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Peace March

Community Responds To Gun Violence


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    Community members marched to protest gun violence in Rockaway.

While gun violence is at the forefront of the national conversation due to the school shooting in Florida, the Rockaway community is reeling from a recent spate of senseless deaths at home.  Four children have been shot in Rockaway since November 2017.

On Saturday, Feb. 24, community leaders, students, clergy, and the NYPD marched to declare loudly and forcefully that the streets belong to the people; that our children’s lives are precious; and that gun violence in this community is unacceptable.

The march began as a crowd of 120 people gathered on the football field at Frederick Douglass VI Academy (formerly Far Rockaway High School).  Joined in a prayer circle, the crowd remembered the children who have been lost and prayed for their families and friends.  They also united in the sentiment that the community must come together to end these tragic deaths.

Filing off of the football field, the group marched up Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 57th Street.  Fathers Alive in The Hood (FAITH) founder Kenny Carter energized the marchers and lifted the mood through the freezing cold and rain, leading them in chants like “Don’t Shoot. Live!” and “Guns down, peace up! Far Rock, don’t shoot!”

The procession stopped several times to mark the losses the community has suffered—at Beach 41st street to remember Trevor Rudd, 15, who was killed in January; and Beach 47th Street to remember Youssef Soliman, 15, who was killed in February.

Marissa Bernowitz, of Queens Law Associates and We Care New York said, “Youssef was getting on the right track… He came from a loving home and had tons of friends…Our problem is consistency, we have to follow up with the kids.  Youssef needed someone to follow up, to tell him that he was going to be ok.”

Councilman Donovan Richards added, “We have a lot of work to continue to do…while we are out here, we have to get into the buildings and into the schools.”

The march was organized by Frederick Douglass Academy VI; the Ocean Bay Community Center; Rockaway Youth Task Force; Fathers Alive in the Hood; RockSafe Streets; the Child Center of New York; Queens Law Associates; and the 101st Precinct.  Assemblywoman Stacey Pfeffer Amato, Councilman Donovan Richards, and Senator James Sanders also sponsored and attended the march.

Members of the Friends of the 59th Street Playground Association, Rockaway Women for Progress, Make My Mother Proud, and the Lady Hawks softball team were among the participants.

Following the march, community members were invited to participate in a call to action summit, where much of the focus was on creating opportunity for young people.  Information sessions focused on mentoring, youth development, and how to cope with social media and cyber bullying.  Organizers hope that this is only the start of a deeper community involvement to provide children with alternatives to violence.

Bernowitz told the Wave, “Many youth seem to think that the streets have all the answers. The community leaders, the majority of us being raised right in these streets, are fighting to show them there is a better way.”

 

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