Editorial: Good news for the community

Congratulations to law enforcement – the NYPD and Brooklyn’s new District Attorney Ken Thompson – for taking decisive action to combat the scourge of heroin and opioid abuse that has been haunting southwest Brooklyn

Thanks to good information from community residents – who have kept up the push to get drug dealers off their streets – cops have arrested six people as a result of a protracted investigation, and charged them with involvement in an illicit drug-peddling scheme in which customers called in orders and dealers delivered them to street corners and bars in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Sunset Park.

Given the rising number of people who have fallen victim to overdoses of the illicit substances – including heroin, opiates, marijuana, ecstasy and Ketamine, a horse tranquilizer known in street parlance as “Special K” – it is truly critical that law enforcement stay on top of the situation, and make sure that drug dealers know that their activities will not be tolerated.

Sources say this is just the beginning, and that more arrests are to come. While we understand that such investigations are lengthy and delicate, and can’t be rushed, we say, those arrests can’t come soon enough.

SENIORS DESERVE SUPPORT

Each year, it seems, the budget dance in Albany leaves seniors wondering, what’s in it for them?

This year is no different, and local elected officials have taken a stand to push the governor to include an extra $26 million in the state budget that would go to help seniors, specifically those who are on a waiting list for Meals on Wheels (some 7,000 statewide, as of now) as well as those who use Access-a-Ride and other services.

In addition, elected officials and senior advocates are pushing for a raise in the income that seniors can have and still qualify for SCRIE, a program that controls increases in rent. The last time the income ceiling was increased (to $29,000) was in 2009, meaning that an increase is now overdue.

We join advocates in urging seniors and their families to call their state elected officials and let them know – the time has come to make it easier for seniors to age with dignity.

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