Dear Editor:
Mayor Adams promised to reduce crime to a minimal level. Having had a law enforcement career, this was quite believable. There was another glimmer of hope when Mayor Adams stated that the popularity of the very violent rap music in African American neighborhoods was a big problem, indicating that he understood that crime is a cultural problem.
However, his primary tool in fighting crime is gun control. Unfortunately, this indicates that he actually understands nothing. Guns are not the problem. There are other states and communities with a much higher gun ownership per capita than New York City or Chicago and their crime rates are a fraction of the ones in these two cities. You eliminate the guns, and the knives and other weapons will reappear.
Crime is a culture. Poverty is a culture. I know that these statements are politically incorrect. I am of German origin. My ancestors were politically correct 90 years ago in hating the Jews and ended up cruelly murdering 6 million of them. I will never ever be politically correct. Crime and poverty are cultures and they are related. I have lived my entire adult life – 41 years- in this country. And I have seen the cause and effect of crime rising and diminishing over and over again. Whenever we fought crime with strict law enforcement and tough incarceration crime diminished. Whenever we excused crime as a result of social inequities and became lenient and “understanding” crime exploded.
When are we going to learn? I ran and grew a distribution business in Denville, NJ. And with that I learned that it is untrue that there are no opportunities for “the poor”, they are, unfortunately, unemployable. I will have to elaborate on this in another letter. Peace and safety in our communities can only be accomplished with strict and fair enforcement of law and order.
Alexander Schenk
