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To Arms (letter)
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Letters to the Editor (City Edition)
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July 10, 2002
To Arms
As a former New Yorker, I found it sad and ironic to read that a resident of Queens, Phillip Bernstein, had been arrested because he had 16 guns, 10,000 rounds and 80 magazines in his home ["DA: Lawyer Had Arsenal," News, July 2]. Apparently, his disgruntled fianc?e ratted on him after a domestic argument, claiming he threatened her with a gun. Of course, there were no witnesses. Some of the firearms were supposedly "unregistered."
Whether her claim is true will eventually be decided in a court of law. But your newspaper has attempted to denigrate Bernstein in the court of public opinion by claiming that he owned an "arsenal," insinuating that he was a ticking time bomb ready to go off - despite the fact that Bernstein has never been in trouble with the law and is an auxiliary police officer.
Outside New York City, throughout much of the United States in fact, hundreds of thousands of individuals own gun collections with a dozen, oftentimes several dozen (or more) firearms. Possession of such a large collection - and the ammunition that goes with it - is neither illegal nor considered abnormal. The local sheriff or D.A. wouldn't think twice about an otherwise law-abiding citizen having a collection of firearms. Many would be averse to confiscating such a collection, let alone call a press conference to vilify its owner.
A man's home used to be his castle. It is sad to see that in New York City, privacy, personal property and the presumption of innocence are no longer respected. It is even sadder that a major newspaper like yours, which should seek to protect valuable civil liberties, is instead part of the lynch mob ready to hang Bernstein.
Raul Mas
Coral Gables, Fla.
Location, Location, Location
With all due respect, deference and empathy for the relatives of 9/11 victims, I refer, without editorializing, to the various opinions expressed as to what acreage and monument would be a fitting tribute to those who perished: I am at a loss to know why no one has seen fit to espouse the need to enshrine the site to which the debris and partial remains of some of those not recovered at Ground Zero has been interred. I hope that it is an oversight and not because of the lack of prestige of the locale.
Selwyn P. Nimblett
Brooklyn
Doubting Thomas
Les Payne's column "Thomas Can Never Be Like Douglass" [Currents, July 7] was one of the nastiest he has ever written, and that's saying something. His hatred is not directed at those who run Cleveland's public schools - which have probably ruined the lives of generations of black children. It is not directed at those who would keep these children in those failing schools. It is directed at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who would give them a way out. I hope to live to see the day when Payne's love for black children at least equals his seething hatred for anyone with whom he doesn't see eye to eye.
Gene Rostker
Far Rockaway
Warped Records
If Michael Jackson is going to go on a crusade, he should get his facts straight. In "Jackson: Industry Is Racist" [News, July 7], Jackson says, "People from James Brown to Sammy Davis Jr., some of the real pioneers that inspired me to be an entertainer, these artists are always on tour, because if they stop touring, they would go hungry."
If he were such an admirer of the greatness of Sammy Davis Jr., Jackson would know that Davis passed away in 1990. How could Jackson possibly use him as an example?
For him to use Mariah Carey as a role model, as columnist Liz Smith suggests, would also be wrong. Is Carey a "victim" because of her recording relationship with Sony or because of her divorce from Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola? Jackson should use better examples if he wants to be taken seriously in his accusations against the "racist" music industry.
Miriam Rosenberg
Far Rockaway
Public Service
Thank you for the piece "War on Terror Puts Blocks to 'Justice for All'" [Viewpoints, July 2] by Newsday columnist Marie Cocco. It reminded me that what is an essential and necessary part of American journalism is its role to scrutinize our institutions to make sure they are serving the public, not other interests.
And journalists such as Marie Cocco make the American people more aware. Keep it up!
Vanita Sharma
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/letters/ny-vpqltr102779525jul10.story
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Email this story
Printer friendly format
July 10, 2002
To Arms
As a former New Yorker, I found it sad and ironic to read that a resident of Queens, Phillip Bernstein, had been arrested because he had 16 guns, 10,000 rounds and 80 magazines in his home ["DA: Lawyer Had Arsenal," News, July 2]. Apparently, his disgruntled fianc?e ratted on him after a domestic argument, claiming he threatened her with a gun. Of course, there were no witnesses. Some of the firearms were supposedly "unregistered."
Whether her claim is true will eventually be decided in a court of law. But your newspaper has attempted to denigrate Bernstein in the court of public opinion by claiming that he owned an "arsenal," insinuating that he was a ticking time bomb ready to go off - despite the fact that Bernstein has never been in trouble with the law and is an auxiliary police officer.
Outside New York City, throughout much of the United States in fact, hundreds of thousands of individuals own gun collections with a dozen, oftentimes several dozen (or more) firearms. Possession of such a large collection - and the ammunition that goes with it - is neither illegal nor considered abnormal. The local sheriff or D.A. wouldn't think twice about an otherwise law-abiding citizen having a collection of firearms. Many would be averse to confiscating such a collection, let alone call a press conference to vilify its owner.
A man's home used to be his castle. It is sad to see that in New York City, privacy, personal property and the presumption of innocence are no longer respected. It is even sadder that a major newspaper like yours, which should seek to protect valuable civil liberties, is instead part of the lynch mob ready to hang Bernstein.
Raul Mas
Coral Gables, Fla.
Location, Location, Location
With all due respect, deference and empathy for the relatives of 9/11 victims, I refer, without editorializing, to the various opinions expressed as to what acreage and monument would be a fitting tribute to those who perished: I am at a loss to know why no one has seen fit to espouse the need to enshrine the site to which the debris and partial remains of some of those not recovered at Ground Zero has been interred. I hope that it is an oversight and not because of the lack of prestige of the locale.
Selwyn P. Nimblett
Brooklyn
Doubting Thomas
Les Payne's column "Thomas Can Never Be Like Douglass" [Currents, July 7] was one of the nastiest he has ever written, and that's saying something. His hatred is not directed at those who run Cleveland's public schools - which have probably ruined the lives of generations of black children. It is not directed at those who would keep these children in those failing schools. It is directed at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who would give them a way out. I hope to live to see the day when Payne's love for black children at least equals his seething hatred for anyone with whom he doesn't see eye to eye.
Gene Rostker
Far Rockaway
Warped Records
If Michael Jackson is going to go on a crusade, he should get his facts straight. In "Jackson: Industry Is Racist" [News, July 7], Jackson says, "People from James Brown to Sammy Davis Jr., some of the real pioneers that inspired me to be an entertainer, these artists are always on tour, because if they stop touring, they would go hungry."
If he were such an admirer of the greatness of Sammy Davis Jr., Jackson would know that Davis passed away in 1990. How could Jackson possibly use him as an example?
For him to use Mariah Carey as a role model, as columnist Liz Smith suggests, would also be wrong. Is Carey a "victim" because of her recording relationship with Sony or because of her divorce from Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola? Jackson should use better examples if he wants to be taken seriously in his accusations against the "racist" music industry.
Miriam Rosenberg
Far Rockaway
Public Service
Thank you for the piece "War on Terror Puts Blocks to 'Justice for All'" [Viewpoints, July 2] by Newsday columnist Marie Cocco. It reminded me that what is an essential and necessary part of American journalism is its role to scrutinize our institutions to make sure they are serving the public, not other interests.
And journalists such as Marie Cocco make the American people more aware. Keep it up!
Vanita Sharma
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/letters/ny-vpqltr102779525jul10.story
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878