Eight people — including four children as young as six — were gunned down on a Brooklyn street Saturday night while New York's leaders celebrated the nation's 250th birthday, and the people who govern this city have no one to arrest and no answers to give.
The shooting happened just before 11 p.m. on West 31st Street in Coney Island, a working-class neighborhood where families gather for the holiday. According to the NYPD, officers arrived to find eight victims with gunshot wounds: two men, two women, and four children aged 14, 12, seven, and six. A 21-year-old woman was shot in the chest and remains in critical condition. CBS News reported that the six-year-old was shot in the stomach, the seven-year-old took bullets to both legs, the 12-year-old was shot in the leg, and the 14-year-old in the thigh. The remaining victims were listed in stable condition.
Police recovered a firearm at the scene. No arrests have been made. The investigation is, as always, "ongoing."
The Guardian covered the bare facts but framed the story around the holiday — "during the US Independence Day holiday" — as though the date were the headline, not the bodies on the pavement. CBS provided the granular detail on the children's injuries that The Guardian omitted. Neither outlet touched the question of who governs this city or why its streets remain war zones on holidays.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, a separate incident early Sunday saw police open fire at the end of a pursuit near the Walbrook Junction Shopping Center, according to Baltimore News. The Maryland Attorney General's Independent Investigation Division launched an investigation within two hours — a speed of accountability that everyday shooting victims in these cities never see.
That's the divide that matters. When police pull a trigger, the state mobilizes. When a six-year-old catches a bullet on the Fourth of July, the public gets a press release and a recovered gun.
New York City has poured resources into everything except the safety of its own neighborhoods. Billions flow overseas, billions flow to consultants and consultants' consultants, and the working people of Coney Island get a holiday weekend shooting gallery. The NYPD found a weapon. They found eight victims. They found no one to hold accountable.
The question isn't what happened on West 31st Street. The question is how many more holidays end this way before the people who run this city answer for it.
