NYC NOW - June 28, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

New York City libraries are set to be fully funded again. Plus, Bill Tambussin, the lawyer for George Norcross, has been kicked off the Rutgers University Governing Board. Also, WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen talks with reporter Samantha Max about legal concerns around a two-year-old federal ruling that may change the way police search for illegal guns on city streets. And finally, we close out Pride month with a stop at Destination Tomorrow, an LGBTQ+ center in the Bronx.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. With congestion pricing on pause for the foreseeable future, the MTA is shelving many long-planed projects, including long overdue upgrades to five subway stations. One of them is the historic Chamber Street Station at City Hall on the JNZ lines. The MTA had planned to replace chip tiles, repaint walls and ceilings, and restore historic elements of the station. 64-year-old commuter Andrew Maloney

calls it a missed opportunity. Certainly if you upgrade the station, you get a better feeling with the consumers and they're more likely to actually want to utilize the subway, particularly when you're coming to a landmark place, such as City Hall. The MTA says it's prioritizing projects that focus on safety and keeping the trains running.

Two years after a Supreme Court ruling made it easier to carry guns in New York, some lawyers questioned whether the federal ruling will change the way police search for illegal guns on city streets. More on that after the break. It's been two years since a ruling by the Supreme Court made it easier for New Yorkers to carry guns in public. Since then, most law enforcement experts agree the city hasn't become the Wild West version of itself, some had predicted. Still, they say cracks have formed in the city's longstanding protections against guns. My colleague Tiffany Hansen, talked with WMYC's Samantha Max to explain where things stand.

Remind us, what was that Supreme Court case all about? So it's called New York State Rifle and Pistol Association versus Bruin. Bruin is the name of the former superintendent of state police, who used to be in charge of approving and denying concealed carry permit applications in some parts of the state. Before this ruling, New York was one of a handful of states across the U.S. that had really particularly strict requirements for getting a permit to carry a gun in public. In New York, you had to demonstrate that you had some sort of special need to defend yourself outside of your home,

which was really difficult for people to prove. So the Supreme Court said that licensing officers deciding which of these applications would be approved or denied just had too much power and were making decisions that were kind of subjective and violated people's Second Amendment rights, and they said that New York needed to change its system. This ruling kind of threw a wrench in a system that had allowed New York to severely limit who could carry a gun. And this regime had been in place for over 100 years. So this made a lot of people across the state very anxious about what this was going to mean for the measures in place to prevent gun violence. The state ended up passing some new legislation after the rule.

ruling that changed the licensing rules that in some ways actually kind of made it more difficult and stricter out of these new requirements. And it also limited where guns could be carried in public. All those rules are facing legal challenges right now, but they're mostly still in place at the moment. So do we know are more people carrying guns in New York now? There has been a surge in applications for what's called a concealed carry permit. That is what allows you to carry a gun outside the home. I got NYPD data that showed in 2019, five years ago, 258 people applied for a concealed carry permit. Last year, once this ruling was really in effect, 6,751 people applied. So that is a huge increase. And in just the first few months of this year,

there had already been more than 1,800 applications. The NYPD won't say how many have been approved, So we don't actually know exactly how many more people at this point are carrying guns around in public. But I did speak with a Second Amendment attorney who represents lots of people who are applying for these permits. And he told me that the process has been slow for his clients, but many are being approved. Well, we do know that getting illegal guns off the streets has been a major priority for the NYPD. How has the Supreme Court ruling affected that effort? Well, the NYPD would not answer our questions about whether the department has changed its training or its policy in any way for gun searches and seizures. But they did say in a statement that the NYPD is committed to keeping illegal guns off the streets and also respecting the rights of all New Yorkers.

For a little bit more of kind of an inside look, I talked to retired deputy chief Robert Lukash, who explained to me essentially what it takes for police officers to, seize a gun. So essentially, if police want to stop someone, they need to have reasonable suspicion to believe that someone is carrying an illegal gun. Before the SCOTUS ruling, police could kind of assume that anyone they encountered on the streets in New York City with a gun didn't have a license because it was just so hard to get one. But now they can't really make that assumption as easily. So Lukash says this kind of puts officers in a bind. You can either rush to search, someone and potentially violate their rights, and that could mean that any case against them could actually be thrown out in court later on, or if you take too much time to ask them

questions and find out more information, you could risk getting hurt. If I was to do it, I would have my presumption at any given time is going to be that I presume that the gun is carried illegally. I can't presume that it's carried legally because I think if you do, you kind of put yourself in harm's way. And he says he hopes officers are getting more training on this in light of the Supreme Court ruling. Are prosecutors still going after people they say are carrying guns without a license, Sam? Yes, gun violence is definitely still a priority for prosecutors. And state data that I obtained showed that it doesn't look like they're suddenly dropping tons of gun

possession cases. But defense attorneys are starting to challenge cases against their clients. making different kinds of arguments, like that their clients shouldn't be prosecuted for carrying illegal guns, that certain groups of people, like people with felony records, should not be barred from owning or carrying firearms. And also that police shouldn't be allowed to arrest someone for gun possession without knowing whether they actually have a license. Have those arguments been successful? So far, mostly no, according to the DA's offices and defense attorneys I spoke with. But judges have dismissed at least two cases against people charged with gun possession that I know of, one in the Bronx and in state court and one in federal court in Brooklyn. In the Brooklyn case, the detective said he arrested someone who he watched put a gun in his pocket.

The reason that he gave was that he assumed the gun was illegal because the man didn't display quote unquote firearm discipline. He said that, you know, he should have put it in a holster if he was a illegal gun. carrier. And the judge said that wasn't enough to arrest him. You know, I should know that this is a pretty unique case. Normally, there will be other factors at play that police can point to about why they're seizing a gun from someone. But at least in this case, it shows that there is an argument that defense attorneys may be able to make to get gun possession cases dropped in light of this Supreme Court ruling. That's WMYC's Samantha Max talking with my colleague Tiffany Hanson. to mark pride month we're spotlighting the diverse experiences of LGBTQ plus new yorkers we recently visited destination tomorrow it's an LGBTQ plus center in the bronx a few people there talked with us about their challenges triumphs and the meaning of pride in their lives here's one of them

i am heaven torres and i am from bronx new york i am 35 i identify at as lesbian. I am a parent of four kids and their ages are eight, nine, and 12 and 20. A lot of the times in the community, there's a stigma that is like we can't be parents or we shouldn't be parents. Someone else who is not a part of the LGBTQ plus community does not get questioned for having a child. I shouldn't be questioned either or any other LGBTQ parents should not be questioned on how they have their children or what. process they went through. That should be something personal between the couple and whoever decides to have a child. That should be their own personal story and how they did whatever they needed to do to create a family. You know, everyone has like a set way of how it should look.

Like it has to be a man and a woman or whatever the case may be. Maybe because of religion, maybe because of culture. I just feel like that stigma shouldn't be there because we are parents and we are awesome and we are great at being parents, and that is something that we should be proud of because we can have families and we can create families and we can raise amazing, beautiful, intelligent children. Pride means to me loving each other, no matter what, being who we truly are and being proud and happy

to express ourselves exactly as who we are and not being ashamed, not being scared, not letting anyone stand in our way, and just being bold and strong and powerful to just be us. Heaven Torres lives in the Bronx. And finally, in New Jersey, the lawyer for George Norcross, the indicted Democratic Party boss of South Jersey, has been kicked off the Rutgers University governing board. WMYC's Nancy Solomon has the details.

Bill Tambusi is the personal lawyer for George Norcross and holds contracts with dozens of public agencies in and around Camden. He's also a co-defendant in a racketeering and extortion case against the Norcross machine. Now a New Jersey judge ruled he cannot serve on the state university board because that seat was designated to be held by someone who lives in Camden County. Since being appointed to the board, Tambusi has moved out of the county. The legal action was taken by the faculty union at Rutgers. The union says it wants the governor to appoint someone who will represent the interests of Camden residents. Also, a heads up. Tomorrow, we'll be digging even deeper into the story with an episode from WMYC's Nancy Solomon's podcast, Dead End, a New Jersey political murder mystery. The podcast is about John and Joyce Sheridan, who were found dead in their home in 2014.

On their table were documents that detailed a conflict between. John Sheridan and George Norcross, widely considered one of the most powerful people in New Jersey politics, and the very same Norcross who was just indicted last week on charges of racketeering. You'll have to tune in tomorrow to hear the whole story, and trust me, it's worth the wait. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Shout out to our production team. It includes Sean Bowdoge, Amber Bruce, Ave Carrillo, Audrey Cooper, Owen Kaplan, Liora Noam Cravitz. Jared Marcel and Wayne Jolmeister

with help from all of my colleagues in the WNYC Newsroom. Our show art was designed by the folks at Buck and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrado. I'm Jenae Pierre. Have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday.