Daily Archives: October 12, 2015

Politics & Tidbits: Nine lives

Steven Sanders

Steven Sanders

By Former Assemblyman Steven Sanders

In previous columns I wrote that massacres with guns would continue until the U.S. Congress found the courage and intelligence to enact meaningful gun ownership restrictions.

So who can be surprised that a college campus in Oregon was yet the latest site of a mass murder?

The person who committed that heinous crime last week did so with legally purchased weapons. This time nine lives were lost to another deranged gunman. Nine more young people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nine families shattered, nine more funerals and countless more expressions of sorrow and sympathy from our leaders in Congress… and then nothing more, just a little road bump in the life of Congress.

It seems that the gun zealots and the misguided Second Amendment purists have the proverbial “nine lives.” Nothing seems to be horrific enough to kill off their ambitions to see even more guns proliferate our streets and communities and with no regulations.

If they were not moved to action three years ago when twenty toddlers were gunned down at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, what hope is there that this latest tragedy or the next one or the one after that will cause a change of heart or spur our weak-kneed Congress to finally act?

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Three women shot, one fatally, outside Flatiron club

Oct15 Motivo5

Detectives outside Motivo on Monday morning (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

A 24-year-old woman was shot and killed outside of a nightclub in the Flatiron District early on Monday morning, and two other women were also shot and now in stable condition.

Police said that at 4 a.m., the victims were found in front of the club, Motivo at 915 Broadway and 21st Street. The 24-year-old woman who was later pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital had been shot in the back. A 30-year-old woman was shot in the shoulder and a 25-year-old woman had been shot on the hip and foot.

Police officers keep the street in front of Motivo blocked off. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

Police officers keep the street in front of Motivo blocked off. (Photo by Sabina Mollot)

There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing. Police are withholding the name of the woman who was killed pending family notification.

The Post reported the victims were not likely the intended targets and that the suspect is believed to be in his 20s and was last seen wearing a red and black hoodie, according to cops.

UPDATE: The Daily News reported that the shooter had been kicked out of the club, and then vowed to get his gun before retrieving it from his vehicle. The woman who died was identified as Walikque Faussett, a Bronx resident and mother to a three-year-old son named Alex. The News also reported that the suspected shooter is also from the Bronx and believed to be a member of the “DYMES R US” gang, according to police.

Pro-life rally at Epiphany

Protesters got met with a few middle fingers hanging out of passing car windows. (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

Protesters got met with a few middle fingers hanging out of passing car windows. (Photos by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

On the heels of a near government shutdown in Washington over funding of Planned Parenthood, a pro-life rally was held locally in front of Epiphany Church on Sunday. This particular rally, with around 40 protesters participating, was in support of a national pro-life movement called Life Chain that holds rallies every October.

Beth Mumm, a resident of Peter Cooper Village and the organizer of the event in front of the Gramercy Catholic church, said that Life Chain has been organizing these rallies for longer but she has organized this event in Manhattan for the last three years. The website for National Life Chain says that the organization has been holding rallies since 1987, when the first event was held in two small California towns.

Mumm said that most of the people who usually come to participate are parishioners at Epiphany, but this year there was also a group that traveled from Hicksville on Long Island, as well as a handful of people from St. Brigid’s on Avenue B and churches in Brooklyn. Representatives from the religious community also participated, including sisters from Sisters of Life and friars from Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

While the original Life Chain rally that started almost 30 years ago consisted of an actual chain, one of people linking arms and standing in prayer, the current incarnation involves participants standing on the sidewalk and displaying signs that say “Abortion kills children,” “Adoption: the loving option” and “Jesus forgives and heals.”

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