Will Closing Corner Stores Early Stop Violent Crime In Albany?

There have been 8 people shot and killed in Albany in 2018 as opposed to the 7 for the entire year last year. Everyone is looking for answers and a stop to the violence wave in Albany. Recently Albany Mayor Sheehan proposed a curfew on corner stores in Albany to curb violence.

Do you think your local corner store is the cause of violence? Some people think that corner stores that stay open late give people a place to hang out late at night. Do you think these stores have anything to do with the recent spree of violent crimes?

It was a topic Mayor Kathy Sheehan touched upon in her sit down interview with CBS6 regarding the uptick in violence the city has seen recently, instead of enacting a citywide curfew, which she says may increase tensions instead of making things better.

"Limiting the hours of the corner stores because you have people who are hanging out there late at night. "

It's something the Mayor says may be a contributing factor to the uptick in violence.

"You know you're not getting a gallon of milk usually at 1 o'clock in the morning," Sheehan said.

I don't think these stores have anything to do with violence, it seems like everyone is trying to find the cause of violence and are coming up short with an answer.

By making the stores shut down earlier, its punishing people who really haven't done anything wrong. While people may not go to the store typically for a gallon of milk at 1a in the morning.

If someone wants to make that an option, they should have the option to be able to purchase things late at night.

Most of the nightclubs and social activities have been shut down in Albany, young people already have nothing to do. This was the reason for shutting them clubs down years ago, with the "Cabaret Law".

This also seems unfair to the store owners, Albany would never enforce a curfew on bigger nationally owner corporations who do business here. So why pick on the minority local business owners?

Poverty creates violence, an attack on that problem and we might see real results. We need less finger pointing and more activism to reach young people in the community.

Do you think a curfew on commerce will solve Albany's violent crime problem?