The summer months often coincides an increase in violence, a reason why the Monroe College School of Criminal Justice and Jacobi Medical Center convened a panel that looks to put the crime spike to the forefront.

They got together May 14 for its first-ever “Standing up to Violence in the Bronx this Summer,” at Monroe College’s Bronx campus. Gary Axelbank, doubling as Monroe College’s Director of Community Relations and longtime host of BronxNet television’s BronxTalk with Gary Axelbank, led a talk on the relationship between summertime violence and temperatures.

For Jacobi Medical medical personnel, violence is often seen as a disease that

must be treated before it spreads. Elected officials joined community leaders in offering perspectives on the seasonal problem, with Dr. Darrin Porcher speaking on the need to reform stop, question and frisk practices by the NYPD.

Among the 100 guests wee children from the Directions for Our Youth Community Center at the Webster Houses on 169^th Street. One of the children from the program encapsulated the panel’s takeaway lesson—“We need to stop fighting and stop the violence so we can make the city better.”