Queens anti-violence leaders kick off city’s annual Peace Week
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Public advocate Jumaane Williams (left) and Life Camp Inc. founder Erica Ford kicked off New York City’s 10th Annual Peace Week at City Hall Wednesday. Eagle photo by David Brand.
By Emma Whitford
More than 100 anti-violence activists and nonprofit leaders from across New York City gathered on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to kick off the 10th Annual New York Peace Week, a series of events designed to uplift communities affected by gun violence. They also sang happy birthday to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 91 years old.
“We use Peace Week to… talk about how all worlds must be safe,” said organizer Erica Ford, founder of South Jamaica-based LIFE Camp, Inc. “Whether it’s the Jews in Crown Heights, or our brothers and sisters in East New York, our brothers and sisters in the Bronx, Staten Island, our Lesbian and Transgender brothers and sisters.”
The event highlighted the work of community organizations including Life Camp and 696 Build who diffuse disputes in New York City neighborhoods, while providing opportunities for residents, in particular young people of color.
“The level of importance that the fire department receives, that the other emergency agencies receive, our funding should continue to flow because of the work that we do as well on the emergency line,” added A.T. Mitchell of Man Up!, a Brownsville-based anti-violence nonprofit.
Drawing a favorable comparison to the inaugural Peace Week in 2010, attendees at Wednesday’s rally praised the rollback of Stop and Frisk, as well as the expansion of New York City’s Crisis Management System, which directs with $36,000 to nonprofits in 22 precincts across the city. Many of the groups in attendance Wednesday work with so-called “violence interrupters” to mediate conflict and provide mental health services and job training.
Last month, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice announced a new $5.5 million investment citywide, including funding for groups based in East Flatbush, Coney Island and Brownsville.
Speakers Wednesday emphasized the downward trend in gun violence incidents over the last decade, while acknowledging recent concentrated upticks in certain neighborhoods, including Southeast Queens. Overall shootings increased three percent citywide in 2019.
“Peace week is critical every year, but this year it comes as we see a spike in hate violence, xenophobic attacks, and an increase in gun violence in certain pockets, in various black and brown communities across the five boroughs,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
Williams said he believes peace can be achieved without expanding the police force or rolling back bail reform measures that took effect this month and are already facing backlash from conservative legislators.
“What I’m asking everybody, to join us in a revolutionary form of peace. In a form of peace that actually works. A peace that does not mean 500 extra police officers in the subways. A peace that does not mean to peel back the gains that we’ve gotten from bail reform,” he said. “A peace that does not mean we have to lock up as many black and brown people as humanly possible.”
“We want a peace that simply means, like any other community, the resources needed for housing, education, employment,” he continued. “We would not be here, statistically speaking, if not for the men and women behind me right now.”
Shanduke McPhatter, founder of Brooklyn-based Gangstas Making Astronomical Community Changes Inc., compared the city’s investment in law enforcement to the money it invests in community organizations. The NYPD’s 2019 budget was nearly $6 billion.
“We talking about NYPD, who’s in the billions in regards to their budget,” McPhatter said.
“The arrests is what you do,” he added, addressing the police. “The murders, we stop!”
