NYC Looks To Community, More Cops To Address Harlem Gun Violence

HARLEM, NY — New York City will debut a new community-led plan — which includes an increased police presence on dozens of neighborhood corners and housing developments — to address a rising tide of gun violence in Harlem this weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.

Additional patrol officers will be deployed in vehicles and on foot at more than 20 Harlem streets and at the neighborhood's New York City Housing Authority developments, de Blasio said Friday. The strengthened police presence is part of what the city calls a community-led "grassroots approach" to address gun violence in the neighborhood following a particularly violent July 4 weekend.

De Blasio administration officials and NYPD leaders such as Chief of Department Terence Monahan met with more than 50 Harlem community and faith groups to develop the plan. Members of Harlem anti-violence groups such as Street Corner Recourses will walk the neighborhood with police, the mayor said.

"Everyone agreed on a common vision and working together... we will take back our streets in Harlem and all over our city, but we're gonna do it from the ground up, we're gonna do it with community leadership" de Blasio said Friday.

A big part of the city's plan is youth outreach. Community groups and faith leaders will work with the city to engage young people in Harlem by opening up houses of worship for events and working with the Parks Department to set up activities such as basketball drills. Next Friday, de Blasio will host a youth town hall in the neighborhood at the suggestion first made by youth members of Street Corner Resources.

Harlem State Senator Brian Benjamin, who helped organize the anti-violence plan, commended the city for including the community after a "rough couple of weeks" for the neighborhood.

"More police does not necessarily mean more public safety. A community-based approach where we have the police and community, clergy leaders and everybody on the street working together to protect our neighborhood and our blocks — that is the key to our success," Benjamin said.

Benjamin said that he has personally responded to scenes of gun violence in the neighborhood with anti-violence groups over the past few weeks, adding that everyone in Harlem is "concerned" about the rise in shootings.

Violence surged in Harlem and across the city over the July 4 weekend with more than 60 shootings — 10 fatal — in New York City's five borough's during the holiday, police officials said. In Harlem, two people were killed over the weekend. Another man was shot and killed near Harlem's Wagner Houses on Wednesday, police said.

Crime statistics recorded by the NYPD show that shootings have increased by more than 50 percent in New York City this year. The NYPD recorded 585 shootings with 717 victims as of July 5, compared to 381 shootings with 439 victims at the same point in 2019.

Iesha Sekou, founder of the Harlem anti-violence group Street Corner Resources, spoke Friday about some methods her members use to "interrupt" violence before it reaches the level of a shooting. Street Corner Resources members often separate two individuals in conflict, address the origins of disputes and sometimes even put someone in a van until they calm down, Sekou said.

The most important factor in stopping gun violence is getting residents of a block to take an active stance against it, Sekou said.

"When we talk about 'taking back the block' this is not an adversarial position," Sekou said. "We're talking about embracing the entire community, young people, our mothers and grandmothers and aunties of the block. We want them to come out to support embracing the block."