Officials Compare Albany Gun Violence To Baltimore and Chicago

Officials have been expressing their concern about the increase in gun violence in cities all over the country. Albany is no different, city officials are expressing their outrage at the dramatic spike in gun violence this year.

Officials say that they have restructured their work model to comply with COVID-19 protocol. Albany County District Attorney’s Office says that they are doing all they can to process people who have been arrested. Now we need to have those accused people actually go to court and face the judge to really get the cases finalized. David Soares, of the District Attorney’s Office, is expressing frustration with the criminal justice reform process saying that it makes the process more difficult to get to closure.

He said, “We have what appears to be a closure rate on gun shooting cases of about 20%, which is indicative of cities like Baltimore, cities like Chicago. Given the discovery legislation that was passed requiring prosecutors to turn over the information of witnesses and victims so early on in the process, it causes a lot of people to shut down and not come forward.“

To an outside person looking in, it appears that different branches are pointing the finger at each other. In the meantime, young people are being slain on the streets.

Government officials are elected to fix problems like gun violence. A small city like Albany should never be compared to a city like Baltimore or Chicago when it comes to anything of a violent nature.

People move to small cities to get away from big-city problems. The government plays a major role, but they can’t do it all by themselves. We the people have to work harder to make Albany a safe place to live again.