After just the first week of the summer in New York City, the community witnessed 33 shootings. On July 9, five people were shot at Brighton Beach, adding to the morbid list.
And New York is not the only big city in the country to experience this summertime grief. Cities across the country are experiencing the same high violence rates.
By April of this year alone, Newark, N.J., had experienced 29 murders, up 71 percent from last year. Then summer hit. 12 people were shot on Monday, July 11 in what Newark Mayor Cory Booker called “targeted attacks.”
In Boston, Yasmine Winston lost two cousins, LaShon Washington, a new father, and Joseph Winston, on the Fourth of July. “They were coming back from a family gathering. We spend all of our holidays together as a family,” said Winston. “They left the family and that’s when they got shot. We don’t know much else-we just know that they got shot at 11:30. One got shot in the head and the other in the neck.”
Boston experienced more than 16 shootings on July 4 alone that left 4 people dead, including Winston’s two cousins, and over a dozen injured. There have been 26 murders in Boston thus far this year, according to a boston.com map compiled using information from the Boston Police Department. While this number is staggering, the murder rate is down 16 percent, from 31 murders at this time last year.
“It’s happening, like, every day now. It’s crazy over here-I’m not used to this violence at all in Boston,” said Winston. “Just imagine what will happen now-every holiday, every time we have nice weather, it will be deadly.”
Chicago has also seen an influx of summertime violence. “It was another violent weekend in Chicago,” read one story on Chicago.cbslocal.com. Last weekend, six people were killed and at least 21 injured in shootings and stabbings in the Chicago area.
While these cities may seem unconnected, Jackie Hilly, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said the gun violence in New York is very closely connected to the surrounding states.
“Almost 90 percent of the guns used in New York State come from other states,” Hilly said, naming Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia as states that send thousands of guns to New York every year. Hilly said that some progress has been made in cutting down on these illegal buys, including a recent bill waiting for approval from the governor that would register those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors on the federal level so they would not be able to buy guns in other states. But more needs to be done.
Noel Leader, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, agreed, saying, “Of course we can talk about the proliferation of guns in our community in New York and though out the nation. But I never understood why the manufacturers aren’t charged for the guns that make their way into the hands of criminals.”
However, Leader emphasized that, looking back over his career in law enforcement, “shootings are actually down. In the summer there are more, but they aren’t nearly as many as there used to be…when it comes to shootings, like the ones this summer, crime has always indicated something else.”
Leader pointed to idle time and increased gang participation of youth as two of the main issues influencing crime this summer.
“One of the things that the politicians always do when they want to slash something-it’s always young people’s programs,” said Leader. “Not only is their time occupied, but they have a goal. If they have a basketball team, they have a purpose. The team means something to them and that’s always something positive.”
While many youth programs have been cut throughout the country, many are also springing up. In Boston, the Boston Youth Fund employs hundreds of youth each year and the Boston Youth Zone, a website for teens, promotes safe activities throughout the year. In Chicago, a program called Youth Ready Chicago connects young people with internships, apprenticeships and jobs.
Here in New York City, one program, the Groundswell Community Mural Project, has kids working on a anti-gun mural in Washington Heights. The young crew working at 500 W. 159th St. is using interviews they conducted with victims of gun violence and their families as its inspiration for their art, slated to be finished on July 26.
Programs like New Yorkers Against Gun Violence and 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, among others, also to talk to youth about how to help stop violence in their own communities and how to avoid it themselves.
“When young people don’t feel they have a future, they stop understanding the consequences of their actions,” said Leader. “I’ve seen many of these young people and I’ve arrested many of them. Some of the stereotypes about the kids involved in shootings exist, but, of course, not all young people engage. There is a whole lot of regret on all sides.”