After multiple incidents of violence in Brooklyn yesterday, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, Assembly Member Monique Chandler-Waterman, and Council Members Rita Joseph and Crystal M. Hudson released the following statement:
"Amid the many scenes of joy and jubilation surrounding yesterday’s celebrations, we cannot ignore the violence perpetrated by a few individuals – nor can we do the inverse.
"The protections implemented in recent years through collaboration of the NYPD, the Office of Community Safety, and community organizations like the Crisis Management System, WIADCA and J'Ouvert City International, clergy, and others have largely helped to improve safety, but nothing is a panacea. No amount of checkpoints or barricades can completely guarantee safety, nor impact what happens beyond these perimeters. Whether on the parkway, blocks away, or boroughs away, summer weekends and gatherings have consistently seen violence, with or without any connection to the celebrations.
"But even as we acknowledge that truth, we do not have to accept it, and we don’t. We don’t accept it as inevitable that violence rises with crowd size or temperature. Instead, we look at this as evidence of the work ahead, beyond policing an event and into disrupting underlying drivers of violence. Beyond one day, there is labor to be done year round to protect the very communities we celebrate."