By David Greene
BRONX, NEW YORK (BRONX NEWS)- Celebrating their first anniversary at combating the violence that continues to plague the streets of the Northeast Bronx, members and supporters of Stand Up to Violence (SUV) held their First Annual Peace Walk on Saturday, August 22.
The event kicked-off with a breakfast held at the office of Community Board # 12, followed by a march from East 229 Street down White Plains Road to East Gun Hill Road. A rally at the Williamsbridge Square on East Gun Hill Road was followed by a Family Day gathering at Mazzei Playground located at Williambridge Road and Mace Avenue.
With funding for SUV secured by Senator Jeff Klein and the New York State Senate, with assistance from SNUG, a program funded by the New York State Department of Criminal Justice and based out of Jacobi Hospital, Pastor Jay A. Gooding, Sr., of the Fellowship Tabernacle Ministries of East Gun Hill Road declared the pilot program a success.
Pastor Gooding told the crowd, "Let me just share with you a few of the statistics over the last 12-months. In our target area where SUV has been, there has been a reduction in shooting's of over 40%."
Gooding continued, "We now have 52 young men that are being mentored by outreach workers, over 30% of them are now working."
According to Gooding, over the past year SUV has participated at 63 community meetings and held 16 events of their own in neighborhoods like Wakefield and Allerton where shooting's seem to be an almost daily occurrence.
Senator Klein, a sponsor of the New York Safe Act, explained, "We actually took a stand that were not going to tolerate gun violence anymore," by banning assault weapons, high velocity magazines and taking guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
Gooding was correct that the 47th Precinct reported a 45.9% drop in shootings, but failed to mention the fact that in the first eight-months of 2015, the NYPD reported six fewer homicides than the previous year, with 7 killings compared with 13 in 2014.
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