Getting Guns – Not People – Off The Street Will Solve Everything!

Celebrating your heritage at a parade unites your sense of pride with others who have the same passion for the culture. Unfortunately, what it’s come down to is that celebrating your heritage also means you risk getting shot at, stabbed or attacked in the midst of a crowd. What’s even worse is that our city doesn’t have a handle on parade safety – namely the safety at the West Indian American Day parade. According to the Wall Street Journal, officials note that it’s the “most violent public event in the city.”

It's time for a parade in the city!!! Woo hoo!

Borough President Eric Adams held a press conference a couple of weeks ago, addressing the violence that took place at the West Indian Day parade – during which Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s aide was seriously injured after being shot. Forget about the fact that the victim, Carey Gabay, was simply “caught in the crossfire” of a gang violence which left him clinging to life. And forget about the fact that the gunman’s been on the loose for a while now.

The fact that we’re constantly talking about “cracking down on gun violence” with no real plan of action is very disturbing. What provokes someone to bring a weapon to a highly attended public event and open fire on innocent people?

The Daily News reported last week, after local pols got together for a press conference, that “guns are to blame for the violence, not the festival.” Let’s get real! An object just fired ITSELF into a crowd? That damned gun! How dare it go off! The celebrations aren’t the problems, the guns are! We told those dang guns to stay off the streets, didn’t we?

I have one question for politicians who are “addressing violence at and around J’Ouvert celebrations.” What about other parades? St. Patty’s Day? The Columbus Day parade? How about potential violence at the Pride parade? The Dominican Day parade? The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade? How many shootings have taken place at these highly attended festivities? Where are the leaders and coordinators of those parades? Maybe they can share their secrets for having a smooth-running celebration…

Making a statement on how “these shootings need to come to an end” is like shooting a gun in outer space. Hey, Jupiter can use some random acts of violence too! 

The only parade we have in Canarsie is the Memorial Day Parade – and we haven’t seen gun violence break out in the midst of our celebrations.

According to Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, many of the firearms obtained by local residents are brought here from the south. On a national scale, who’s responsible for putting an end to gun trafficking?

Many leaders are their own worst enemy – saying that Stop Question and Frisk unfairly targets minorities, and that its tactics need to be reformed. Why? If we had police officers conducting Stop and Frisk in and around the West Indian parade perimeters, maybe that goon would have been caught sooner and the gun would have been taken off of our streets. But no…that gun is most likely still in circulation.

What measures do we need to take? How about turning our parades into mini war zones with armed soldiers in army fatigues at each corner ready to apprehend someone who brandishes a weapon? How about checkpoints set up 24 hours before and after an event where police officers examine the insides of your pockets, bags and clothes? How about metal detectors all over the damned place? Where does it end?

Unless we take preventative physical measures and CATCH someone who’s armed, we’re not going to resolve the problem of gun violence. Our city, along with the NYPD, doesn’t have the money to place armed guards at every intersection near Eastern Parkway – and is that what we want to see when we’re trying to celebrate our freedom to…celebrate?

I’m not saying that if the parade was completely canceled that gun violence in that area wouldn’t exists. After all, those damned guns have a mind of their own and put themselves in the wrong peoples’ hands. Shoot, I thought I had the answer…

Hail To The Yuppies And The Paths They (Won’t) Trek!

There’s no end in sight to the controversy behind bike lanes being constructed in our community. On a personal level, I grew quite tired of hearing about the crazy ways the Department of Transportation (DOT) was changing the direction of traffic to accommodate the new bike paths, which would connect Canarsie to other communities by encouraging cyclists – or rather, forcing them – to pass through the neighborhood. 

Hello yuppie!

I don’t have an opinion on where Canarsie should have them or if they’re creating more of a mess than anything. One question I have about these bike lanes and their ability to bring more passersby through our community is: What’s in our community for out-of-town cyclists who will actually use these bike lanes to peruse Brooklyn?

I’ve already offered my two cents about the idea to bring a ferry to Canarsie Pier. What does Canarsie have to offer visitors? Nail salons? Chinese take out places that are on every street? A storefront church in which to worship? Let’s get real!

I was finishing one of my runs in Canarsie Park a couple of months ago and left the park from the back, passing Canarsie Road. A woman on her bike got my attention. I could tell she was one of these yuppies not from our community – a Caucasian girl with a long skirt and purse strap slung across her chest is not an everyday sight in Canarsie. In what sounded like an Australian accent, she asked me where the nearest coffeehouse was located, saying she just came from the bike path off of the pier and wanted a small, quaint place to sit outside and enjoy a drink.

What is this – Park Slope??? Prospect Park?? We ain’t got no cafes, eateries or restaurants with outdoor dining! So what do we have to offer those avid cyclists who follow the bike path from Paerdegat Avenue North to the park? McDonalds?? Gas stations where they can pump their bike tires with air?

I told the local tourist that she could head to Rockaway Parkway to our local Dunkin’ Donuts – or McDonald’s for a cup of java. She made a face as if to say, “I’ve biked for miles on that nice long path to reach this community where there are NO nearby cafes that I can sit outside?” I was almost embarrassed to tell her that she should have kept going to Cross Bay Boulevard where there are a lot of outdoor seating-type places – BY THE WATER (yeah, sort of like Canarsie, but better!).

It’s a great idea to connect Brooklyn bikers through a common path that will encourage them to explore different communities in their travels. Subsequently, there must have been a rhyme or reason for proposing the bike lanes along Shore Parkway and along East 102nd Street.

However, I’m sure there’s a better place in Canarsie for visitors to pass than the projects at Bayview Houses – where drivers are taking an alternate route to get to the Belt Parkway and there’s already mass confusion!

Still, bikers who want to stop in Canarsie after a long ride need more than just a $1 store to make their experience worthwhile.

When I was a kid – back in the 1980s, Canarsie had lots of small delis, bakeries and café-type businesses – but no hipsters! There were a lot of people biking in our community back then. I remember, when I lived on East 91st Street near Seaview Avenue, biking to Canarsie Park and riding over the sand dunes. My favorite time to bike at the park was when merchants in the area sponsored the street fair all along the avenue. You could spend a day pedaling around the park, then enjoy a cold drink or snack from the vendors at the fair – and the fair had HUNDREDS of people. It would have been ideal back then to have a bike path leading into Canarsie so residents of other communities could join our fun times.

But no.

Fortunately, when residents protested the bike lanes in Canarsie, including one that would be placed along East 108th Street, it seemed to have worked and the DOT listened to our demands. Things are somewhat back to normal, thanks to fighting the good fight.

It all works out in the end; Canarsie has little or nothing for the hipster yuppies who bike through the borough. They’ll turn back or keep going when they reach our commercially inept community. Happy trails!

When Quaint Communities Don't Speak Up

When they say Canarsie is a “quiet” and “quaint” “family-oriented” community, I truly believe them. Who's “them”? Politicians, civic leaders and residents who have lived here for decades. I'm not going to disagree with “them” but if this community is “family-oriented” and “quaint,” why isn't anyone coming out to stand against the incidents that victimize our residents? Seems like we're more quiet than anything!

The day the police released a sketch of the Canarsie rapist, I expected activists and residents to be out on the streets stapling copies of the drawing to utility poles, storefronts and light poles. I expected a group of women to reach out to the media and say, “We're not going to be victimized in our community!!” I expected someone – maybe a young woman who lives on Rockaway Parkway – to start a movement. 

Shhhhhhhh!

Alas, we remained a “quiet” and “quaint” community that stays indoors and doesn't demand justice!

Where are the mothers, daughters, grandmothers and other women who have to walk the streets at night when they're coming home from work or school – or maybe a social function? 

Where is there a group of women with the mentality, strength and anger to get together and march through the streets to let this cowardly attacker know that we're waiting for him to be caught?

Which politicians out there will spearhead a protest or press conference that will lead to women in our community taking a stand for themselves? We should be seeing hundreds of women marching up and down Rockaway Parkway with signs that say, “We want our safety back!”…“We're not afraid of our streets!” and “Get this thug out of our community!”

With all of the female activists and leaders in our community, are ANY of them planning on coordinating a massive event – even if the perpetrator is caught – that will educate women and empower those who are simply looking to make it home safely no matter what time of day or night it is?

Let's get real!! If all we're going to do is sit back and let the cops put a couple of bright lights and a command center at the crime scene, it's not doing much more than telling the rapist that if he plans on striking again, he'd better go elsewhere in Canarsie since authorities possibly know his travel pattern.

I don't think it's enough to advise women to pay attention while they're on the streets. It's not enough to tell a girl to take her headphones off and be vigilant of who's walking around. A woman can be approached by a man she's lived next door to for HER ENTIRE LIFE and never suspect that he plans on raping her that one time she communicates with him.

On another note – why aren't male civic leaders coming out and talking to the men in our community!!! Spread the word to male residents that talking to a woman who is walking alone in the middle of the night WILL eventually land them in jail. Someone has to talk to the criminal minds out there and set them straight. Someone needs to tell these thugs to leave women alone and have RESPECT for a young lady – no matter if she ignores them or rejects them. Women do not deserve to be harassed – why don't men understand that? If they're mentally disturbed, women need to have the tools to combat these dangerous goons. If we're approached by a psycho – what do we do? What steps do we take to ensure ourselves that we can walk away without becoming a victim?

Alas...We remain a “quiet” and “quaint” community with no protests and minimal finger-wagging from politicians when it comes to speaking out against heinous and violent acts. I'm guessing no one is truly upset about what's going on in our community?

There are plenty of communities that sponsor marches and include the involvement of quality-of-life organizations. If we've got an intoxicated driver who kills a child, where's Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)? Are we getting all of these organizations involved in making our community safer? How many organizations out there advocate for women's safety and rights? Can't we (whoever 'we' are) get them involved? Can't we have a non-profit sponsor a self-defense course for the community at a local event? Plenty of women need support and education from sources that specialize in educating the public on all different dangerous situations.

When will it be our community's turn to speak up and make a fuss?

That's right, we're a “quiet” and “quaint” community...