Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 69

Intermediate

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson
Writing Feature Articles - Handout . a

Name: ________________________________________ Date: ___________________

. a: Feature Articles Packet

(page of

)

A Police Death in Brooklyn
December 1, 2005
When a police of?cer dies in the line of duty, there is a natural desire to look for ways to prevent such tragedies
in the future. Gov. George Pataki responded to the fatal shooting of Of?cer Dillon Stewart this week with a call
for reinstating the death penalty. That is unlikely to save the lives of of?cers who ?nd themselves facing violent
suspects. Most potential cop killers are not the kind of people likely to consider the consequences of their worst
impulses. The allegations about the man accused of killing Of?cer Stewart - that he was a man already wanted by
the authorities who sped through a traf?c light while carrying 53 bags of marijuana - provide a perfect description
of a person who would not be prudent enough to resist grabbing a handy gun.
Rather than increasing the potential consequence of a shooting, it would be far better to remove the gun. The
rising amount of gun violence in New York City, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country,
demonstrates a basic fact: states and localities can make rules on where and how their residents may carry guns,
but the regulation of the sales and traf?cking of those deadly weapons needs to be done on a federal level.
As it stands now, a pipeline of illegal weapons ?ows with little impediment to New York from Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio, places where gun dealers easily sell to traf?ckers through "straw sales," in
which a quali?ed third party - without a criminal record - acts as the buyer. The fact that Congress has shown such
a total lack of spine in regulating these sales demonstrates that it and the National Ri?e Association are in thrall to
the gun business, not the gun owners.
The gun that killed Of?cer Stewart was stolen in Florida, and it is hard to say whether stronger laws would have
kept it off the streets of New York. But anything that makes it harder for disorganized violent lawbreakers to get
guns helps. And that would be the best tribute to all the police of?cers who have been killed in New York City with
guns that were easily purchased somewhere else.

(December 1, 2005). “A Police Death in Brooklyn.” The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.
com/2005/12/01/opinion/01thur3.html Permission pending.

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