When you pick up your children from school, what are the first thoughts that come to your mind? Perhaps you’ll ask them ‘how your day was’ or ‘what did you learn.’ Whatever the case, you should be able to pick them up without trepidation — school is supposed to be a safe haven. Unfortunately, this idealistic image of our local schools is hardly the case for inner-city communities where gang violence is rampant, jobs are scarce and police relations are taut. When Brownsville’s Zurana Horton, 34, went to pick up one of her twelve children from P.S. 298 on October 21, the last day of National Safe Schools’ Week, no one could have predicted that her life would end so suddenly in front of the Lucky Supermarket at the intersection of Pitkin Ave. and Watkins St. As shots ranged out from the top of a Brownsville warehouse from the unforgiving glock of 8-block gang member Andrew Lopez, Horton heroically shielded her child before taking a fatal shot to her chest.
The suddenness of last month’s events symbolizes the clash of several inner-city plights. When Horton lost her life in the line of senseless violence, it was more than gang violence and turf wars; it was youth violence, over 50 percent unemployment rates for young people of color, $500 million cuts in state funds for the Department of Education (which has lead to the demise of after school programs), lax gun laws below the Mason-Dixon that have enabled black market gun dealers to funnel the metal up north and cuts to anti-violence programs like the Police Athletic Leagues’ Boxing Program — a program that alleged shooter, Lopez, 18, his younger brother and suspect Kristian Lopez, 17, and third suspect Jonathan Carrasquillo, 22, were enrolled in two years ago before the NYPD entirely rid itself of the program because of budget constraints. Amidst all of the short comings of our legislature and state agencies, Horton reminded the community of its responsibility: to shield our children, even if it means putting our own lives on the line.
If we do not shield our children, then some of them may fall prey to the deceptive tools that gangs like 8-block used to attract a young and misguided Lopez. Of the estimated 1.14 million street gang members in the nation (159,158 in the northeast region), the vast majority of the members are teens that started gang banging as early as the age of 12. Gangs traditionally target youth because of their credulity and vulnerability to gang preached dogma of fast money, manliness and solidarity. Youth gang members are also thought to be able to avoid stricter sentencing; however, that has turned into more of a myth ever since the violent life of infamous South Bronx street king Willie Bosket lead the criminal justice system to try more youth offenders as adults.
Although east coast gang violence has dropped tremendously since the ’90s and remains significantly lower than the west coast and mid-western regions, it has demonstrated an upward trend between 2008 and 2011. What has happened between those three years? If you know of anyone who’s been laid off, or have a child who’s missing out on their favorite after school activity because their school saw after school programs as the first logical ‘expense’ to cut amidst budget constraints, then you should be able to put one and two together. The supposedly ended recession is leading to greater expenses in our community: violence. While adult gang members are more likely to engage in crimes like larceny theft, sex trafficking and counterfeiting, our youth wound up engaging in costly gun battles that have caused homicide to become the leading cause of death for blacks between the ages of 10 and 19.
Prevention will always be the first line of defense. Research continues to show that after school programs fill the void and improve the GPAs of the roughly 15 million ‘latchkey’ American youth (youth who come home to an empty apartment between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. and have limited contact with their guardian(s) throughout the week). By no coincidence, law enforcement refers to this 3 hour period as ‘danger zone.’ If we don’t shield our youth between those hours, then someone else will; make sure it is the right person or group.
Unfortunately, budget wars on Main Street has caused the Republican led House to cut back on federal funding for juvenile justice programs that traditionally provide alternative to violence programs in troubled schools. Thus, we can expect to see fewer programs like Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.), which is a gang and violence prevention program, built around school-based, law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curricula. Less federal dollars also means less State discretionary funding. Hence, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s hands have been tied into making the tough and questionable decision of completely cutting the $4 million of state funding allocated for SNUG, a program that focuses on the five pillars of street-level outreach, public education, community mobilization and cooperation with local faith leaders and police to drive out street crimes from inner-city communities. SNUG, which just started with ten pilot programs throughout the state in 2010, has helped reduce the amount of New Yorkers shot by 29 percent since its launch.
Nothing will bring Horton back into the lives of her 12 children and the Brownsville community. However, her death will not go in vain. What happened last month was a both a wakeup call for community parenting and policing, as well as a collateral consequence of recession and poverty. But we shouldn’t take the easy way out of solely blaming politicians and funding for our plights; recession is also a truth serum for our own wallets of benefits. What are you willing to give up to shield your child? What is the village willing to sacrifice for each of its offspring? When money is tight, are you willing to lose a few benefits and accept a pay cut if can help save a life? Rest assured, Horton would have.
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