SOS Shooting response on Jan 20

We are saddened to inform you that yesterday there were TWO shootings in our catchment area in Crown Heights. We respond to every shooting that occurs in the S.O.S. target area.  We respond to ensure that these tragedies and insults to the community do not pass unremarked as though they are normal and acceptable, and to create a safe space on our streets, at the site of the shooting, where neighborhood residents can raise their voices in protest. 

Please join us tomorrow to respond to these shootings:

Tomorrow, Friday, January 20, 2012

6:00PM at Albany Ave and Prospect Ave

AND

6:45PM at 1288 St Johns Pl between Troy & Schenectady

 

Each response will last only about twenty minutes so please be prompt. We will walk together from Albany Ave. and Prospect Ave., the site of the first shooting response, to St Johns Place between Troy and Schenectady, the site of the second.

Here are some more ways you can get involved:

-          Check out the S.O.S. Arts to End Violence initiative to join in expressing your hopes for peace in Crown Heights.

-          Get involved in S.O.S. and volunteer! Contact Eliana at [email hidden] for more information.

-          Subscribe to our blog or "like" our Facebook page to stay up to date on what you can do.

Please join us tomorrow,

 

The S.O.S Team

Derick, Lavon, Achisimach, David, Aaron, Rudy, Kenneth, Leon, Amy, Ife, Marlon, Ruby Beth, Patsy, Radel, Lizzie, Eliana, Anthony, and Reverend Jones

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=957c85ecaf84e9ce109e750c3&id=c34b5bc62e&eo=95bb7fc7bc

this a great way to meet folks involved in trying to reduce the amount gun violence in our neighborhood.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are you protesting? The criminals don't give a shit if you protest and most of the people on the block are pretty decent folks who are caught up in whatever violence happens here. They don't cause it.

I agree, a traditional-style political or labor protest would be sIlly for just the reasons you mention.

To me, it seems like less of a protest and more of an awareness-raising campaign. Whether or not that's effective isn't for me to say, but certainly, the point is not to persuade the criminals to reform.

I think that this answers your question.

S.O.S. Crown Heights organizes a shooting response for every single shooting we learn about in the 77th Precinct. During a shooting response, we make the statement that these shootings and killings are unacceptable. They last approximately 30 minutes and acknowlege the tragedy of the violence and send a hopeful message that together we can transform the community. Please help us stop the spread of violence. We want to make Crown Heights a safer and healthier neighborhood for everyone- a place where shooting a gun is simply never even considered.

Well, the people on the block aren't considering shooting. Years ago, my office was on Kingston Ave. and when I got held up at gunpoint IN my office it wasn't by people from the block, it was from outsiders. It's not the people who live here making this into Dodge City, it's the people who don't.

In the SOS's catchment area, most of those committing gun crimes live quite locally.

Don't worry, the model is opposed to stabbings as well.

True, I've no doubt that the trouble makers live within a few blocks and the person(s) who got shot must have themselves been trouble makers but for the most part the people who live on the block are probably pretty decent folk.

Yes, even the most troubled neighborhoods are not largely composed of people who engage in crime.

A small percentage of people make life quite miserable and scary for the rest.

In turn, people avoid being victims by staying inside, which just encourages a downward spiral of the neighborhood.

....sounds like a cadre of concerned people is needed.

Want to meet us?

I wouldn't mind coming if you were doing this at 4pm. My office on St. Johns is down the block from 1288 but by 6:45 I'm long gone. And it's not because I'm afraid to be here but I have a meeting to attend tonight. Hopefully, there won't be another time that you'll protest on this block.

I think I speak for everyone involved in SOS when I state, "We'd like to work ourselves out of this job".

....ways to get involved, other than shooting responses, are listed above.

Hopefully, sooner than later.

Yes, even the most troubled neighborhoods are not largely composed of people who engage in crime.

A small percentage of people make life quite miserable and scary for the rest.

There was an interesting quote today in one of the news articles about the "Hoodstars" of Brownsville.

"The violence rose to the point that “a group of less than four dozen young people held hostage thousands of people who live in this community,” the city’s special narcotics prosecutor, Bridget G. Brennan, said."

Yup.

BTW, those interested in learning more about SOS Crown Heights can view the we page located at:

http://www.soscrownheights.org/

It even includes a snazzy New Years photo of the staff