Reports of gun violence continue to make headlines in the Bronx and across the City, and some elected officials are making it a focal point of their political endeavors in the lead up to Election Day. Although New York City has seen historic drops in most crime categories, 2021 is proving to be especially dangerous for teenagers.

 

According to NYPD data, through Sept. 26, 2021, there were 16 fatal shootings involving teen violence. This is more than double the number, at seven, reported throughout 2020 for such fatalities. In addition, as of Sept. 26, 2021, there were a reported 89 non-fatal incidents involving teen violence.

 

To address the situation, City Councilman Oswald Feliz (C.D. 15) has called on State legislators to reform prevailing laws which allow people to be quickly released from jail even when they have used firearms during a crime. Known broadly as “bail reform” legislation, it took effect at the beginning of 2020 with the intent of lessening the disproportionate impact cash bail was having on communities of color.

 

According to the ACLU, after an arrest, wrongful or not, a person’s ability to leave jail and return home to fight the charges depends on money because, in most states, people are required to pay cash bail. Originally, bail was supposed to make sure people returned to court to face charges against them. However, ACLU officials say, instead, the money bail system has morphed into widespread, wealth-based incarceration. Often, due to lack of means, the cash bail system disproportionately impacts people of color.

 

Meanwhile, critics of bail reform have long argued that it has made the streets less safe and provides little incentive for repeat offenders to change their ways. Though there has been a lot of finger-pointing among politicians, law enforcement, and the judicial branch of government as to the reasons for the growth in gun violence, elected officials like Feliz are now imploring State lawmakers to implement reforms as a matter of urgency.

 

At a press conference on Oct. 7, just steps from City Hall, Feliz was joined by six of his counterparts and Mona Davids of NYC School Safety Coalition, in announcing the delivery of a letter to both Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, calling for reforms of the January 2020 bail reform laws.

 

Signed by 20 council members, the letter asks judges to use more discretion before releasing certain individuals back into the public, namely those who have been charged with violent offenses, or who have a criminal history. This includes young people arrested for gun violence, who have had their cases transferred to a family court by a judge. NYC School Safety Coalition is a coalition of parents, families, religious leaders, and community leaders who support the continuation of School Safety Agents’ presence in schools,

 

“No one can deny that our gun laws are broken,” Feliz, a former tenant lawyer, said. “When someone is caught and arrested with a firearm, they’re immediately released, and if they’re caught again, immediately released, and caught again and immediately released again, no one can deny that we’re sending our young kids a bad message, [a] dangerous message,” he said.

 

On Sept. 29, Nisayah Sanchez, 16, was shot on East 187th Street in the Belmont section of the Bronx. He died the next day. Police reports identified Sanchez as a gang member but possibly the unintended target of the shooting. He, reportedly, had a long rap sheet. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea reacted to the shooting along with news of other teen victims of recent gun violence, during an interview with WPIX, with a rhetorical question, “How many kids have to die before we fix these laws?”

He continued, “We are not helping these kids by putting them back on the streets,” he said. “In fact, what we’re actually doing is encouraging others to carry guns, because you have to, because no one is being removed from the streets. It doesn’t take mass incarceration. It takes common sense, and it takes leadership and courage to say we need to fix these laws.” Shea previously wrote on op-ed in The New York Times on the topic in January 2020.

 

Meanwhile, Mayor Bill de Blasio is also working to reduce gun violence through a special task force dedicated to the issue. The Office to Prevent Gun Violence (OPGV), looks at more than just crime statistics to determine the root causes of gun violence. Officials say analysis of crime data has identified “social and economic disparities” as significant contributors to the violence certain communities experience. In the Bronx, seven neighborhoods, including Belmont and Fordham Manor, have been identified as areas in need of extra attention.

 

Within OPGV, the NYC Crisis Management System (CMS) works with community groups to provide violence intervention and support systems.  Created in 2014 by De Blasio and City Council, what makes the program different is that it looks to incorporate community partners, and not just law enforcement, to provide solutions. According to City officials, “OPGV ensures community-developed and led solutions, and amplifies the voice, strength, and power that lies within.”

 

One such Bronx-based program is the “Stand Up to Violence” (SUV) program. Operating out of Jacobi Hospital, one of the City’s public hospitals, located at 1400 Pelham Pkwy S, in Morris Park, the program treats violence as a disease. It addresses youth violence by deploying outreach workers to respond to shootings, to prevent retaliation, and to assist family members of those who have been injured or killed. Additionally, program coordinators mentor at-risk youth on educational and job opportunities.

 

Its success has been acknowledged by U.S. senate majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). The congresswoman, who, as reported, had campaigned for bail reform in 2018, confirmed earlier this year, on July 30, that Congress approved her request for more funding ($393,839) to add mental health services to Jacobi’s program. The hospital proposed the addition of an emergency room social worker, a case worker, a part time psychiatrist, and a creative arts or music therapist, who would each be experienced in treating trauma/violence. This was to allow the hospital to offer wraparound, therapeutic treatment to patients to help address the root causes of youth violence.

 

Ocasio-Cortez said at the time, “When you actually open the door to a jail, and look at who’s inside, an enormous amount of people are dealing with untreated mental health issues, and it is not acceptable for us to use jails as garbage bins for human beings.”

 

She continued, “We need to treat people and see them as human. And so, it is not a place for us to throw people for whom we don’t want to invest in the actual holistic issues of their lives, if we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails. The answer is to stop building more of them. The answer is to make sure that we actually build more hospitals, we pay organizers, we get people mental health care, and overall health care, employment, etc. It’s to support communities, not throw them away.”

 

Many of the SUV program’s outreach workers are former gang members or have been incarcerated and know first-hand the devastating effects of gun violence. Other community groups like Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.) operate other similar cure violence programs, as reported, and since April 2021, the 52nd precinct has partnered with Guerinos Against Graffitti* as well as with City agencies and other community groups in another alternative approach to gun violence where sanitation, employment and quality of life issues are addressed.

 

In June, the program also received $45,000 in funding via local Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernández (A.D. 80). “We must be vigilant, and we must fund the programs that are working,” she said at the time. “Anything that we can do to help stop those from picking up the guns, to shooting the guns, to even stop them from coming into our neighborhoods [is crucial],” she said, adding that the members of SUV were heroes.

 

Asked at that time, before the late summer spike in gun violence, about those who say bail reform fuels gun violence, Fernández referred to the goals of bail reform law. “The concern is understandable, but it’s not fair to completely blame it on the bail reform,” she said. “We need our judges to make sure that bail is enforced for lethal actions, harmful actions…. and for when there is someone that is released [with] no bail, we need to make sure that trial comes as soon as possible.”

 

The public discussion on how best to reduce gun violence, and curb crime in general, will take another turn on Election Day, Nov. 2, when New Yorkers vote on a new mayor.

 

According to a recent story by Politico, Republican mayoral nominee, Curtis Sliwa, who, as reported, was recently hit by a passing car on his way to a campaign event, has called for 16-year-olds accused of serious crimes to be charged as adults, and according to a recent story by The New York Times, he has called for homeless people to be placed in psychiatric hospitals. His website outlines plans to refund the police, and he argues that as a former street vigilante, he is better equipped to crack down on crime than his main rival, Democratic mayoral nominee, Eric Adams.

 

In 1979, Sliwa formed the Guardian Angels, a community-based patrol group dedicated to guarding the city’s subway stations and preventing violence in all forms. He said the Guardian Angels helped stem the tide of crime on the subways, and as a result have expanded to over 130 cities in 13 countries around the world.

 

“I’ve seen our subway system at its worst, and now we’re slipping back into the abyss,” he said. “I entered the mayoral race to improve New York, to fight and take back the lifeline of our city and to ensure that people can safely ride the subways. My administration will stem the rising tide of violence, drug use and crime within our transit systems.”

 

Sliwa plans include deploying emotional support/social worker task forces to subway stations, combating fare evasion in all subway stations, establishing assistance booths and emergency calling devices in all subway stations. “To ensure the safety of train and bus commuters across our city, I will instruct our Department of Transportation to upgrade all existing surveillance cameras to state-of-the-art standards with real-time capabilities,” he said.

 

For his part, Brooklyn Borough President Adams, an NYPD veteran, has pledged to walk the all important line between reducing crime and continuing to reform the NYPD from within. Speaking during a campaign visit to Tracey Towers in Jerome Park on June 6, Adams, who has called out the NYPD for harboring racism within its ranks, said, “If we’re going to change the [inaudible] ecosystem of public safety, we need to allow police to do their roles, and [inaudible] the other roles like mental health professionals, conflict resolutions, nonprofit groups, the clergy, like the God Squad group in Brooklyn that we sponsor.”

 

Here’s New York State Senator @jamaaltbailey in a short video talking about #connectingcommunities and the leadership from @NYAGV1 Executive Director Rebecca Fischer and this years Virtual Benefit Honoree @SenatorMyrie
Join us Oct. 18th: https://t.co/RcjkqCLckm@YouthOverGuns pic.twitter.com/Y1uaKR8rNZ

— New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (@NYAGV1) October 6, 2021

 

He added that real crime is not only what happens on the streets, but what is happening within the New York City Department of Education, every day that the City fails to educate its children, an argument with which Davids concurs and said is key to understanding the crisis affecting the City’s youth. “Think about this number, 65 percent of Black and brown children never reach proficiency in this city, every year,” he said.

 

Adams continued, “Only 20 percent graduate high school.” He went on to discuss homelessness and mental health problems, including depression. “Yet, if we just invested in them, and allowed them to age out at 26, instead of 21, one report shows that 90 percent would graduate from high school. You know, if we don’t educate, people incarcerate.”

 

*Síle Moloney, David Greene & Sarah Huffman contributed to this story.