by Patrick H. Moore
A lot of people believe that crime and craziness is primarily a problem in three wacko states: Florida, Texas, and — of course — good old California. And a good argument could possibly be made that these three states are the craziest of them all. If we add pure violence to the mix, however, we can hardly limit our inquiry to just the Big Three. Baltimore has registered a truly horrific amount of gun violence over the past few months and this past weekend New York City checked in with four people murdered and another five seriously injured. Joseph Stepansky and Thomas Tracy of the New York Daily News bring us the story:
- The night of bloodshed began at 11:30 p.m. Friday when a 49-year-old Manhattan man was stabbed to death by his neighbor in a Hamilton Heights building on W. 142nd St. Michael Patalano, 48, was arrested for murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
- The wave of violence quickly swept over to Brooklyn, where a gunman shot and killed a 32-year-old man at 12:20 a.m. during a dispute in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Witnesses told police that the unidentified victim punched the shooter on Hancock St. near Howard Ave. The gunman then pulled his weapon and started blasting — hitting the man in the head and back. He died at Kings County Hospital, officials said.
- And, at 1:15 a.m., little Briana Palmer, 10, was shot and injured outside her apartment in Far Rockaway, Queens, when she was apparently caught in the crossfire between two groups that were shooting it out.
- Less than 10 minutes later, a 19-year-old man was shot dead in the Bronx, officials said. Police said a group of men approached Kahleed Adams in front of his Creston Ave. home in the Fordham section at 12:26 a.m. A teenage gunman shot and killed Adams during a heated argument, police said.
- Three more people were shot on E. 96th St. near Farragut Road in Canarsie, at 4 a.m. The victims were all hospitalized with minor injuries.
- Just after 5 a.m., a gunman opened fire on two men in their 30s — killing one of them — on 163rd St. near 89th Ave. in Jamaica.
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It is noted that the four people killed and five people wounded does not begin to compare to the 25 people who were shot in NYC in a 48-hour-period in June of this year. If this appalling wave of gun violence leads to cynicism on the part of the general population, it’s quite understandable. I can’t keep from thinking, though, that it would be a lot harder for these morons to shoot and kill often innocent victims if they didn’t have such easy access to firearms.