FIGHTING AGAINST
Brooklyn’s anti-violence groups look
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COURIER L 2 IFE, JULY 24-30, 2020
BY PAUL FRANGIPANE
Dozens of anti-gun violence
advocates gathered
for a demonstration in Bedford
Stuyvesant on July 16
following a recent uptick in
shootings across Brooklyn,
including the tragic shooting
death of a one-year-old boy
last week.
Anti-violence groups began
their evening procession
outside the Gates Avenue offi
ce of the community organization
Save Our Streets Bed-
Stuy (S.O.S.), where advocate
Shadoe Tarver kicked off the
march — but not before sharing
some harrowing news.
“I apologize for starting
fi ve minutes late, but that’s
because we literally just
heard that there was another
shooting,” Tarver said. “I’m
upset y’all and I’m hurt …
that’s why we’re here today,
because we have to show everybody
that we’re not accepting
this, that we’re not
cool with this, that this is not
business as usual.”
One-year-old Davell Gardner
was shot and killed
while sitting in his stroller
at a cookout near Raymond
Bush Playground on July 12
— shaking an already distraught
city reeling from the
spike in violent crime.
The Bedford-Stuyvesant
march kicked off a weekend
of outreach in the neighborhood
to continue the longterm
healing of violence in
the city.
“We look at violence, especially
gun violence, as a
public health issue and not a
criminal issue,” said Tarver,
S.O.S.’s associate director of
community safety. “We believe
that we can stop the
spread of violence just like
you can stop the spread of a
disease, which means vaccinating
or taking away the
risk factors by changing behaviors
and giving people resources.”
S.O.S. Brooklyn, a project
of the Center for Court Innovation,
is New York’s fi rst
and longest-standing cure
violence collective, that operates
in Bedford-Stuyvesant
and Crown Heights.
As the more than 100 local
demonstrators marched
through the neighborhood
where Gardner was killed,
neighbors came out to their
porches, some tearing up and
raising fi sts in solidarity.
“I was born and raised
in this neighborhood and to
see the destruction and the
ignorance that’s happening,
it touches,” said Chris, a
48-year-old resident of Madison
Street, who did not want
to disclose his last name.
“It’s time to come together.
That’s power walking down
the block.”
When the march arrived
at a memorial for Gardner
outside Raymond Bush
Playground, participants
mourned as a community
and shared grievances with
the current spate of violence.
Nyrearra Mclain, 19, an
outreach worker with S.O.S.
and the mother of a oneyear
old girl, took the microphone.
“I can only imagine how
this mother is feeling,” she
said. “The thought of not
holding her child anymore,
not getting to see him take
his fi rst steps. I hope and I
pray that she fi nds justice,
peace and healing through
this process.”
An outreach worker with
cure violence group Man Up!
reminded the community
of shooting responses that
the groups had organized in
past years around Bedford-
Stuyvesant. These organizations
typically respond to
shootings within 72 hours to
S.O.S. Bed-Stuy members gathered for an anti-gun violence rally on July 16.
send a message that the community
doesn’t tolerate violence.
“I’m tired of doing shooting
responses … we’re losing
generations,” said 24-yearold
Shayquan Moody. “This
is our community, we gotta
take back our community.”
After the rally, the antiviolence
groups continued
marching to Restoration
Plaza, passing several NYPD
“wanted” posters for the baby’s
killer. As of July 21, no
one had been charged for the
homicide.
Combating violence
On the evening of the
march, S.O.S. member Takia
Gilmore embraced Gardner’s
aunt, 23-year-old Shareema
Johnson, during a community
prayer about the need to curb
violence and the devastating
effects gun violence has on
communities.
“I don’t know what it’s like
to lose a nephew, but I know
what it’s like to lose someone
you love because I’ve lost way
too many people to count to
gun violence,” Gilmore told
Brooklyn Paper. “I’ve been try-
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