What to Know
- Due to the spike in gun violence that has plagued New York City in recent months, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new initiative the city hopes will curtail the violence.
- Starting this weekend, certain portions of the Central Brooklyn Violence Prevention plan go into effect.
- The initiative combines both police efforts and community mobilization.
Due to the spike in gun violence that has plagued New York City in recent months, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new initiative the city hopes will curtail the violence.
Starting this weekend, certain portions of the Central Brooklyn Violence Prevention plan go into effect.
"This weekend in Brooklyn we’ll be taking action to stop the violence. And, starting on Friday, Central Brooklyn Violence Prevention Plan goes into effect. This plan has a two-fold core to it. One: increase targeted NYPD mobilization. Two: community mobilization," de Blasio said.
Meanwhile, New York City Councilman Robert Cornagy said the initiative aims to provide "long-term sustainable services, like Jobs-Plus, like affordable housing, all the things that we have as a great city, as resources and tools to people who are underserved. We plan on deploying those simultaneously, while NYPD is doing their job, we intend as a community to do what we believe is our job, which is to provide opportunity, sustainable movement for our communities."
Increased Police Presence
One of the components of the new initiative is to increase police presence in certain areas. According to the mayor, this presence will be seen in the 77th and 79th Precincts in Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy.
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"We need to have more officers in the right places, so you'll see additional deployments in Brooklyn, this weekend in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, key areas where that additional deployment will help. Carefully coordinated with the community," the mayor said.
Occupy the Hot Spots
"You’re also going to see a community effort that is going to make a huge impact called Occupy the Hot Spots and that is a specific effort of Friday and Saturday in seven locations in central Brooklyn," de Blasio said.
Occupy the Hot Spots will mobilize to areas that has seen violence. This will be in coordination with Stop the Violence organization, led by the Cure Violence program, which aims to prevent violence by placing outreach workers in communities.
Peace Marches
Peace marches led by clergy and the community will also take place.
"You are going to see a lot of clergy this weekend," the mayor said.
Open Streets Resource Fairs
The Central Brooklyn Violence Prevention initiative will also host fairs that will provide information on housing, jobs and youth services.
"You are going to see a lot resources provided for young people," de Blasio said. "You are going to see efforts to reach young people in new ways with a host of things they need because a lot of this is providing our young people with hope and opportunities after months of dislocation and trauma that they’ve gone through with coronavirus."
MOBILE TRAUMA UNITS
The initiative also calls for mobile trauma units that provide mental health and support services to be deployed to communities.
"You are going to see mobile trauma units out to lend that mental health support to the people that need it in communities that have been hit so hard," de Blasio said.
Bed-Stuy Anti-Gun Violence Task Force
Although the aforementioned pieces of the Central Brooklyn Violence Prevention initiative will take place in the upcoming days, the Bed-Stuy Anti-Gun Violence Task Force will kick off next week when it will host its first meeting.
"Next week, the Bed-Stuy Anti-Gun Violence Task Force starts going and then together a host of community organizations, leaders with the NYPD will develop a long term strategy," the mayor said.
Statistics from New York City shootings show that not only are minority communities overwhelmingly the victims of the shootings, but also that children, teens and young adults make up a large portion of those injured or killed.
From the beginning of 2020 through July 12, there were 53 children shot versus 37 during the same period last year. Among the most recent victims was a 1-year-old baby, with police still searching for the suspects seen in a surveillance video. There have also been 215 shooting victims ages 18-24 during the same period this year, compared to 125 in 2019.
When it comes to young adults ages 25-30, the NYPD statistics show that 223 have been shot this year, compared to 123 during the same period last year. Meanwhile, 185 adults 31- to 40-years-old were shooting victims from Jan. 1 to July 12 this year, an increase from the 97 victims from this age group seen last year.
Overall, in a little over seven months, from Jan 1. to July 12 of this year, there have been 115 fatal shooting victims and 662 non-fatal shooting victims. This is an increase from the 69 shooting deaths and the 387 non-fatal shooting victims seen during the same time period last year, according to the NYPD.
