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Gun violence is directly challenged by teen-owned businesses
CONCOURSE, The Bronx (PIX11) — June is Gun Violence Awareness Month, and while some new statistics from the NYPD show significant — and even record-breaking — progress in the fight against gun crimes, some other information from the police shows that there's still much work to do.
That was the upshot of a gun violence awareness event organized by leaders of government, law enforcement, and education in The Bronx on Monday, in Lou Gehrig Plaza, on 161st Street.
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But right across the street, in Bronx Borough Hall, another event took place that's meant to both counter and reduce crimes involving gun shooting.
It was all happening exactly three weeks after a stray bullet took the life of Evette Jeffrey, a 16-year-old innocent bystander in a schoolyard in the Morrisania section of the Bronx.
One of the leaders of the gun violence awareness rally spoke about the tragedy directly.
'As a mother, as an educator, and a lifelong Bronxite,' said Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, 'this hit home.'
Aviles-Ramos joined with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, District Attorney Darcel Clark, NYPD Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, and violence interruption groups at the Gun Violence Awareness Month launch event.
It happened at the same time that the city reported its lowest number of homicides in any five-month period ever, as well as recording a 21 percent drop in shootings this year, citywide.
Still, said Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, the highest ranking NYPD officer in the Bronx, 'There's so much work to do, because we also see that there are a lot of guns in the street. [There are also] a lot of shots fired, and those are just shootings that missed,' Gurley said at the gun violence awareness event.
He was referring to stats like the following, which the NYPD released at the same time as its record low homicide numbers: shooting incidents are up 30.8 percent in the Bronx's 40th Precinct this year, and up more than 112 percent in the last two years; there was a 200 percent increase in shootings — from 1 to 3 — in the last week of May in the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx.
A big part of the problem, according to District Attorney Darcel Clark, 'It's just so much more rampant that the younger kids are getting the guns now.' She said that with each passing year since 2018, when state law raised the minimum age for adult sentencing to 18 from 16, there has been a higher incidence of early teens committing gun crimes.
Drawing attention to that, as well as other gun violence issues, is why violence interruptors and city leaders are encouraging people to wear orange, the color of the gun violence awareness campaign.
Across the street from the launch event, inside Bronx Borough Hall, the color was seen on the chests of young people at tables lining the perimeters of the building's cavernous central hall. It was the presentation of teen entrepreneurs' business projects, as they received grants from the city to fund them.
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Councilmembers Kevin Riley and Althea Stewart helped secure grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 for about two dozen businesses and non-profits started by Bronx-based high schoolers. They were on hand for the Monday fair, with their orange ribbons pinned to their blouses, shirts, and sweaters.
'It's supposed to symbolize anti-gun violence month,' said Shania Mayfield, a senior at the Academy of Scholarship and Entrepreneurship, in the Wakefield section of the borough.
She was at the fair, at a table displaying the work of the non-profit she founded with fellow senior Kayla Moore, who was seated beside her. Guardian Angels Tutoring Services, Inc. is the non-profit they founded. It trains and schedules tutoring and mentoring services.
Its purpose, said Moore, is that 'students can have something to do after school, and it's something where they can earn money, while helping other people.'
The fair and the program in which they're involved are run by the organization Parents Uplifting our Daughters and Sons, or PUDS.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson went to the fair right after leading the gun violence awareness rally across the street. She said that just as important as gun violence awareness is the promotion of teens' business skills. They're an antidote to the violence, she said.
'[It gives] young people opportunities to be successful,' Gibson said in an interview, 'where they don't have to think about engaging in negative behavior.'
Jamila Davis, the founder of PUDS, said that the entrepreneur grants are given out at the end of the school year, strategically. It's right before the summer season, which tends to be the busiest time for teen entrepreneurs' sales.
That busy sales season comes at the same time as the city typically sees a rise in gun violence. In other words, said organizers of both the Gun Violence Awareness Month launch and the teen entrepreneurs' fair, the teens' businesses directly counter gun violence in the borough.
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