http://www.nydailynews.com/01-01-200...p-408106c.html
New York Daily News January 1st, 2007
By Stanley Crouch
Gun program arms citizens with the best weapon
The removal of guns from this city's streets is basic to achieving a civilized level of order and a feeling of safety, which is the job of the New York Police Department and the city administration and any gathering of do-gooders focused on the lowering of the murder rate.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says that Operation Gun Stop is a necessary program because it creates incentive and guarantees the protection of those citizens who want to report the sale of or possession of illegal firearms.
"The best police work frequently results from the alliance of the community and law enforcement," Kelly says, "which is why we are offering $1,000 to each person who contacts us with information that leads to an arrest and a conviction."
Operation Gun Stop is funded by the NYPD and information can be supplied anonymously by dialing the toll-free number, 866-GUN STOP. Rewards are paid within 72 hours of the arrest of one or more suspects. In 2006, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10, Operation Gun Stop received 701 tips, made 549 arrests, seized 293 guns, and paid $189,000 in rewards. Not bad.
But why is anonymity important? "Our job is to protect the community as much as it is to bring in criminals who threaten lives in the community," says Kelly.
Kelly went on to explain something we all should know: "These are not toy criminals and they are not toy guns. If someone notifies us about a member of a drug crew who is known to possess illegal firearms, under no circumstances do we want that person's name available to the criminal. If even WE don't know who the person is, he is that much safer. Otherwise, the arrest of a suspect could lead to grim results."
I think this is the kind of a program that should provide a national model for addressing a far from insignificant problem. It also allows those who are tired of the conditions created by the lawless to strike back at them. Without guns, many deaths would have been avoided because the murderers are not people hypnotized by the possibility of bringing guns to equal the odds; they bring guns to have an advantage. As neighborhood people, both young and old, begin to help law enforcement remove the instruments of degradation that dog the community, we can all breathe easier. I say that because when a gun has been confiscated we know it will not be an instrument of terror or murder.