Crime scene tape blocks off the scene of a double capturing at Prospect Place and Schenectady Avenue in Brooklyn on Friday, Could 16.
Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
The NYPD continues to report crime decreases throughout the 5 boroughs, however bullets are nonetheless flying throughout too many communities within the Huge Apple this spring.
Final weekend alone noticed three shootings in as many days in Brooklyn, leaving one lifeless and 5 folks injured. In Harlem on Sunday night time, a person was struck and killed by a stray bullet whereas he sat at a avenue nook. That occurred every week after a 16-year-old woman within the Bronx died similarly, struck down with a stray shot fired by youngsters engaged in what cops referred to as a “schoolyard fight.”
“It seems like every time the sun comes out, the guns come out,” mentioned Reverend Kevin McCall, a neighborhood activist in Brooklyn, at a Monday press convention with the household of Zanir Childs, who was killed in one of many borough’s double shootings final weekend.
McCall’s assertion is gloomy however true. Town sees extra gun violence within the spring and summer time, with extra folks on the road to take pleasure in hotter, lovely climate. And it’s vital to notice that McCall and residents in different communities throughout town which have witnessed traumatic incidents of gun violence in current days have referred to as on town and NYPD to do extra to patrol their neighborhoods and maintain them secure.
The mayor and the NYPD, we consider, will hear these calls and surge further assets into areas hardest hit by gun violence, because it has carried out to nice impact in locations like Brownsville, Brooklyn. Final 12 months, after a surge of shootings within the spring, the NYPD boosted manpower locally to focus on gun and gang violence, and the additional assets stored shootings at a minimal stage in the course of the summer time.
Extra surges are wanted this summer time in areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx that require the additional assist. In fact, the NYPD is coping with a historic staffing disaster that may’t be resolved in a single day whereas tackling transit crime and different obligations.
It is perhaps a very good alternative for Metropolis Corridor to work with Albany on securing further state police help only for the summer time to assist complement the NYPD’s crime-fighting efforts citywide.
Metropolis Corridor and the NYPD must also work extra carefully with violence interrupter applications and supply extra youth applications, such because the profitable “Saturday Night Lights” athletic initiative, to assist maintain native youngsters secure and away from crime.
Gun violence will not be uncontrolled in New York, however one capturing that occurs is one too many. And gun violence in a single neighborhood will not be acceptable. Each New Yorker deserves to dwell in peace and safety. Metropolis Corridor and the NYPD should see to it that the purpose is achieved whatever the season.
