NYC Mayor hires old felons to "interrupt" new felons

Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio has kicked off a $13M plan to curb violence in his city which relies on paying “ex-felons” to keep tabs on potential future felons and “interrupt” their violent activities. It’s based on a pilot program of the same type which was called, “Save Our Streets” and has been heralded by the mayor’s office as a big success. The NY Post explains how the program worked.

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The philosophy behind Save Our Streets, according to the Center for Court Innovation’s Ife Charles, is that gun violence is a disease: “Quarantine an area, and then saturate the area with some sort of antibodies to help eradicate the violence.”

The “antibodies” in this case are ex-cons who are hired because they “know the streets, have been there and have credibility.”

These “interrupters” follow gang “beefs” on social media and rush to the scene of potential fights in order to defuse tensions.

Before I could even begin typing something snarky along the lines of what could possibly go wrong, the Mayor put me in my place. According to him, the pilot program decreased violent crime in the area by an astounding 66%. Now THAT’s impressive. Except for one small detail…

The mayor calls Ife Charles, the coordinator of Save Our Streets, “the general of the army here, who has shown that this is the way forward.”

But Charles either lied or made a massive error when she announced that her own report showed “a 66 percent reduction in the shooting incidents that took place within our particular catchment area, once the program was implemented.”

In fact, the report — “Testing a Public Health Approach to Gun Violence” — clearly states that “results showed that average monthly shooting rates in Crown Heights decreased by 6 percent from the pre to the post periods.”

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Hey, 6%? Or 66%? Now you’re just quibbling over a decimal point. Anyone can make a typo like that. Allen West weighed in on this one.

Yep, Mayor Bill believes the best way to combat gun violence is to enlist and pay ex-gangbangers as “violence interrupters” — folks, you cannot make this stuff up!

I guess he believes all you need is a little counseling – I’m surprised they’re not outsourcing Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil.

Also less reported is that a couple of the “interrupters” in the pilot program wound up back in custody for new crimes of their own, according to a separate source. And, as West notes, participants in the program are not required to report to the police if any of the suspects have illegal guns. You know… to preserve their street cred. You don’t want to get a reputation as a snitch.

Congratulations, New York City. You overwhelmingly wanted de Blasio. And now you’ve got him. Enjoy.

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