Following yet another 24-hours plagued by gun violence in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for residents to take back the streets.
He says that he met with the family of one-year-old Davelle Gardner Jr. yesterday, after the baby boy was killed at a playground in Bed-Stuy. De Blasio says it's increasingly important to focus on overcoming any division between the community and members of law enforcement, as gun violence surges across the entire city.
In addition to the killing of Gardner on Sunday night, last night saw three different drive-by shootings within 15-minutes time in Canarsie, Brooklyn.
De Blasio wants residents to take to the street corners en masse this coming weekend, something he says proved effective in Harlem when combating gun violence.
Law enforcement have attributed the spike in shootings to a number of factors, namely bail reform, the releasing of prisoners from Rikers Island Jail due to COVID-19 concerns, and the disbanding of the plain-clothes unit, which focused on getting guns off the streets.
Photo: JULY 13: Police work at a crime scene in Brooklyn where a one year old child was shot and killed on July 13, 2020 in New York City. The 1-year-old boy was shot near a playground during a Sunday picnic when gunfire erupted. Two adults were wounded in the evening shooting. New York City has witnessed a surge in gun violence over the past month with 9 people killed, including children, and 41 others wounded on the Fourth of July weekend alone. The gun violence is occurring against the backdrop of a nationwide movement to consider defunding police departments. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)