Crime – Down in the City, Up in Crown Heights
Yesterday, a poster on Brooklynian shared some distressing (though as the poster points out, not altogether surprising) statistics about Crown Heights. While crime in the city is down, crime in Crown Heights - in particular homicides – is up.
Just the other day, our state Senator Eric Adams (who is a former police officer) posted a hortatory message regarding the need for active citizen involvement to keep our community safe:
If we want safe communities, we will have to build them, not blog them. No neighborhood can be safe if the only proffered solution is to look for a politician or the police to do it for us. Just as there are prerequisites for being a responsible elected official, there are also requirements for being a conscientious citizen.
A community meeting was held last week, but we were not able to make it. However, Nicole Brydson from Brooklyn the Borough was on the scene. Check out her post for more details including a video from the meeting.
We were delighted when last week, Kenneth Cole’s Awearness Project featured our post on the “Piece Out, Piece In“ “Piece Out, Peace In” anti-gun violence mural on their blog. However, taking Senator Adams’ call to heart, what are some things that we all can do – offline – to combat the wave of violence in our community?
Popularity: 2% [?]
if people don’t have jobs they’re gonna find other ways to get what they need
You can blame anybody and anything for the homicide rate in Crown Heights and you probably won’t be wrong. But there are a couple of things that I think would help. Hiheyter’s comment shows that people think the ends justify the means. Don’t have a job? Go jump somebody. That’s easier than trying to find a job, right? There are all kinds of programs and people willing to help anybody who wants to improve their education, their job skills, all for free. All it takes is a personal commitment. If you’re happy making $3.00 an hour selling drugs, living for free in your mother’s spare room, fine. But don’t blame anybody else for your situation and don’t use your situation as a rationale to do bad things.
The other problem is the don’t snitch attitude. As long as that prevails, we’ll never get the bad guys with the illegal guns off the street. Those guns kill people, and a lot of them are just innocent bystanders, or kids who just aren’t taught that there are ways out of here.
Eric Adams is right. We can all bitch and moan about what has happened to us, but we all know that we are the only ones who can make the changes that need to be made. We are all good people in our hearts and souls. Let’s make this place better.