On Thursday, May 14 the Monroe College School of Criminal justice and the Jacobi Medical Center got together to present a panel discussion on ‘Standing up to Violence in the Bronx this Summer’. Held on the college’s Bronx campus and moderated by BronxNet TV personality Gary Axelbank, the forum featured representatives from the Jacobi Stand-up to Violence (SUV) Program, the Chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee Councilmember Vanessa Gibson, Ret. NYPD Lieutenant and Monroe professor Dr. Darrin Porcher, and 49th Precinct Council President Joe Thompson.
The approximately one hundred attendees included community members from Soundview, Burnside, Van Cortland Village, Mt. Eden, students from Monroe’s undergraduate and graduate programs, and there were even children from the Directions for Our Youth (DFOY) Community Center at the Webster houses on 169th street.
The SUV members talked in detail about treating violence as a disease and why their model program is successful. Councilmember Gibson discussed the Council’s crime-fighting initiatives, Dr. Porcher delved into the nature of stop, question, and frisk and its needed reforms, and Mr. Thompson reached into his vast experience as a community leader and former NYPD detective to draw differences in policing over past generations.
The keynote was delivered by Assemblyman Michael Blake who talked of his own experiences and why standing up to violence is essential in the Bronx.
But maybe the simplest statement was the most profound. One of the DFOY children said, “We need to stop fighting and stop the violence so we can make our city better.”
The entire program was videotaped by BronxNet television for future broadcast.
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