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WAR ON
OUR
STREETS
- NO
TIME TO
TALK,
TIME TO
ACT
Dearing
Says:
“Want to
stop the
violence…
then get
the
guns.”
DETROIT
– In the
wake of
a deadly
shooting
on
Detroit’s
West
Side,
city
council
candidate
and West
Side
resident
Jai-Lee
Dearing
unveiled
his plan
to
combat
gun
violence
at its
core.
Dearing’s
plan
calls
for a
crackdown
on
illegal
gun
sales,
new
license
requirements
for gun
dealers
and
increased
flexibility
for the
Detroit
Police
Department
to focus
on
felony
gun
offenders.
An
impassioned
Dearing
said
that
this
crisis
amounts
to a
city in
a state
of
emergency.
“Criminals
have
declared
war on
our city
and the
time for
talking
is over
– it’s
time to
fight
back,”
Dearing
said.
“This is
a crisis
today,
and our
children
are
dying.
We must
come
together
as a
community
and say
to these
criminals
– if you
want to
come
after
one of
us, you
come
after
all of
us, and
now
we’re
coming
after
you.”
Dearing
emphasized
the need
for new
revenue,
savings
and more
efficient
government
to shift
resources
to the
Detroit
Police
Department
to
better
combat
gun
violence
and
crime.
Dearing
proposes
eliminating
the
Administrative
Hearings
Department
and the
311
Department
to save
approximately
$4
million
annually.
Included
in
Dearing’s
plan was
also a
re-allocation
of some
of the
$20
million
in
operational
costs
that
will be
saved
every
year
after
the
transfer
of Cobo
to a
regional
authority.
“Bottom
line, we
not only
need a
plan to
protect
our
families,
but we
need
more
money to
give our
cops a
chance
out
there on
the
street,”
Dearing
said.
“We have
tough
choices
ahead of
us, but
moving
money to
better
protect
our
families,
our
businesses
and our
city is
an easy
one. Our
police
are our
soldiers
on the
frontlines
of this
war –
they
need
reinforcements
and we
need to
give
them
whatever
they
need to
hit
back.”
According
to a
document
on
Dearing’s
website,
“the
Dearing
for
Detroit
Platform
– A
Better
Detroit
through
Smarter
Policy”,
the
legislation
would
include
measures
for
greater
transparency
in
tracing
data to
track
the use
of
illegal
firearms,
strengthening
of
licensing
requirements
for
local
gun
dealers,
increased
emphasis
on the
origin
of
illegally
acquired
weapons
to
better
combat
gun
trafficking
from
other
states
and
increased
flexibility
for the
DPD to
focus
their
efforts
on
felony
gun
offenders.
“If we
want to
attack
the
violence
that is
terrorizing
our
neighborhoods
and
killing
our
children,
we must
take
away the
instruments
of that
violence,”
Dearing
said.
“This
plan
will
help our
police
department
get the
tools,
flexibility
and
resources
they
need to
take
these
guns off
our
streets
and out
of the
hands of
criminals.”
According
to the
U.S
Justice
Department
report,
“Promising
Strategies
to
Reduce
Gun
Violence”,
the
program
has been
very
successful
in New
York
City,
where
the NYPD
has been
able to
drastically
reduce
the
number
of
illegal
guns on
the
street
and the
overall
number
of gun
crimes
in their
city.
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