SOS Shooting Response: 8/18, New York Ave St. Johns

Community activism may be the most effective tool.

Good luck!

Thanks to Eric Adams and all those who came out tonight!

We can stop the shootings and killings if we work together!

I am troubled by this kind of emoting. I don't think it accomplishes anything. This energy would be better spent by getting brothers who are under-skilled into trade schools. The violence that exists is a result of young Black men fighing over decreasing turf as the hipsters move in and reject pesticide-laden 'hydro' for the organic high of kombucha and kava kava -- with a little L-theanine thrown in between... These brothers are getting desperate over the lack of customers, increased police presence -- and it's made them very mean...

When S.O.S. steps in with a prayer here, a pinch of 'we shall overcome there' and a little finger wagging, what good does that do? Seriously. 'Shootings and killings aren't acceptable in our community'? Really? How about stabbings, are a few stabbings okay?

Not to say that taking a moral stance isn't laudable, but what does it do? I think it was Jean-Paul Sartre or Frantz Fanon who said that protestors are much like barking dogs in that dogs that bark tend not to bite. There's no bite.

More info on S.O.S. Crown Heights

S.O.S. is modeled after CeaseFire (www.ceasefirechicago.org), a Chicago-based project that uses a public health approach to violence prevention.

S.O.S. uses highly trained outreach staff, public education campaigns and community mobilization.

The outreach workers are streetwise individuals. Many of them are former gang members and have spent time in prison, but they are now “on this side of the line” and eager to give back and help young people in their neighborhoods.

Outreach workers have a client base and focus on changing the behaviors and thinking of high-risk youth. They keep in touch with the community and seek to intervene in conflicts before they escalate to violence and also prevent retaliation. They attempt to steer individuals away from violence to more positive endeavors, such as education and employment opportunities.

My sister lives on Chicago's southside (a place where Ceasefire is very active and needed).

While she perceives the effort as being largely unsuccessful at stemming the tide of violence (the southside remains far more violent than any neighborhood in NYC, and perhaps the nation), she feels it:

* Provides support to family members of the murdered.

* Allows people who are concerned about such issues to meet and develop strategies on how to remain safe and understand that THEIR risk of being murdered is actually low.

....perhaps the only thing worse than violent crime is the fear of violent crime. Fear causes one to stay inside, and leave the streets to criminals. Fear causes a sense of isolation that no one cares about your community, or understands you. Fear just causes the problem to get worse, which (of course) causes .....wait for it..... MORE FEAR.

---->Chicago is the city wherein researchers studied a specific inner city ER. They found that more than half of the 20 - 30 year old males who were murdered by a gunshots had been shot previously and lived. <-----

A mind blowing statistic.

We are in vicious cycle of violence that leaves no one unaffected. Some families have endured this cycle for literally generations.

SOS has the potential to help those affected, and perhaps slow the cycle down.

If we actually knew how to break the cycle and it was easy, we'd wouldn't be standing on a corner stating "Please don't shoot. I want to grow up".

If we knew somethng more effective to say, we -um- would.

(and I wouldn't somberly and somewhat sarcastically think to myself, "I can't attend tonight's shooting response. I'll try to make the next one")

See you at the next one?

[please note I am merely an occasional attendee. I do not speak on behalf of SOS]

For that individual, yes.

But for the residents of the Polo Grounds in Harlem, and Howard Houses in Brooklyn I stick to my view. A bunch of murders over a bunch of years has resulted in thousands of people afraid to go to the playground or sit outside. They have become prisoners as a result of the crimes committed by others.

I assign more damage to the living then I do the lost lives.

In your example, one person died and their family members no doubt grieved.

In my example, people fear it could happen to them and never get thier lives back to normal as a result of the crime. To reference Kant, it is all a matter of how one assigns utility. I feel the macro damages outweight the micro ones.

But I'll agree, it does sorta suck to be the actual victim of a crime too.

whynot_31 wrote:
But for the residents of the Polo Grounds in Harlem, and Howard Houses in Brooklyn I stick to my view. A bunch of murders over a bunch of years has resulted in thousands of people afraid to go to the playground or sit outside. They have become prisoners as a result of the crimes committed by others.

Well, there's a good reason why they're afraid. I think we should focus on eradicating the root cause of the fear: gun violence in their streets.

krowonhill wrote: Speaking of:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/02/2010-09-02_condition_of_brooklyn_boy_shot_in_neck_by_stray_bullet_upgraded.html

A ten year old sitting inside watching Blues Clues almost died after catching a stray bullet in East NY.

(I'd put it in the East NY section, but there isn't one.)

Now people can be even more afraid sitting in their own homes.

You also have to realize that many people will read a story in the papers and go "wow that really sucks or how sad" then we turn the page and forget it. Seeing the parents or neighbors who are affected by these terrible acts somehow personalize it so that it stays with you. Some kids who are on the cusp of being caught up in the bad life just might think twice before doing something stupid.

whynot_31 wrote:
....you, of course, are free to assign your values differently.

The difference is that a person can outlive fear.