This week marks the 16th anniversary of the shooting death of a 10-year-old Albany girl. Debate over the root causes of gun violence is as pitched as ever.
Kathina Thomas, a 10-year-old city girl, was killed by a stray bullet fired from a 15-year-old boy's "community gun" as she played in front of her family home on First Street May 29, 2008. A few months later, in October, 22-year-old University at Albany student Richard Bailey was shot dead by a 17-year-old a block from Washington Park. Both young killers were given life sentences.
That fateful year also touched the soul of Albany anti-gun group 518 SNUG's program Director Jerome Brown:
Old Brown "In 2008 my brother, to this day is paralyzed because he was helping me do security at a local bar. Also in 2008 I lost my nephew because he was shot and killed when he went to a party."
In July 2018, a month after speaking at a city hall event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Thomas shooting, Brown mourned the death of Elijah Cancer, writing on social media that the "SNUG worker of the year" had been "gunned down after trying to mediate a conflict in the South End."
To this day, guns continue to find their way into young hands. A 12-year old boy was arrested for attempted murder after allegedly shooting a 48-year-old woman on May 13th along South Pearl street.
Speaking at a Public Safety update Tuesday, Police Chief Eric Hawkins says Albany has seen 24 shootings to date, versus 19 reported at the same time last year.
"Everybody knows what the problem is," said Hawkins, "They know that they're coming from many different places around the country and making their way into urban areas in all across the country. But how to stop this flow is something that's really perplexed our federal law enforcement agencies, and it's very frustrating for the local law enforcement agencies."
Hawkins adds police have confiscated more than a hundred guns so far this year.
As he runs for a sixth term, Albany County District Attorney David Soares argues that bail reform and "Raise the Age" have adversely affected law enforcement.
"The first people that understand this very clearly are those people who are carrying guns, and therefore you do not hear of the 'community gun' anymore," Soares said. "Because you can carry it on your person. And there is an incentive, that if you want, you know, work put in, that you're going to put that gun in the hand of a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old, and let that person do the work. Because you know that there's really no risk or consequences because of Raise the Age."
Soares contends "gun violence is almost normalized right now in Albany," and is occurring in the same neighborhoods and on the same streets it was back when Thomas was killed.
"If you had told me 20 years ago that one day, we were going to have, that people of color are going to have, the most power that they ever could have imagined in developing policy for the state, if you would have said that to me back in 2008, after Kathina Thomas, I would have thought that our future was absolutely bright. And the communities that I'm talking about would begin to have a sense of relief from this violence. Instead, we fast forward 20 plus years later, what the most powerful elected Black leaders provided was bail reform," said Soares.
Center for Law and Justice Executive Director Dr. Alice Green has supported criminal justice reforms since their implementation in New York.
"Once you put somebody in jail, it affects their employment if they are employed or the ability to get employment, it affects children and families and, you know, ultimately the entire community... There are safeguards along the way, but no one can guarantee 100 percent that someone won't commit a crime because they released on bail. Because if you're wealthy and you commit murder, you can be released on bail, if you have the money. The issue is, equity, and constitutional rights," Green said.
Soares' mantra has been "super progressive policies ... are destroying black lives and killing inner cities."
Albany County Democrats declined to support Soares' re-election bid due to the DA's financial tangles, which include a bonus he later returned under pressure and his failure to file campaign disclosure forms. Attorney Lee Kindlon is primarying Soares in June.
"I do think that just good, hard-nosed hands on prosecutions that are going to take place when I'm in office in 2025, then we're going to really start to see a change when it comes to the violence and the guns across Albany County," said Kindlon.