BP Adams Joins Council Member Gibson To Call For Actions To Combat Crisis Of Citywide Surge In Gun Violence

Press release from the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President:

December 27 2020

The Bronx, NY – Yesterday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams joined Council Member Vanessa Gibson and representatives from several Cure Violence groups to address the citywide surge in gun violence and homicides involving young men of color. They gathered at the site where a 16-year-old boy, James Solano, was shot and killed outside a bodega in Morrisania this past Wednesday; the killer remains at large. Borough President Adams called for a series of steps to combat the gun violence crisis in the city, with a particular focus on the rash of attacks near or inside bodegas and corner stores.

“The fatal shooting of 16-year-old James Solano is but another tragic reminder of the toll that violence has taken on our communities. This is personal. My son is 24. Every time I hear a young man is shot, I’ve got to look through the article and say, ‘tell me it’s not my baby.’ If the victims of these shootings were not Black and Brown, you would see a different response from the City. It is clear that our city is confronting a wave of carnage that is unprecedented in recent history, with a large number occurring outside corner stores and bodegas, and we need an aggressive response to address it head-on. The actions I am calling for will engage our entire ecosystem of public safety to tamp down on the violence we are seeing across the five boroughs. As always, I want to thank the groups that comprise our Crisis Management System (CMS) for their tireless work. As we conclude this difficult year, we must re-double our efforts to uphold public safety, which is the prerequisite for prosperity,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

“This young man was a junior in high school, heading to his senior year. He had aspirations and potential and hope, just as we want for every young king and young queen in this district, This Morrisania community has had too many shootings, too much violence. We need to be angry, but we also need to be about action,” said Council Member Vanessa Gibson.

Borough President Adams called on the City to take the following steps to tackle the recent surge in violence.

· Rebuild the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) recently-disbanded plainclothes unit as an anti-gun unit, focusing on the proliferation of illegal guns in certain parts of the city.

· Expand Operation Safe Shopper, a program pioneered by Borough President Adams that enlists local civic organizations to identify locations along commercial corridors for the installation of security cameras that can assist police precincts in streamlining the investigation of local crimes.

· Shift more police resources from low-crime areas to high-crime areas.

· Create tax incentives for building owners to offset the costs of any security improvements to bodegas and similar storefronts.

· Double current funding levels for CMS groups and violence interrupters.

Since March, there has been a 63 percent rise in shootings inside or in front of bodegas and corner stores. Bodega burglaries have also tripled. The week before the killing of James Solano, 22-year-old Joseph Evans was shot and killed outside a bodega in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Two weeks ago, two men were shot and wounded outside a bodega at Crescent Street and Stanley Avenue in East New York. Overall, shooting incidents are up 98 percent over last year to date, and murders have increased by 39.2 percent over the same time period. Two New Yorkers were killed, and five wounded, in four separate shooting incidents yesterday evening.

This press release was produced by the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. The views expressed are the author's own.