By John Surico
Note: This article was originally published on December 16, 2015.
I first got a sense of what it means to interrupt violence in early
September, at a vigil for a slain teen in Far Rockaways, Queens. The
boy, NeShawn Plummer, hadn't even graduated high school when he was shot
on a corner late one night while hanging out with friends. He died two
days afterward, and detectives eventually determined the attack was
likely over a minor dispute Plummer was involved in—gang-related
retaliation for an earlier fight.
While elected officials and local activists berated youth
violence on the corner where NeShawn was killed—in a terrible
coincidence, it wasn't far from where his older brother had been killed
three years before—I was approached by two teens from a nearby group
called Rock Safe Streets, which formed earlier this year and is
dedicated to ending the violence in the neighborhood.
The first teen, almost the same age as NeShawn, told me that she
joined the group because she was tired of what she had seen, and kept
seeing. "The only time that we come together as a community is when
something tragic like this happens," she told me. "But we need to take a
deep look at what's going on here. Gun violence is only a symptom of
the system.
"It hits home, though," she continued, "when a 16-year-old has to have his life taken away,"
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Source: VICE
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