Report To The People Offers Little

As if schooled by The Paul, we received a recent “Report to the People” campaign piece that said little, but managed to produce a collage of pictures with the sender posing with several politicos and others from the public, all under the pretext of performing legislative service. The reality is, he is short on substance and long on hyperbole. By the way, we’re not using his name to keep from promoting his lame record and abuse of mailing privileges. We hope that others will view this and other campaign mailers with a more critical eye.

On the front page of the campaign piece is “his statement” in response to the Newtown murders of twenty-six people. These murders were truly horrible and ABG means no disrespect toward those victims, families and friends who are suffering from this. It’s a shame that he would use this as a political opportunity to issue a statement “in response” to the Newtown shootings, when nobody asked him for one and he has nothing to add. Sadly, it’s pure politics. His plan? Keeps guns away from those who would misuse them, ban military style weapons, register all guns, their transfer, mandate their secure storage, carefully license every gun owner, train them in gun safety, and check on them periodically. Then he wants to utilize more mental health professionals in the community to minimize the likelihood of violence. Of course, he fails to mention how to pay for all of this or any real strategy for implementation.

ABG is always saddened to see anyone injured or killed. In fact, several of our staff members volunteer in the Greenburgh community in different capacities and recognize first-hand the horrors that people inflict upon others. We also recognize that most of his talking points are strictly designed to appear to promote a call to action while merely promoting himself. The reality is nothing will happen and in particular, he will do nothing but continue to talk about it. The shooter in Newtown appears to have a history of mental illness. For that matter, his mother, whom he also killed, must have had something wrong too, since she legally purchased and kept weapons in the home, and took her mentally ill son to the firing range to “bond”. He didn’t use military style or assault weapons. In Webster, NY, the shooter of the two firefighters was obviously deranged and then killed himself. Could the talking points our representative have made a difference? We’ll never know. Lets examine his points individually.

1) Keep guns away from those who would misuse them. It’s great to say, but how to you propose to do this? Will he introduce another unenforceable law that he can brag he co-wrote or co-sponsored? You can’t control who gets a gun unless that person is a law-abiding citizen. It’s like putting locks on doors; hence the saying, ‘locks are for honest people’. The amount of people who own guns versus the amount being murdered is being disproportionately represented.
2) Ban military style weapons? They are. It was not a military style weapon that was used in the Newtown killings. It was an over the counter automatic rifle. But okay, ban military weapons. How?
3) Register all guns? Good luck making that happen. Handguns are currently required to be registered, rifles are not. Since the police are prohibited to enter your homes by the constitution, this would be a voluntary program at best, is unenforceable, and limited to the law-abiding. However, if we should attempt to have all guns registered, amend the current law to include rifles. It’s a start in the direction he claims we need. We agree it needs to start.
4) Regulate gun transfers. Again, how? An example was given by a friend whose grandfather gifted a shotgun to his teenage grandson. He took the time to train him in the proper use of the gun, the grandson took a gun safety class and became a remarkable target shooter – not a hunter. As a familial transaction, government would never know about it.
5) Carefully license every gun owner. We already have this law on the books and again, normal law-abiding citizens are never the issue. In fact, the Newtown shooter’s mothers guns were legally registered. Sometimes, bad things happen by bad people that no amount of legislation will stop.
6) Train them in gun safety. Good idea. And yet, government has mandated every new driver take an 8-hour driver safety class before they can take their driving test. Yet once licensed, many of these new drivers still drink, text, and drive under the influence even though they were told them it wasn’t safe to do it. And which group has the highest accident rates? New drivers. So, how much of government mandated training is going to produce the results he seeks?
7) Check on them periodically? Could this be more ambiguous? We hear of child abuse victims all the time who are neglected because a case-worker was overworked or unable to effectively investigate the parents. So, now he proposes hiring more people onto the government payroll that is already bloated? Can you say tax increase? His response, of course, will be, “If we save just one life, any cost was worth it.” That’s debatable.
8) Stop glorifying violence. Many talk about needing anti-violence, especially the Hollywood crowd. Aren’t they the same ones that make and star in the violent movies for gazillions of dollars? The movie industry’s been in a slump and then the action-packed, violent, James Bond “Skyfall” movie sets records for attendance. Add to that The Expendables, Transformers, Batman (repeatedly) etc., proving the law abiding public wants these films because movies are an escape from our everyday lives. Hollywood is being disingenuous, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them. Good luck with stopping that.
9) The group he works with passed legislation requiring micro-stamping bullets to assist in tracing weapons back to their owner. Didn’t the police know who was doing the shootings in most of these killings. Feel good legislation? You decide.

There were several other items he “worked” on. Or did he? Actually, here’s some of the mailing’s legislatiive topics that was passed into law but not necessarily written by our legislator: DNA Databank, Domestic Violence protections, Cyber-Bullying, Micro-stamping, I-Stop (Internet - System for Tracking Over Prescribed drugs), Water Protection (accidental sewage discharge notification into waterways, sponsored by him), Health (prohibits smoking within 100ft of a school - because our police officers need to be busier), Hydro-Fracking (requires studies of the health impacts of hydro-fracking, co-sponsored by him).

Finally, to the back page of the campaign piece. He claims we need to replace ConEd as their Hurricane Sandy storm response was “totally inadequate, a management fiasco, a poor plan, poorly executed.” He’s calling for hearings into ConEd’s poor response. Why? We know their response was as good as it could be given the magnitude of damage and their current staffing. ConEd called in for help and the ConEd unions turned some of the non-union utility workers away. What results could hearings possibly render? The committee’s 30-page report summary will state that ConEd was woefully understaffed, the size of the storm was unpredictable, and the amount of damage into the billions of dollars and the federal government, along with FEMA must do more. This is strictly grandstanding on his part. The Paul will want to get in on the media frenzy and issue a press release commending the committee, berate ConEd again (he’s already done this), and say we should do away with county government.

He has introduced legislation for an idea that many have offered before him to put a height restrictor at the entrances of our parkways to deter trucks from accessing the roadways. He doesn’t even allude to how much will this cost? Regardless, it does have merit. Currently, the bridges that get repeated hits on the Hutchinson River Parkway cost us little if anything but time to address. When a bridge hit in Mamaroneck happens, the County Police respond (paid, on duty), the Mamaroneck Fire Department (no cost, volunteer) responds, a wrecker responds (big cost, insurance pays) and tickets and fines are issued. Virtually no cost to the tax payer except for the time delays. Now, we’ll be paying for some elaborate study, then prototype development, testing, changes and installation. Worth it, or another government boondoggle? Whatever the cost figures are that are presented to the public, triple the number and you’ll have the final cost. Watch for the federal and state subsidy slight of hand with the accompanying claims of low cost to the taxpayers because the feds are picking up the bill. YOU are the feds picking up the bill!

He also is requesting a discounted rate for all Westchester residents who use the Tappan Zee bridge. ABG, as well as everyone else we discuss this with, recognizes that the tolls will skyrocket once the bridge is completed, so this is highly unlikely to happen. He is still insisting on only building one bridge and keeping the original bridge as a park and bus use. Apparently, it’s been designated as maintenance-free and no longer needs demolition. He should pay more attention when he’s at his part-time job supposedly representing us to what’s already been decided. There will be two bridges, no park and dedicated bus lanes. But he’ll be able to say look what I tried to do for you – and with a straight face.

He brags that he was able to get legislation approved to allow Greenburgh (really The Paul) to lease Town property to a private, for-profit business, undoing the safety net provided by law to protect the Unincorporated residents of the Town. Another legislator from the other side of the building was participatory in the unraveling of this law. Then his last tidbit is that he joined with the Pleasantville mayor, other local officials and numerous residents to stop the installation of cell towers there. Funny, we wonder why he didn’t help the Irvington residents trying to accomplish the same thing? ABG’s guess is that The Paul wanted the towers and he was afraid to go against his eminence.

All of these talking points make for a nice generic mailer/campaign piece that does nothing but continue to aid incumbents with their off-season campaigning. Change a few pictures and this template will surely be used by other legislators. They keep their name out there, ensuring little chance that the electorate will vote for a new candidate come election time. Ultimately, they are doing little for the prized salary and perks they receive. It needs to change. We can only hope.