Another Shooting Morningside Park

When were the other shootings ?
Does anyone know ?

Wow, just left question (facebook.com/hwmag) asking if jobs and ending the war on drugs is the answer?

I wish I knew what was going on. I have a theory: People have no regard for anyone else except themselves, so they don't care when they fire a weapon recklessly. I don't think it has anything to do with unemployment or a drug problem. I've known desperate, unemployed drug addicts who would never pick up a gun to solve their problems. I think the problem is a moral issue.

there was a kid shot on the BB court in morningside park on june 2nd http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nypd_blotter/nypd_daily_blotter_49qNEc5Leuaz89GMYE3IqM

heard a 2nd shooting on 118th last week?

Please call your state assemblyman Robert Rodriguez at 212-828-3953 to voice your concern over the increased violence. He is planning on meeting with concerned parents in the neighborhood. Inez Dicken’s (city council member #9) 212-678-4505 is also collecting letters and signatures of concerned citizens to try to increase PAL hours and gang prevention activities. Check out harlem4kids for more information on how you can help!!

This is great and we'll place it in the mix with our readers on our facebook page @hwmag.

Thank you,
Daniel
HW

Melissa, the way I understand the process, the citizens collect letters and signatures, they pass the letters and signatures to the electeds. Then the electeds push other electeds to vote for an increase in the budget (or use their own discretionary funds) for the PAL budgets to stay open longer at night and/or open earlier.

HW

Right! What I should have written is that Inez Dicken's office is requesting that anyone concerned with the issue write letters to her office ccing other community leaders and the local 28th precinct. Another option is to write a joint letter and collect signatures. (This is what some of the moms at Harlem4kids are planning to do.) Please take the time out to at least contact one representative by mail or phone. I was across the street with my 14 month old daughter, swinging in the park, when this happened. The park was full of kids. Any one of them could have become a victim. Please do not allow this to happen in our community!

Melissa,

HW will continue to post everything regarding the issue on our site (HarlemWorldMag.com), we'll do a radio show segment regarding the issue with the moms and the 23rd precinct, if a joint letter is created we'll post that asking for signatures from our readers and our partners.

Daniel
HW

Here is the letter. If you would like to endorse it, please email mckinney_tiffany@hotmail.com before 5PM today. I will try to get the deadline extended another day as I know this is short notice. So far there are over 60 business and community member endorsements.

Dear Councilmember Dickens:
As parents, business owners and community members, we write to express our concern over the recent shooting at Morningside Park and to ask for your leadership in addressing the inaction and indifference we have encountered from many of our officials. As Harlem residents we are both pleased and excited with the strides our community has made in the past several years. We are encouraged with the new businesses and opportunities coming to Harlem and want to ensure that this progress is not jeopardized in any manner.
In particular, on Thursday, June 30, 2011, there was a shooting at Morningside Park in the early evening hours. It is our understanding that another shooting occurred in the same park earlier last month. This is a community space that many of us frequent and our entire community – both young and old – enjoy. In fact, the shooting occurred just steps away from the playground where countless children play. In discussing this shooting, we learned that a 15 year old boy was fatally shot earlier last month in our neighborhood. Our community and more importantly our young people and children deserve much more.
Following the shooting on June 30th, several of us attempted to contact our local officials, including Community Boards 9 and 10, several local precincts and elected officials, to determine what steps were being taken to ensure the safety of our community during these summer months and beyond. Unfortunately, the responses we received were inadequate at best.

Therefore, we are contacting you, our elected official, requesting your immediate attention to this matter. In particular, we believe our neighborhood could be made safer if several measures are put into place, namely:
• Greater police presence (namely, foot patrol) in Morningside Park and throughout our neighborhood, especially during these summer months;
• Re-opening the MTA agent booth at the 116th (Uptown) subway station with greater police presence until loiterers are deterred from sleeping, using drugs and toileting in this station;
• Better communication about such incidents and opportunities (from your office) for the community to respond and help address this and other critical issues that impact Harlem;
• A rigorous investigation of this shooting, in particular, and the larger issue of the prevalence of gun violence in our neighborhood; and
• Increased opportunities and activities for our teens and young people that provide them the safe and productive environments they deserve.
Concerns around our young people and increased violence among them have been an issue in Harlem for years. Many members of the Harlem community have devoted their time and energy towards addressing this issue. Yet, finding sustainable solutions to the many challenges our young people face will require a holistic approach, including partnerships between community members, business owners, religious institutions, and elected officials. Consequently, we look forward to your office taking a lead on this crucial matter.

We are proud members of the Harlem community. Some of us have lived here for generations and others are newcomers. Yet, our common thread is ensuring that Harlem continues to be the safe, friendly, welcoming neighborhood we call home. We are happy to assist your office in this effort.

Sincerely,
[ENDORSERS HERE: NAME AND ADDRESS]

cc: Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
State Senator Bill Perkins
Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell
Assembly Robert Rodriquez
Public Advocate Bill Deblazio
Commanding Officer Rodney Harrison
Detective Ricky Ranson
Detective Adrian G Carmona
Kobla Moats, Director of PALS Harlem Center

Sorry for posting in batches, but I was hitting the character limit.

Thank you for posting the letter and contact email; the level of violence throughout Harlem, while lower than in its notorious past, seems to be higher (than in the past couple of years) already this summer. (I've lived in Harlem since 1999, and near Morningside Park for over a year).

This may not be appropriate, but the staff at Morningside park does nothing on the weekend about whole groups of people who bbq and refuse to throw a single plate in the garbage. You can't even walk one foot without walking through garbage after the weekend. Wouldn't happen in midtown - i can say that.

I agree with the "whole groups of people who bbq and refuse to throw a single plate in the garbage" but can't blame the staff.

They do a heck of a job getting the park cleanned up on a Monday.

People in the park on weekends are slobs, no respect for the park or the residents

Thanks to everyone who signed on to the letter. We were able to collect around 200 names and have been able to get some media attention on the issue. Here is a link to the story.
http://www.dnainfo.com/20110712/harlem/morningside-park-shootings-worry-area-parents

I think, in all fairness, this post is about a shooting in the park, not barbecuers. There are people who cookout or barbecue in the park and that is a separate discussion. Let's not cross our wires and mix and match our issues.

Here is a link to more media coverage.
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-morningside-park-shootings,0,7700292.story

Keep up the pressure on local officials to take action! There is a Town Hall Meeting with many of the local leaders on July 21st from 6 to 8PM at The Church of the Ascension at 221W 107th Street.
http://harlemworldblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/join-us-for-manhattan-valley-morningside-heights-town-hall/

great job Melissa,

What was the reaction to the letter?

Getting the word our to my neighbors about the Town Hall Meeting.

Thanks! There was a Special Joint Meeting of Manhattan Community Boards 9 and 10 today. Unfortunately it was a closed meeting, but they are in the process of scheduling a meeting that is open to the public. I will post the information once I have it. Today Manhattan Community Boards 9 and 10 met with the 26th and 28th Precincts, Patrol Borough Manhattan North, District Attorney Cy Vance's Office, the Manhattan Borough President's Office and Friends of Morningside Park to discuss the recent string of shootings in the area in and around Morningside Park.

Its about the proliferation of guns in urban areas. In rural areas where it can take the police several hours to arrive at a crime scene, you can readily understand why you should have a weapon to protect your family and home. However, in cities like New York there is no justification for owning weapons, the police are all over the place and minutes away. Put a gun in the hands of a youngster and anything can happen. Drugs may influence this brand of violence, but it comes down to easy access to guns.

redplanet the criminals have guns, law abiding citizens do not. Gun laws do not work, the facts are clear, vilent crime drops when citizens are alowed to protect themselfs. God forbid we have a natural or man made catastrophe in our city, if things get bad enough I would like to have a weapon to protect myself. If you dont believe in guns feel free to put a sign on your door proclaiming such, welcome intruders to rape and piliage your family, they know you cant protect yourself, dial 911 and hope for the best.

G, we understand that protecting oneself with a weapon has been a staple of American rights since its founding, we hope that that is not what Harlem needs - we hope it's jobs.

HW

"Jobs" ?

Reality: The problem people have no interest in finding or holding down any sort of job. I accepted this fact after hard and eye-opening experience. If anything, programs are needed to move people toward job readiness, and to REQUIRE individual progress there: Proper attire, arriving on time, speaking proper English, and similar. Perhaps above all, people are in dire need of instruction that it is not some mythical, fantastically rich government that supports them on a daily basis but their fellow citizens, the taxpayers - the working people of all classes, who are now, basically, broke.

Like many people, I was out of work for quite a stretch after 9/11. This was an incredibly difficult time. Yet, somehow, I refrained from obtaining a gun and involving myself in a shoot-out "over a girl." So ... I would say that the situation is a bit more complicated than simply identifying adolescent criminals as out-of-work victims of society would allow. Indeed, experience has taught me that victimhood and its constant companion, entitlement, are the two greatest tendencies holding back a significant percentage of Harlem's population.

Regarding the gun law debate: Guns are available in Harlem because there is a demand. Period. Availability has followed demand, partially fed by defunct and destructive social customs like "no snitchin'" - which encourages people to use individual violence to resolve even the smallest annoyance. There is also money to be made and this requires little work or education on the part of the suppliers.

Regarding the earlier comment about "political correctness": Could not agree more. The PC babble is just a waste of time and does nothing to resolve the practical issues right in front of everyone, every day.

well said. Yet we tollerate the "entitlement" policies and tollerate the garbage, the improper language, dress, the attitudes....

I am excited to report that the push for better security in the park is getting some results. Check out this article!
http://www.dnainfo.com/20110714/harlem/morningside-park-could-get-more-police-following-shootings
Thanks to everyone who has been in contact with their local representatives! Please keep the pressure on! It is making a difference!!

Like most issues in a country founded on money, is in deep trouble when it's populace (in Harlem) do not have any. The 50% unemployment speaks volumes about the what maybe a part of the problem in Harlem. First steps first, let's try and solve 50% of the problem in Harlem and see what happens to the other 50%.

As my football coach used to say "beautiful flowers grow from cow sh*t." If nothing else these issues have us talking.

HW

"Let's" as in "let us" ? What can "we" do, exactly ? I am out of ideas and therefore open to any suggestions.

You might want to hit the streets (literally) and convince people not to use drugs and not to commit crimes. In East Harlem, anyway, the local employment goals of the big retailers fell short because people disqualified themselves in one or both areas.

This has also been my personal experience when helping people find better jobs. A violent felony conviction (robbery, rape, murder) even a decade ago closes many doors.

I would also reiterate my recommendations regarding appropriate attire, reasonable language skills, arriving on time. Time spent hanging out on the front steps could be spent reading a book, and similar. Not into reading ? How about cleaning the garbage- and litter-filled lot next door, just to improve the quality of life for the children on the block. As opposed to, say, waiting around for other people to do it for you.

There are good choices and bad. Each individual makes them.

There will be a Community Board 9 forum on Park Safety at the PAL on August 9th from 6-8PM. Thank you to those who spoke up at the Town Hall Meeting! Please continue to voice your concerns!