Eric Adams, Sheena Wright & Persons of Interest

The NYC Mayor & First Deputy Mayor have Set Out on an Ambitious Effort to Prevent Crimes Before They Happen through the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force [GVPTF]

UPDATED _ August 19, 2023 vs 8.16.23 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Social Issues & Law Enforcement / News Reporting, Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Last Thursday I headed down to City Hall to hear a presentation by First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and Andre T. Mitchell of Man Up! in Brooklyn, who are the Co-Chairs of the Mayor's Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. The Mayor's Office of Ethnic & Community Media [MOECM] had organized the roundtable presentation at City Hall, and there were a bit more than a couple of dozen local media reporters in attendance.

The photo at right top shows two characters in the CBS TV series Person of Interest who spend their time trying to prevent crimes before they happen. The photo bottom right shows the Mayor & First Deputy Mayor, who are working to reduce and prevent crime in real life.

If one sets aside the drama, theatrics, rule bending & breaking, and the sensationalism of the TV series, there are some interesting parallels between what the folks in real life are trying to do, vis a vis what the imaginary characters of the TV series were trying to do. We'll have more on this later in the report.

Behind the Scenes at City Hall with Sheena Wright

The First Deputy Mayor, Sheena Wright, provided an overview of what the Adams Administration has quietly been working on - mostly behind the scenes - in the neighborhoods in NYC most wracked by violent crime.

Since June of 2022, Wright, Mitchell and the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force have been laying the ground work to try to prevent crime in the high violence communties, before it starts. She described it as going upstream to root out the underlying causes of violent crime.

The Task Force has taken a holistic approach to the problem, rather than taking the historic / authoritarian approach to violent crime, which had further oppressed the people in the affected communities, by over policing them. For example during the Bloomberg Administration, the NYPD was instructed to stop and frisk people, seemingly at will.

This is not to say that the Adams Administration has reduced policing in these neighborhoods, because they have not. In fact they have increased policing in these neighborhoods, BUT they have concurrently begun reinvesting in these neighborhoods, which for decades, they told us, have experienced significant community disinvestment. I have not yet independently verified the disinvestment claim, but believe it is directionally correct.

The photo at right shows Jose Bayona, Executive Director of the MOECM; Sheena Wright, First Deputy Mayor and Andre T. Wright, Founder of Man Up! at a Round Table meeting at City Hall.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on the Adams Administration Approach to Violent Crime & NYC Crime Statistics Update.

Eric Adams, Sheena Wright & Persons of Interest

The NYC Mayor & First Deputy Mayor have Set Out on an Ambitious Effort to Prevent Crimes Before They Happen through the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force [GVPTF]

UPDATED _ August 19, 2023 vs 8.16.23 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Social Issues & Law Enforcement / News Reporting, Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.

The NYC Mayor's Office as Community Healers?

Adams' Administration Employs a Holistic & Social Science Approach to Law Enforcement & Community Healing

The Mayor's Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, has identified nearly a half billion of new and existing funding [the new vs existing funding split was not disclosed], that can / will be used over the next three years to improve the overall well being of the six communities / precincts most affected by violent crime. The spending attempts to alleviate some of the factors that contribute to people resorting to violence as a result of their frustration with poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, housing, feelings of not being seen, heard, or helped out of a deadly downward emotional and mental spiral.

After reaching out to people experienced in the field [like A.T. Wright], the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force went to work on identifying communities with the most gun violence, the root causes of it, and opportunities for investment that the City can make in these neighborhoods to steadily turn things around. The planned community spending includes the following, which was presented by First Deputy Mayor Wright, but which I pulled from the NYC.gov website - https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/555-23/mayor-adams-gun-violence-prevention-task-force-release-a-blueprint-community-safety-#/0.

At right is one page of a 52 page report put together by the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force after studying the issue in all five boroughs of NYC.

"Early Intervention: $118.3 million to increase early supports, including mentorship opportunities, for young people to prevent them from becoming involved in gun violence.
Housing: $57.5 million to improve existing housing conditions, especially for public housing residents, and increase access to transitional, supportive, and permanent housing units.
Navigation & Benefits: $67.8 million to help New Yorkers access public benefits they deserve and provide better assistance to justice-involved individuals and families navigating benefits programs.
Community Vitality: $8.6 million to invest in public spaces, including parks, playgrounds, and community centers to make neighborhoods safer and more vibrant.

In tandem with the Mayor, Wright and Mitchell have also called upon and convened representatives from all of the Mayor's Office Departments to join in the effort, including the Department of Mental Health, Housing & Development, Education, Employment, Healthcare, Public Safety, Social Services, Transportation and Culture and Recreation.

The GVPTF Employs a Surgical Approach to Cutting Out Crime

First Deputy Mayor Wright told us that the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force had identified six communities most in in need of gun violence prevention. These six precincts were selected for special attention because out of 77 NYPD precincts in NYC, these six are subject to about 30% of the violent crime. So what Wright, Co-Chair A.T. Mitchell and the Task Force decided, was to focus on these communities because - if successful - it would achieve two major goals of Mayor Adams: 1) a reduction of crime in these communities would go a long way toward reducing overall violent crime in NYC, and 2) these communities could serve as a model for addressing violent crime in other NYC communities.

The communities identified for this combination social science, health and law enforcement healing are:

A) four Bronx NYPD precincts [precincts 42, 43, 44, 46 & 47 - I don't know which one of these precincts (and associated neighborhoods) doesn't belong here - stay tuned] which include the neighborhoods of Mount Hope, Morris Heights, University Heights, Fordham, Mount Eden, Claremont, Concourse, Claremont Village, Crotona Park, Soundview, Parkchester, Unionport, Clason Point, Woodlawn Heights, Wakefield, Eastchester, Williamsbridge and Edenwald.

And B) two Brooklyn NYPD precincts [precincts 73 & 75], which include Brownsville, Ocean Hill, East Flatbush, Cypress Hill, New Lots and Linden Park.

The snapshot at right shows the precinct finder on the NYPD website. Copy and paste this link into your browser bar to view the site which contains an NYPD precinct overlay of a map of NYC neighborhoods - https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/bureaus/patrol/find-your-precinct.page

A.T. Mitchell, Founder of Man Up & the Cure Violence Training

I did a bit of research into First Deputy Mayor's Co-Chair on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, A.T. Mitchell. Andre T. Mitchell is the Founder of Man Up!. Man Up! was founded in 2004, which is well before there was a sitcom by that same name [2011] and a subsequent movie by that name [2015].

Mitchell founded Man Up! in 2004, in response to the death of an eight year old boy who was struck by a stray bullet while walking home with his stepfather and siblings in East Flatbush in November of 2003. According to the bio on his website, Mitchell was released from prison in 1991, for a crime he did not commit. Ever since his release some 32 years ago, Mitchell has dedicated his life toward helping people in underserved communities find a pathway back to a better life.

To that end Mitchell's group focuses on the following community enrichment efforts: engaging youth and engaging the community, by using sports and athletics, as well as music, art and culture to strengthen community bonds and provide avenues for expression. They also work to help people with employment, address gun violence issues, engage fathers in the program, as well as drug abuse recovery programs. The graphic at right shows a snapshot of the Man Up! website showing what they do. For further details see - https://www.manupinc.org/

Public Health Concern - Guns are the Leading Cause of Death Among Children in the U.S.

Both Wright and Mitchell talked about gun violence as a disease. Their view of the issue has been influenced by the success of a program which developed and evolved in Chicago, which treats gun violence as if it is a public health issue.

Increasingly this view of things seems to make sense, as gun violence in this country has been the leading cause of the death of children in this country since the pandemic began in 2020.

According to an April 21, 2023 report by The Hill, during the pandemic [2020 - 2022], Americans purchased 60 million guns, of which at least 15 million of them, were purchased by first time buyers. That translates into 15 million [more?] homes being exposed to the possibility of gun violence. Unfortunately, along with the uptick in the purchases of guns, came a significant increase in the number of children killed by them.

The graph above right shows how gun violence overtook motor vehicles as the leading cause of the deaths of children in the U.S. during the pandemic- a period during which Americans bought nearly 60 million guns.

The graphic below right shows gun sales in the U.S. by year. You can see that gun sales spiked during the pandemic, and have gradually been returning back down to normal.

Use of ' Cure Violence Global' Techniques to Treat Gun Violence as a Disease

In 2000, the City of Chicago, created a public health program / approach to gun violence, which since 2012, was renamed to Cure Violence. The program was a successor Cease Fire Chicago, which was the predecessor effort. The program orginated as a collaborative effort between the police department and neighborhood churches, and soon included other community organizations in the effort to cure the spread of violence.

Wright and Mitchell referred to this Cure Violence public health model a number of times, as well as to the Mayor's increase in the budget for the Crisis Management System, which is a part of the effort to stop crimes before they happen.

The Crisis Management teams work with various members in the community who can help de-escalate tensions between rival gangs. I also found information about this on the NYC.gov website, which summed it up as follows,

"... New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced that the administration will fund the city’s Crisis Management System (CMS) at a record level of $86 million in Fiscal Year 2024 via an investment of an additional $8.5 million. The CMS strategy brings teams of credible messengers to mediate conflicts on the street and connect high-risk individuals to services that can reduce the long-term risk of violence. Overall, the city will invest nearly $200 million for programming in the upcoming fiscal year to reduce gun violence in communities and connect New Yorkers with city-funded services, including school conflict mediation, violence interruption, non-traditional therapeutic services, and more...".

https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/462-23/mayor-adams-fund-crisis-management-system-record-level-86-million-next-fiscal-year

The graphic at right shows how the Chicago police department was able to make progress in reining in violent crime using the Cure Violence approach to violent crime.

Some Analogies to the CBS Series 'Person of Interest' BUT ...

Without the AI, Theater, Violence, Sex, Rule Bending & Breaking & Shock Value Events

Hollywood theatricalizes real life by spicing it up with violence, sex, rule bending and breaking, and sensationalism. Fortunately [or unfortunately?] we real life people aren't allowed such poetic license. So bear in mind that while I'm identifying some parallels between the TV series Person of Interest, the analogies are not transferable to the characters nor the methods used in the show.

Person of Interest is about a fictitious billionaire who creates a gargantuan computer program - 'The Machine' - that collects and processes the video and photos of every electronic camera in NYC and, hypothetically, the U.S. The billionaire does this for the fictitious U.S. government law enforcement agencies in order to help them identify terrorists - before they strike. The billionaire programs - or teaches - the computer, which is an Aritifical Intelligence aka AI, how to identify possible relationships between people and events, so that the government can apprehend the terrorists before they have a chance to strike.

While creating 'The Machine', the billionaire coded the system to separate terrorists engaged in nefarious activities, from all other people engaged in nefarious activities. The terrorists' and their victims were called 'relevant' and everyone else was labeled 'irrelevant' and deleted from the system.

To make long story short, the billionaire realizes it's not right to let everyone except terrorists' victims get killed, so he and an eclectic, pick up team of others, embark on an effort to save folks before the crimes are committed. 'The Machine' gives one clue - a social security number - and that's all the team has to go on, as they try to figure out / untangle the dynamics of that one person's life, in order to either save them from being killed, or stop them from killing someone [the computer doesn't assess blame, so the team doesn't know if the number is of the good guy or the bad guy].

So, as I was sitting there, listening to Wright and Mitchell, talk about trying to move upstream, to root out the causal factors of violent crime, by working with perpetrators and victims, in order to prevent them from happening. I couldn't help but think of the fictitious billionaire, Harold Finch, along with his Artificial Intelligence aka 'The Machine', and his crew doing the same thing - albeit Hollywood style - saving people just in the knick of time, from their doom.

And while the NYC Gov doesn't have access to an omniscient, ubiquitous AI, they do have some other very modern tools, databases and behavior models that they use for the good of the city. And, unlike the TV series, the Mayor's Task Force takes things a step further, by moving even further upstream, by re-investing in these communities, in order to remove the environmental factors that foster violent criminals' disconnection from their humanity and thus the community.

Current Monitoring Tools, Enforcement Efforts & Community Investments

Wright & Mitchell referenced some of the tools they use to keep tabs on things. Here are a few they mentioned.

CompStat which is an NYPD database of crimes around the five boroughs.

https://compstat.nypdonline.org/2e5c3f4b-85c1-4635-83c6-22b27fe7c75c/view/89

The NYPD also has a top hotline called Crimestoppers where anonymous tips may be logged to alert the police to problems in your community.

https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

The NYPD has a gun buyback / removal program which has met with some good success.

Since Mayor Adams took office in January 2022, over 10,000 guns have been removed from NYC streets. In 2022, the NYPD removed 7,135 guns and in the first six months of 2023 another 3,424 were removed. This is an ongoing effort and, as mentioned above, many of the guns were collected through gun buyback efforts.

https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-01306

Community & Cultural Programming like Be the Change, Hip Hop Block Parties, summer basketball programs, free video post production training programs and Summer Streets are used to reach out to and connect with people of all ages, but most notably the young. These efforts put the youth in contact with positive role models, help them develop skill sets and provide access to more resources to further their development.

The photo at right shows one of five borough block parties, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, organized by the Adams Administration in tandem with community groups in each borough. Cultural programming is used to reach out to youths, while also providing them with positive role models and aspirations, and enabling them to develop positive and closer ties to those around them. All of these things help pull communities / people back together again.

Example of an Adams / NYPD Success - Measured Response to Union Square Riot

Almost two weeks ago, on Friday, August 4, 2023, there was an incident in Union Square. The incident began when Kai Cenat, a social media influencer, decided to do a spontaneous free giveaway promotion, summoning his supporters to Union Square Park at 4 pm. When Cenat arrived there were likely a thousand or more, mostly kids, in the park. The kids, many of whom were underage, began acting disrespectfully to the police and public property.

The Mayor was alerted, and the NYPD summoned all available officers to the area. It wasn't long before the police had the numbers they needed to reassert control of the area and the unruly crowd. The NYPD reportedly arrested 65 teenagers for alleged vandalism and related acts. Most of the people there were youths, many of whom were underage, and not accompanied by adults. It didn't take long for the unchaperoned kids, to start showing off / behaving like a group of unsupervised teens in front the TV cameras.

After the event Mayor Adams said the following,

"... “This is not a policing issue, it's a parenting issue. And we need to be clear on that. Police is the response after an incident happened. But this should be a proactive approach...”.

What's interesting here is that the talk from the top, and the controlled and measured response by the NYPD, prevented a incident from flaring up and turning ugly. That said, it's also important to note that this was a social media giveaway, not a reality shattering event like the death of George Floyd, where community anger & frustration boiled over.

Nonetheless, it was nice to see that it was well handled by all of the professionals who held their emotions in check and carried out their duties. I assume the data collected from this incident will go into the GVPTF model to be processed, and followed up on accordingly.

The Critical Role of Responsible Media, including TV & Social

It's not just social media that sometimes acts irresponsibly. The billionaire corporate broadcast media does too, in an effort to gain higher ratings and make more money. The corporate broadcast media repeated, non-stop hyping of crime doesn't do anything to help the situation. They likely hype the crime for the drama and ratings that the horror video of local shootings and accidents must garner. But their 'news' shows don't do anything to help the situation, and in fact may ultimately exacerbate it, by scaring people in what sometimes seems an effort to keep folks inside their homes, so they will watch more TV. They seem to do the same with the weather.

This hyping of crime has given many New Yorkers the wrong impression. TV news fails to provide their viewers with the same sort of information we're providing here. In this report we've made you, the audience, aware of the efforts underway to combat crime and inequities [so New Yorkers can help], and by providing you [our audience] with access to some of the tools used by the Mayor's Task Force and NYPD to monitor and engage in the collaborative government / community effort required to stop and root out violent crime [see tools above].

Because of the incessant stream of TV video hyping crime, most TV watching New Yorkers have no idea that violent crime has been down in each of the nearly two years of the Adams Administration [2022 & 2023]. Like the disinvestment that took place in violence ridden communities here in NYC, broadcast TV has been disinvesting in community news content for decades. And TV coporations' disinvestment in news content is on display every night, where they fail to make the investments in the real news, and instead serve up the same old leftovers of 5 - 7 minutes of crime and accidents, 5 plus minutes of weather, another 3 - 5 minutes of sports, and 8 minutes of advertising. The remainder of a 30 minute show is dedicated to human interest and real news.

This is likely one of the reasons why TV news ratings have been in decline for decades. The graphic at right shows the steady decline in TV ratings from 2011 - 2021, a trend which continues, likely due in part to outdated and disinvested news programs.

Current NYC Crime Statistics - Violent Crime has Dropped Quite a Bit 2022 - 2023

Since Adams Became Mayor Over 10,000 Guns Have Been Removed from NYC Streets

In 2022, murders and shootings were down by 11% and 17% respectively. In 2023, murders and shootings were down 8% and 12% respectively. This translates into hundreds of fewer people being killed and shot in NYC than in each preceding year.

The one category that continues to remain high, is grand larceny auto theft, which is attibuted to the vulnerability of the Kia and Hundai ignition systems, which - like the Abbie Hoffman Book entitled 'Steal This Book' - seems an invitation to thieves, whereever they may be, to steal those two car models. This category has been, in part, driving overall crime growth in NYC, even as violent crime and five of seven crime catergories have come down.

For context, it's worth noting that gun violence has been coming down nationwide, since the pandemic ended. But it's also worth noting that, according to a June 7, 2022 Bloomberg report, New York City is still significantly safer than Small-Town America.

The graphic at right was taken from a June 7, 2022 report talking about how crime / death from external factors in NYC compares to the rest of the U.S. Contrary to perception, NYC continues to be safer than many other parts of the nation.

Conclusion

All in all I found the Round Table to be an impressive presentation, of a very solid effort - not just to address violent crime - but all of the factors which foster it. They had clearly done their research, and while optimistic, they also remain realistic about the challenges ahead of them. They told us that they will adapt and modify their plans, as they learn more about what things are working, and and what things are not, so they can improve upon their work to date.

Thanks for the MOECM [Mayor's Office of Ethnic & Community Media] for organizing this Round Table, which was moderated by Jose Bayona. I found it very informative and I hope you did too.

The photo at right shows the MOECM Round Table discussion, with a couple of dozen reporters in attendance.