Credible Messengers to Bring Cautionary Tales of Gang Life to Belmont

The Norwood News, WFUV radio, and BronxNet Television have partnered to bring you a five-part series on gangs in the Bronx and their implications to their communities.

This past summer, Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz was brutally murdered by gang members affiliated with the Trinitarios in a case of mistaken identity in Belmont, drawing massive media attention and spurring the hashtag #JusticeforJunior

Freddy “June” Charles Jr., a so-called “credible messenger” at the Morrisania-based “Release the Grip” (RTG), said no one should die like that. When news of Junior’s murder broke, he was at the RTG office.

“That’s not just a murder, that’s gonna be a worldwide tragedy,” Charles said. He remembered telling his coworkers, “You hear about murders all the time, but you rarely see someone get killed in that manner on the street.

 

When the RTG team heard, they all came to one question: How can we avoid this?

The answer could come in the near future as RTG is slated to open an office in Belmont, thanks to $1 million in funding from Councilman Ritchie Torres, who represents Belmont.

“Only a partnership with the community is our best hope for tackling gang violence.It’s all hands on deck,” Torres said. “We have to ensure that we’re operating as a cohesive whole in the struggle to tackle gang violence.”

The office is an embedded institution the nonprofit hopes to replicate in Belmont. Charles works alongside Troy Miller, who are guided by the principle that credibility is key. Their role as a “credible messenger” in the South Bronx community is a term that suits them better.

Miller and Charles serve as outreach workers for RTG, a program under BronxConnect’s Cure Violence initiative. Their role is a step beyond a so-called violence interrupter, which involves former gang members canvassing a neighborhood to share their past with active gang members to prevent violence and gang activity.

Charles has lived in Morrisania his entire life, and his apartment is just two blocks from his outreach office. He would not give specifics about participants or different gangs in the community for fear of damaging his reputation.

“Credibility is everything,” Charles said. “If the community doesn’t trust you or feel a certain way about you, this program would never work.”

In 2010, Miller lost his 25-year-old brother to a gang murder. These days, Miller shares this experience with young people.

“The first thing I want them to do is think about your life because right now life expectancy for these kids is under 25,” Miller said referring to the young adults. “That’s sad because when we were growing up they said we would never live to see past 20 and I’m 41.”

As outreach workers, Miller and Charles each have caseloads of 10 to 15 young adults. They help them get GEDs, birth certificates, and identification cards. They also provide emotional support and sometimes act as job placement counselors. “It’s not just what we do for them, but it’s what you do for yourself,” said Miller. “I believe in you, if you believe in you.”

Along with their caseloads, Charles and Miller often canvass the neighborhood wearing BronxConnect hoodies and RTG flat-bill hats. Everywhere they go, cars honk, people wave, and kids give them high fives.

“I think the kids just need to know that someone is there for them. At two or three in the morning if they get arrested, they can call me and I’ll call their lawyers and their lawyers are gonna check on them.” Charles said.

Miller noted that he was not always an upstanding community member. “I was one of the ones growing up causing havoc and destruction in the neighborhood, and to give back and help the community rebuild, and give everyone a better way of thinking is touching.”

A John Jay College study found areas with Cure Violence initiatives like RTG in New York saw gun violence fall up to 50 percent.

“This was a hard area because there was so much going on,” Miller said. “It went from worse to okay and now it’s getting there, but it doesn’t just stop with us. It takes the community as a whole, not just RTG.”

The RTG office provides a safe space for kids after school.

On Oct. 10, a shooting occurred at a playground one block from the office. Many of the kids who might have been there were safely inside playing games, drawing and doing homework.

Aarian Punter, program manager of RTG, is proud of the long stretches her area has gone without shootings. There’s even a white board that tracks “days without a shooting” in the office. Before the playground shooting, RTG went 146 days without a shooting, and 200 days before that.

“The trend is good because it was probably every day. It was probably every weekend,” said Punter. “So, the presence of credible messengers in communities like these really make a difference.

The behavior of young people [changes] when they see someone who can tell them, ‘Listen I’ve been in your shoes,’ and they see the result of them changing their life. It does change their life because they’re not born criminals.”

RTG also tries to bring the community together. Recently, the group held a “Bikes Up, Guns Down” block party, the first one on that particular block since 1969. They’re also planning a Halloween celebration, and a Blue Christmas dinner for families who have lost loved ones to gun violence.

Bringing the community together and broadening horizons is important to Charles and Miller. “A lot of kids can’t leave a particular block that they live on,” Charles said. “It’s tragic the way the kids are not interacting with each other on a good note, instead of playing basketball games and stuff like when I was growing up, or football games. It’s the gangs, and the gangs are separating people, and isolating people from certain areas.”