During his seventh annual State of the City address last week, Mt. Vernon Mayor John Lewis talked about how a couple of major state law enforcement issues are impacting his community.
Lewis said the jury is still out on the cashless bail issue.
He said there was a recent incident in Mt. Vernon that illustrates the weakness of the new law.
"We had a homicide committed by a juvenile who had been sentenced to seven or eight years on an earlier crime, and was out on parole in eight months. Felons have never had a problem obtaining a firearm and with our politicians trying everything they can to empty our jails, it just allows these criminals to go back to plying their trade and creating more victims and more chaos in our neighborhoods."
Mayor Lewis said law enforcement officials have told him the state's assault weapons ban will not move the needle one bit on crime since 97% of shootings involve felons using pistols.
He said it also appears the large majority of people will not comply with the requirement to register their assault weapons with the state.
To view Mayor Lewis' entire presentation, go the City of Mt. Vernon Facebook page.
