Decrease in Gun Violence Citywide Belies Ongoing Crisis in Streets
By Audrey Mei Yi Brown
Anti-gun violence activists in the Bronx and Brooklyn intend to double down on gun violence prevention efforts even as the New York Police Department reports a citywide drop in shootings.
Despite some encouraging statistics, community members say disenfranchised boroughs are still struggling after the pandemic catalyzed a chain reaction of crises.
“We had a pandemic in a pandemic. We had the pandemic of Covid-19 and then we also had the pandemic of violence,” said Pastor Gil Monrose, an anti-gun violence activist and president of the 67th Precinct Clergy Council board of directors.
“That took a toll on all of us,” Monrose said.
There were 1,531 shootings in all five boroughs in 2020, up 97 percent from 777 shootings in 2019, according to NYPD data. The shooting spike was greater than New York had seen in two decades, drawing widespread concern from community members, city officials, and even the president of the United States.
Now, the number of shootings appears to be declining. Shooting incidents in New York dropped by 35 percent from July 2020 to July 2021, according to the NYPD.
That dip in gun violence has been unevenly distributed across the city’s boroughs, according to NYPD data. Decreases have been greatest in Brooklyn, while in the Bronx shootings have actually risen by 30 percent since last year.
“We’re standing in this moment where the focus on what we do has never been greater,” said David Caba, Program Director at Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence.
Caba would like to see New Yorkers and government officials take last year’s energy to defund the police and channel it towards supporting community-based programs like theirs, where members of the community perform anti-violence outreach and education amongst their neighbors.
“Refund the community,” Caba said.
A NYPD precinct may retain upwards of 300 police officers, whereas a given BRAG team has 5 to 7 staff. With more staff, BRAG teams could canvas broader swaths of the community. Prior to the pandemic, their efforts helped bring the shooting rate in the Bronx to a historic low.
Shootings in Brooklyn dropped by over 20 percent since last year, but that’s only in contrast with last year’s record high, Monrose said.
“What we saw during the pandemic was something we had never experienced before. We never could have sustained that level of violence,” Monrose said.
Community-led initiatives in underserved boroughs worked to prevent violence by supporting and organizing the community. Monrose and the 67th Precinct Clergy Council’s “GodSquad,” a faith-based organization that reduces neighborhood tensions, improved access to Covid relief resources and employed over 800 young people from affected zip codes in a stipend-based mentorship program this summer.
“It reduces the possibility of idle hands and hearts,” Monrose said.
While their efforts helped bring the number of shootings down, the toll of the violence lingers.
“We still have mothers crying and funerals to perform. We’re still mourning,” Monrose said.
Caba and Monrose point out that today’s violence is an outcome of historic disinvestment in their communities. They believe the current crisis presents an opportunity to counteract that history, drawing investment into gun violence prevention work that’s by and for the communities that need it most.
