Brooklyn residents, activists and elected officials marched through the borough’s streets Sunday, demanding the mayor and governor combat gun violence through more funding in community programs.
With the city still reeling from the death of 11-year-old Kyhara Tay of the Bronx, who was caught in the crossfire of a young teen’s brazen daylight shooting, New Yorkers fear that the bullet storm could only grow worse with the impending summer months.
Organized by New York Communities for Change (NYCC)–a non-profit human rights organization–crowds gathered at 890 Flatbush Ave. to demand top city and state politicians put their money where their mouths are.
“We are fighting a cause for peace of mind, for safety in our communities! We want to speak to the gun owners and the suppliers of guns, the people who make the guns available and the aunties, uncles, cousins who are supporting the gunmen and women. Let us march to make it stop. We want our children to live. We want to see our future doctors, our future scientists, we want our children to live,” Gwendolyn Allison said, a member of the NYCC Flatbush Chapter.
Brooklyn residents marched against gun violence in Flatbush, demanding @NYCMayor and @GovKathyHochul take action before more innocent lives are lost #GunViolence #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/xTkct2yiz9
— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) May 22, 2022
Allison, like many Brooklyn residents at the march shared their constant fear of leaving their homes to visit their local deli, supermarket, or even to simply to walk around their neighborhood due to the continuous hail of gunfire pervading New York City streets.
“Let us march for peace, let us march for our lives, let us march for safety,” Allison exclaimed.
About 200 demonstrators trekked under the beating hot sun, chanting “Don’t shoot, I want to grow up!” Along the way, marchers placed flowers at several locations marking areas where individuals have lost their lives due to gun violence.
Members of Laborers’ Local 79 joined the cause calling for long-term solutions and not simply quick fixes to violence. They are demanding more union jobs, targeted investments in affordable housing, and updated infrastructure be made available in marginalized communities.
In place of merely funding law enforcement, demonstrators called for the investment of $1 billion in community-based gun violence intervention, hold gun manufacturers accountable, invest in summer youth and educational opportunities as well as universal mental healthcare.
The march culminated at the Brooklyn Museum.
As the group decried gun violence, just across the river, yet another New Yorker became a victim of gun violence; a 48-year-old man was shot in chest and killed at the Canal Street subway station in Manhattan.
