Y'all are assuming the NYPD gun permit system is in some way "fair".
What follows is a guest editorial I had hoped the NY Post would publish. They've not said anything yet, so enjoy
. It was written for the Alcosta case but the basics are the same for this.
------------------
Justice And Guns In The Big Apple:
The Jose Alcosta Case
By Jim March –
[email protected]
Most of the people ready to declare Jose Alcosta “guilty†of a crime ask “why didn’t he apply for a firearms premise permit�
First, according to NYPD procedure, it costs one over $350 to "find out" if you'll get a permit. The difficult part of the process is figuring out if the department is going to approve your "good cause for issuance" of the premise permit and/or carry permit. It's completely discretionary, and with the total costs of the permit "front loaded" right from the get-go, it's a very expensive gamble for anyone of modest means.
That appears to be the goal: put in an "economic class barrier" right up front, to weed out the "riffraff". Except that Mr. Alcosta clearly is NOT "riffraff".
In California, the discretionary carry permit program costs about as much to get through, however the law mandates that only $20 be up-front non-refundable at filing. Police or sheriffs then evaluate the "good cause" on a discretionary basis, and only once the applicant finishes that step is the full fingerprint background check run at greater cost to the applicant. The applicant is only penalized those sums if they've mis-stated their criminal background during the initial step.
Second: perceived police discrimination against minorities is so entrenched, and minority distrust of the NYPD is so high, that most folks in Alcosta's position automatically assume that their $350 application fee is simply money down a toilet.
Are they correct? Hard to say. Somebody will have to get the list of gun premise permit holders, the list of business license holders, and do a racial examination of each. In California, we've seen a carry permit issuance rate to Latinos in one county (Fresno) of 3%, which is shocking given that Fresno County is 44% Hispanic per census data. Discrepancies that extreme are common across the state. If somebody were to do such an analysis of NYC gun permits (both premise and carry), odds are the rate of discrepancy would be similar.
To really nail it, you'd need the list of people denied a premise permit, and see if the Latino denial rates are higher. In California, we've had huge problems getting denial data as the local agencies regularly destroy it contrary to state law. I would suspect the NYPD would squeal like...ehh, well "pigs", if the denial lists were requested.
I'm assuming that the department isn't specifically tracking race in the gun permits. Most discretionary systems don't, because if they did the inherent racial bias would be too obvious, so you have to do last-name analysis for Latinos. California is an example of a discretionary system that doesn't track race. But if the data DOES include the race of denied and approved applicants, so much the better because discrimination against blacks will probably be even more extreme.
Third: there appears to be corruption within the NYPD in how gun permits are issued. At least one member of the brass who handles gun licensing is under investigation; he gave the rare carry permits to two members of the rock band Aerosmith and got backstage passes, concert tickets, limo rides and similar in exchange (story dated 11/24/02, NY Post, “NYPD BIG UNDER FIRE IN AEROSMITH 'GOT A GUN' SCANDALâ€). Corruption in gun carry permit handling has been seen in California too, and appears to be a common result of "discretionary" licensing schemes.
In short, NYC's gun permit program appears to have been set up as a deliberate equal protection violation and in the Alcosta case, is clearly contradictory to basic ideals of justice and both racial and economic class equality.
Jim March is a California police misconduct and self-defense rights activist investigating the discretionary permit program in that state. On the web: www.equalccw.com
