Queens faces spike in gun violence amid economic and health crises
/
Nine months after the stray bullet murder of 14-year-old Aamir Griffin on a South Jamaica basketball court, gun violence has spiked in parts of Queens. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By David Brand
A double murder inside a Far Rockaway home Tuesday punctuated a citywide spike in gun violence that has affected some sections of Queens in recent weeks.
The rise in violence defies simple explanation, but community leaders say the shootings are a symptom of disinvestment in low-income neighborhoods and mass unemployment fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If we really look at the root cause of violence, it has to do with poverty,” said Rockaway Youth Task Force Executive Director Milan Taylor. “What we’re seeing is an underinvestment in our communities time and time again. Folks don’t have education, don’t have jobs, don’t have opportunities.”
In the NYPD’s Queens South Borough Command, which includes the Rockaways, the number of shooting incidents has increased by more than 70 percent and the number of gunshot victims has increased by more than 90 percent so far this year compared to the same time period in 2019, according to the most recent NYPD reports.
The number of shooting incidents rose by 400 percent from June 7 to June 5, according to the data. Queens South, one of two NYPD patrol zones in the borough, also includes Richmond Hill, Jamaica, Queens Village and neighborhoods south of the Jackie Robinson Parkway.
“When you aren’t funding the programs and organizations that need to be funded in Southeast Queens, young people don’t have places to go and they need them,” said Cambria Heights organizer James Johnson, who runs the organization Opportunities for Southeast Queens Millennials. “This is a direct issue of young people not having something to do.”
Johnson called Southeast Queens, particularly Cambria Heights and Hollis, a “community center desert,” where opportunities for young people are limited. The lack of constructive programs leads some young residents to turn to gangs and violence, he said.
“We have no youth centers in our community. Young people have to travel by buses to get to Roy Wilkins Park,” Johnson added. “What are young people going to do with their summertime?”
Despite the spike in shootings, the number of murders in Queens South has actually decreased this year as of July 5 — from 17 in 2019 to 15 this year, according to the NYPD’s latest reporting. The shooting death of a man and a teenager in Far Rockaway Tuesday raise that total to at least 17.
Councilmember Donovan Richards, who leads the vote count in the Democratic primary for borough president, joined a group of Rockaway residents, community organizations and elected officials to denounce gun violence during a march from Beach 41st to Beach 54th Street in Edgemere Wednesday afternoon.
“We should all be outraged,” Richards tweeted Monday, following the murder of a 1-year-old hit by a stray bullet in a Bedford-Stuyvesant park. “Senseless and tragic!! The community needs to find the culprits responsible for this and turn them in ourselves. How are these illegal firearms finding there way onto our streets?”
In Queens North, murders rose to 18 as of July 5 compared to 14 during the same time period in 2019. The number of shooting incidents and shooting victims remain roughly the same year over year, but they have doubled in between June 7 and July 5, according to the NYPD reports.
Elsewhere in New York City, shootings and murders have increased more dramatically in the first six months of 2020, according to NYPD reports.
Murders have increased by 23 percent citywide compared to the first six months of 2019 — from 147 last year to 181 this year. There has also been a 46 percent increase in shooting incidents, from 362 in the first six months of 2019 to 528 in the first six months of this year.
NYPD officials have blamed the rise in gun violence on bail reform laws and the release of people from Rikers Island to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s bail reform. It’s COVID. It’s emptying out prisons. One of the most frustrating pieces right now, is a criminal justice system that just is not working and I’m calling on Albany to fix it,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told PIX11 last month. “Fix it now. People are dying on the streets of New York City.”
Yet, the NYPD’s own data contradicts those claims, illustrating the complexities of a spike in gun violence, especially amid mass unemployment, a public health crisis and diminished opportunities for young people.
A July 8 report by NY1 found that six of the 4,500 people released from Rikers Island since March have been arrested for murder, while another 35 have been arrested for weapons charges. Overall, 13 percent of people released to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have been re-arrested, NY1 reported. The New York Post found that just one of roughly 11,000 people who avoided jail time under the state’s new bail law was rearrested and charged with a shooting.
Following the October killing of 14-year-old Aamir Griffin while he was playing basketball on a South Jamaica court, public advocate Jumaane Williams called on the city to invest in Southeast Queens communities rather than expect the police to quell the violence.
“Police have a role to play, but if police could solve this problem, it would have been solved a long time ago,” Williams said. “An over-reliance on police is not helping. We need them to do their jobs and we need to invest in communities so they can do their jobs.”
Nine months later, Taylor, of the Rockaway Youth Task Force, echoed that message — a demand that has encountered institutional indifference for decades.
“What we’re seeing is an underinvestment in our communities time and time again,” Taylor said, “Whether it’s one death or 50, a single loss is still a loss to us. Gun violence is still affecting our community.”
