There was an air of unified determination as several hundred residents, bikers and SUV club members gathered in Brownsville on Saturday afternoon, to march to confront inner city violence. They formed a convoy that traveled down to Cadman Plaza before walking behind caskets across the Brooklyn Bridge.

It was a gorgeous fall Saturday. Folks gathered in memory of Zurana Horton, the 34-year-old Brownsville mother of 12 who was gunned down by a young man who fired shots into the street from a rooftop late last month. A memorial to Horton with photos, flowers and candles still sits at the corner of Watkins and Pitkin avenues, where she was shot.

Saturday’s mock funeral procession walked behind caskets, symbolizing the senseless killing of inner-city residents who were either targeted or caught in the crossfire.

From Brownsville to Broadway, “sick and tired” residents and families of victims joined anti-gun-violence activists in the march across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall. They continued on to the Occupy Wall Street camp, ending at the infamous Merrill Lynch bull statue at Bowling Green.

Delivering the opening prayer near the foot of the Bridge was Assembly Member Karim Camara, chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus.

“We have lost far too many lives as a result of children killing children,” said Camara. “The inspiration of this march was the death of Ms. Horton, but we also let every parent who lost a child to violence know that we are still walking with you. The sad reality is that we have not done nearly enough. There must be a greater commitment from the city, state and federal government to save the lives of children in our urban communities.”

At the rally were mothers such as Oresa Napper-Williams of Not Another Child Inc. and Shenee Johnson of Life Support, both of whom have lost children to gun violence. They spoke passionately about their loss and why they continue to fight to save other mothers’ children.

“Don’t get it twisted,” said Napper-Williams. “Just because it wasn’t your child, your nephew, your niece does not mean that you were not affected indirectly. You were still affected. I want to thank each and every one of you for standing up today, for fighting for our youth. We cannot bring our babies back, but we can do what we can to make tomorrow a better day.”

“We have to treat youth gun violence as the national epidemic that it is,” said Camara.

“We are in the trenches every day. We see the violence and its effects, and we are committed to confronting it at every angle in all of the Brownsvilles in the city,” said A.T. Mitchell, founder and CEO of Man Up Inc. “Saturday’s march and rally was a great beginning for community activists trying to come together on one accord. The truck clubs, the organizations, the families and the victims of violence were unified to such a degree that it commanded the attention of the entire city.”

Meanwhile, Mitchell noted, “The follow-up and follow-through is even more important. If you don’t follow through on the demands that the people made, it starts to looks like hogwash. The leadership has decided to continue the campaign to take caskets to different places in the city and the state until our demands are recognized and met.

“We want the mayor and the governor to take seriously the gun violence epidemic in our communities,” Mitchell continued. “Not with an increased and aggressive law enforcement response; we need resources and services to occupy our youth and give them feasible alternatives and guidance. Massive unemployment in our community is definitely linked to the feeling of despair and hopelessness. The prison pipeline services upstate economies and lifestyles while it destroys the inner city-we understand that dynamic and we will continue to fight against that, too.

Marchers walked the bridge in silence but picked up their chants again on Broadway, including, “Peace up! Guns down!”

Grandmother Rene Donaldson held a poster her grandson had made with a “don’t shoot!” theme. The staunchly proud Brownsvillian told the AmNews, “I feel that this one march is not going to change the situation here because Brownsville needs so many resources.

“The PAL is closed, there’s nothing for our young people to do, so they are out on the street,” she said. “I see a lot of organizations coming together though trying to combine their efforts to keep our children out of danger, and that is a good thing. This march and others like it are going to add power to the movement to bring about the change we need.”

Donaldson, who also addressed the Black Solidarity Day event at Boys and Girls High School the following day, told the AmNews, “You see a lot of children in the neighborhood wearing these tags with the photographs of their friends who have been killed by gun violence. They are wearing them like necklaces to give respect to the deceased. I see 11- and 12-year-olds with them around their necks. They have replaced the cross.”

Very few elected officials came out on Saturday-in fact, there were just three. State Sen. Eric Adams and City Councilman Jumaane Williams made brief appearances along the march route, while City Councilman Charles Barron rallied in Brownsville and marched on the Brooklyn Bridge.

“I hope the community comes together to be a little more organized,” said Al Mathieu of Brownsville’s Black Success Unisex Barbershop and Salon. “I feel that the community is more concerned, and the march brought a lot of attention to what is going on. My sister was robbed and killed in East New York in 1989-I felt it was my duty since I had experienced the effects of the violence to participate.

“I grew up here as well as having a business here, and I see a lot in the barbershop,” Mathieu continued. “I see these young men who are out in the streets and I try to talk to them. A few of us do. But often you see that guys who come home from prison seem to get a lot more love than someone who comes home from college or the armed services.

“Some of these young people see going to Rikers [Island] as a rite of passage. We’re trying to show them that it is not.”

Mathieu, who was one of the pallbearers in the march, added, “It made a statement about what is going on in the urban areas. The reaction of us going to Wall Street and Zuccotti Park and on to Bowling Green was that people were stunned to see the caskets. The city and the state have to give resources to the people who can reach the people involved in the gun violence.”

Young people are so used to hearing gunshots or seeing yellow crime scene tape, Mathieu said, “they think it is the norm. They don’t even react sometimes. A lot of them don’t have parents, so they are coming up in the streets.

“We want to teach them that they have a future,” he said. “Some of the gangs are waiting outside the schools to recruit them. But if there is gang prevention in the school, they will hear something from a different perspective from someone who is part of their community. They will listen. We need to be able to mediate in the schools. We need one-on-one engagement.”

Barron slammed the politicians who, he said, march with the people while simultaneously voting for and signing off on the budgets passed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo that slashed community and social services, leaving neighborhoods destitute and without essential resources.

“Too many of our Black leaders let them get away with everything and then come marching with you,” Barron said. “The days of Uncle Tom and Aunt Jemima, of Mr. and Mrs. Sellout, are over,” he boomed.

The real heroes are the grassroots activists who stay on the ground, rain or shine, cameras or no, Barron said. “Lance [of the Trucked Out SUV club], Anthony [of the Brooklyn Blizzards, A.T. Mitchell, Tamika [of the National Action Network], Erica Ford [of I Love My Life]. We have to give credit where credit is due. When this march is over, when the cameras go, they will still be in the street.”

There is a town hall meeting on the issue planned for Brownsville’s Little Rock Baptist Church on Nov. 18 from 7 to 10 p.m.