Calls for action to reduce gun violence in southeast Queens are growing louder following the shooting death of 14 -year-old Aamir Griffin, who was laid to rest on Monday.
Electeds call for more to be done to stop
rampant gun violence in southeast Queens
BY BILL PARRY
Following recent incidents
of gun violence in southeast
Queens, including the shooting
death of 14-year-old Aamir Griffin
on a basketball court near
the Baisley Park Houses in Jamaica
last month, state Senator
James Sanders called on Gov.
Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill
de Blasio to increase preventative
resources to help end the
rash of shooting that have tormented
his constituents for far
too long.
“We have lost too many lives,
and especially young lives, to
gun violence, and the time to
take action is now,” Sanders
said. “We can no longer sit on
the sidelines and call for peace,
we need to put into place a strategic
plan consisting of a cohesive
group of resources that will
make a real difference in stopping
these crimes.”
These steps include reopening
local community centers
and extending their hours; bolstering
after school program
partnerships with smaller community
based organizations;
expanding Beacon programs;
increasing funding for trauma
centers and opening additional
centers in southern Queens;
developing and funding antiviolence
curriculum in New
York City schools; and creating
a universal youth employment
and education system.
More than 1,000 mourners
jammed the Greater Allen AME
Cathedral in St. Albans for
Griffith’s funeral on Nov. 4 and
Sanders, Councilwoman Adrienne
Adams and Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams wrote
about the ninth-grader in a letter
to Cuomo and de Blasio.
“Aamir was a beloved member
of his community who
helped his neighbors bring in
groceries when the elevator was
out of order,” they wrote. “He
never broke curfew or missed a
day of school. Aamir died while
doing what he loved, playing
basketball. He was already being
scouted by college recruiters
and scored the game-winning
basket for his high school
team a few days before he was
killed.”
Cardozo High School basketball
coach Ron Naclerio eulogized
the young man who started
as a freshman on the school’s
junior varsity team.
“He had that Magic Johnson
smile and he always had respect
for everyone,” Naclerio said. “He
was inconceivably young and
there will be no more games this
season for Aamir, no varsity, no
college degree and no chance to
play in the NBA which was his
dream,” Naclerio said. “I don’t
have words to heal this broken
family, broken by violence. Reality
is very cruel.”
Sanders, Adams and Williams,
in their letter to Cuomo
and de Blasio, said that despite
an increased police presence
in southern Queens in August,
shooting jumped by nearly 56
percent, up to 14 from nine.
“Simply put, Aamir lost his
life because the plague of gun
violence in our city is so pervasive
that kids cannot play
basketball in their neighborhood
without endangering their
lives. But more policing is not
the answer,” they wrote.”An
NYPD observation tower was
placed above Foch Avenue
weeks before the shooting, and
officers were patrolling the area
near the court at the time of the
shooting. If the solution to gun
violence was simply increasing
police presence, Aamir might
be alive today and southern
Queens would be one of the safest
areas in the city.”
The elected officials also
pointed out that shooting victims
are more likely to die in
southern Queens than in other
areas of the city because residents
live farther away from
trauma centers than residents
in other neighborhoods. The
region has only one remaining
trauma center at Jamaica
Hospital, which may close soon
because it is tens of millions of
dollars in debt.
“It is clear that the state and
the city must provide extensive
investment in local communities
Photo by Todd Maisel
and incorporate community
based organizations into
our public safety plans to fight
the pandemic of gun violence,”
they wrote. “Since residents of
southern Queens have some of
the longest commute times in
the city, many youths are left
alone after school, on weeknights,
and on weekends. Our
communities, including southeast
Queens most urgently,
need job training and other
afterschool programs to provide
youth with alternative activities
during their time out of
school.”
The three elected concluded
the letter saying funding was
found to strengthen programs in
Brownsville, Brooklyn and they
know those programs work.
“If we can afford to spend $9
billion to open new jails in each
borough, we can afford to spend
as much to make major investments
in communities of more
color that are being targeted by
over policing and trapped in the
cycle of mass incarceration, like
southeast Queens.”
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