producers barely break
even on the American market, Gerbner said
Their profits lie in exports to other countries
And violent action is an easily translated ingre
dient
For American children, who spend more time
o in school, watching @:
watching TV than they d
accord
gression can lead to antisocial behavior,
the American
ing to a 1992 report by
Psychological Association.
Per capita murder rates doubled in. the
United States, Canada and South Africa in the
10 to 15 years after television was introduced
according to research conducted by epidemiolo
gist Centerwall at the University of Washington
Centerwall acknowledges that factors other
than TV contributed to the increase In hom
cides, but said the pattern shows television ai
fected the rates regardless of what other factor:
were present. For instance, in the United States
television was introduced to different regions al
different times. Yet in each case homocide rates
increased following its introduction. The regions
that acquired TV first were first to see higher
homicide rates.
Violence is common fare for preschoolers
Brutal acts occur 20 to 25 times per hour on
children’s Saturday morning programs, the re
port states. That rate is four times higher than
for prime-time violence.
The average child witnesses 8,000 murders
and 100,000 other assorted acts of television vio-
lence before graduating from elementary school
Heavy TV viewers are more apt to believe
their neighborhood is unsafe, to assume that
crime is rising regardless of the facts and to buy
new locks, watchdogs and guns for protection,
according to Gerbner
Last year, after a public outery, the ABC, CBS,
NBC and Fox television networks agreed to post
warning labels on violent television shows
Another epidemiologist, Dr. Deborah Proth
row-Stith, sees our cultural violence as a chron
ic public health problem. As assistant dean of
government and community programs at the
Harvard School of Public Health, Prothrow-Stith
promotes prevention
With more than 20.000 homicides each year, or
10 killings per 100,000 people, America has the
fifth-highest homicide rate in the world — 10
times as high as Britain and 25 times that of
Spain
Handguns are used in 50 percent of the homi
cides; 47 percent of the killings are caused by ar
guments, usually among acquaintances or rela
tives who have been drinking, Prothrow-Stith
states in “The Epidemic of Violence and its
Impact on the Health Care System.”
“More street lights, more police, and stiffer
prison sentences will have no effect on this par-
ticular situation,” Prothrow-Stith states
While doctors use behavior modification and
education “aggressively” to prevent heart dis-
ease, stroke and cancer, they do nothing to pre-
vent violence, Prothrow-Stith and others argue
She recommends teaching children how to
handle anger, educating physicians about family
violence and pressuring the media to eliminate
the “unrealistic, glamorous portrayal of the nev-
er-injured violent hero,”
America’s love affair with weapons may be symptomatic
By KATE GURNETT
Gazette Reporter ¥Sis.
Journal of Applied Behavior Anal-
greagier need for a gun to protect our
selves. So it’s a vicious cycle.”
chine.
cuing a co-worker caught in a ma
“At so many companies, people tell
me, ‘Twenty years ago, we were like a
family.” ”
LBANY -~ For many Amer-
icans, the gun is a remedy, an
answer
The question, experts say, is one of
contro!
Take “Falling Down,” a 1993 film
about an angry, unemployed, divorced
motorist on the Los Angeles freeway.
The victim, plaved by Michael
Douglas, takes control of his life.
How?
He picks up a bazooka and blows
away every obstacle in his path.
Columnist George Will calls it
“catharsis cinema.”
Such movies reflect how Amer
icans are feeling these days, says E
Seatt Geller, professor of psychology
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University, and editor of the
“A gun increases a sense of person-
al control, doesn’t it? So I can use this
gun and be in control,” said Geller.
“We feel a loss of control, people
putting us down. Look at the people
who lose their jobs who go in and kill
their boss.”
But a gun decreases a sense of com
munity, said Geller, “It increases a
sense of individuality at a time when
we need to start promoting collec
tivism.”
“There is no doubt that the gun is
an unfortunate instrument in the
hands of too many people.” said
Geller
But “it's also known as a symbol of
this country and of freedom and the
frontier. It's going to be tough to con
vince people not to buy guns. And as
we become more aggressive, we feel a
With 50,000 Americans dying each
year from homicide or suicide, some
doctors are pushing to make violence
a public health issue
Many poorer people may be living
in a state of “free-floating anger,” ar
ues epidemiologist Dr. Deborah
Prothrow-Stith
Constant feelings of frustration and
helplessness can provoke people to a
constant state of irritation more likely
io erupt in violence, she contends.
Geller, who gives seminars at com
panies such as Exxon and the James
River Corp.. combats negative mind.
sets by teaching managers a concept
he calls “actively caring.”
Altruistic behavior — reaching out
to help others — can range from giv-
ing a simple compliment or using a
vehicle turn signal to recycling or res-
Certain states of mind bolster ac
tive caring, Geller said, They are:
@ Self-esteem. People with higher
self-esteem are more likely to help
others. For those with low self-es
teem, the reverse is true.
“Self-esteem means ‘I am valuable’
And that can change day to day,”
Geller said.
®@ Self-efficacy. It's feeling that “l
can do it.” At companies where there
are layoffs, poor training and limited
instructions, workers lose faith that
they can get the job done
The result? People are less willing
to help others and are more prone to
aggressive behavior
@A feeling of belonging. “We're los:
ing that sense of community and to
getherness in this society,” Geller
said.
@Learned optimism, Optimists ex
pect the best. They do not feel “it’s in-
escapable” or “I can't get out of the
rut.”
@Personal control. If people be-
lieve they are in control, they're hap-
pier and more willing to help others,
Geller said
He cited this example
Researchers studied two groups of
people -—- asking both groups to proof
read for 30 minutes in a noisy room.
One group could stop the noise by
pushing a button, though they were
encouraged not to. The other set had
no control over the piped-in noise
The people who could control the
noise —- regardless of whether they
took advantage of that control -- per
formed better, Geller said.
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