TWO YOUNG OFFICERS DOWN

I remember a time when New York City was a booming city of tourists and a haven for its residents. One could walk down Madison Avenue and feel safe and enjoy the weekend strolling. People were friendly and they smiled. Unfortunately, the New Year came with its gloominess and worries. We endured two years of distancing and masking, shunning most social activities we once took for granted. There's a huge problem of restlessness in this city: it's gun violence. The last victims were two young police officers who served and honored their emblem. They were entrapped in an ambush in Harlem and went down, but a third officer shut the gunman.

The gunman Lashawn McNeil took the lives of the two police officers and died of his wounds days after the fatal shooting. Fifth Avenue and Saint Patrick Cathedral became a solemn gathering of blue uniforms made of thousands of police officers attending the service and honoring two of their own, two of their bravest. Everybody had tears in their eyes and grief in their hearts. That was the biggest and brotherly demonstration of sympathy ever seen in the history of the New York Police Department. Police officers Rivera and Mora were remembered with a solemn and heart-wrenching burial service.

It's not just police officers who are victims of these violent gunmen, it's the public too. Stores like Walmart have been robbed daily, and because of high theft, they are forced to shut down inconveniencing the residents who live there. We aren't safe not even in our homes. A straying bullet may hit us while doing chores or sleeping. This is causing an exodus from the city, people are fleeing looking for safer place to live. Long Island is the ideal place to live serenely. As if Covid-19 and Omicron weren't enough to restrict our freedom with isolation, now gun violence shuns us from enjoying life in the open...who likes being restricted because of bloodthirsty punks who roam our streets, our stores and our parks? I always say my prayer before going to sleep, and I don't pray just for myself, but for friends and relatives, and the rest of the city under daily siege.

It's hard to live a secluded life only stepping out to do the basic errands. I'm glued to the TV screen, eager to hear what's happening in the four boroughs, but it doesn't look that good. They are still violent crimes of hate, and other heinous crimes taking lives. Folks waiting for the train are pushed onto the tracks to their death, many are stabbed and robbed by mental and homeless people. A drastic change must be made to insure the public safety of the residents of this beautiful city succumbed to horror and chaos.

When will we resume living normal lives without threats, attacks, murders and shootings? Must we always be on the lookout, fearing anyone walking behind us. Our trust in Mankind has waned to the point of non-return, and although there are no major wars on the horizon, our country is an actual war zone where the value of a human life has no worth, only to satisfy the atrocity of criminals roaming freely in our society after a bailout and a pat on the shoulder because of jails limited capacity to hold them where they belong. Pray that your day might be safe and without any despicable images that will make restlessness a norm, and this is not what we seek.