Newark Anti-Violence Coalition Rallies to 100 as Summer Heats Up

Andrea Bryant, who lives in Newark's North Ward, said her 14-year-old son was shot dead in 2009. Cynthia Andrews, who also lives in the city's North Ward, said her 28-year-old son was shot dead in 2010. And, most recently, , a 16-year veteran of the Newark Police Department and a father of two, was shot dead Thursday. It's harrowing stories such as these that the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition wants to prevent.

For almost 100 straight Wednesdays, the non-profit organization that aims to reduce crime in black and Latino communities in the city through community engagement, has preached a message of peace to stop the violence. The group will hit 100 June 22.

"I'm out here today because we have to send a clear message to the community that this murder, shooting, violence in our community has to stop," said Donna Jackson, a coalition member known as "Momma Donna," while holding a baby and standing with roughly 25 people at the corner of 15th Avenue and 11th Street last Wednesday night. "We have to continue to bring a message of hope ... a message of deterrence ... a message of intervention and, sometimes, prevention."

Jackson and the group shut down that intersection for roughly an hour-and-a-half that night as Newark police officers watched. It was the 96th straight Wednesday that the coalition closed a city block to speak their message. It also was one day before  and two days before a weekend that left four dead in Brick City.

As the group rallied in a circle and told cars to turn around, children wore signs that read, "Let me grow up. I want too (sic) live" and "2 Black! 2 Proud! I am more of a man without a gun ... "

While the coalition is trying to reach neighborhoods with its message of nonviolence, however, it's also critical of the current city administration's efforts to curb violence.

"We don't think (they're) doing enough to combat violence," said Bashir Akinyele, a teacher at Weequahic High School and the coalition's spokesman, as people in the background chanted "stop the violence," "black power" and "power to the people." "Community leaders are still divided by politics and putting politics before the people."

Newark Mayor Cory Booker told Patch that the city and independent organizations must "work together" to reduce violence.

"Whether it's the police meeting in Forest Hill ... planning for more police officers in the streets ... getting the helicopter back ... getting the mounted horses back ... getting the motorcycles back ... we have over 100 neighborhood groups coming together for activities this summer," he said.

Booker also said the police department recently moved 30 officers to the streets and has created a  "massive" summer plan to combat violent crime. He's slated to unveil that plan in June. Last summer was one of the city's bloodiest with 35 murders total in June, July and August.

Jackson said that despite the city's ongoing efforts, it's the anti-violence coalition's message that is resonating with neighborhoods — and particularly with young adults.

"The message that we're giving is that this (violence) has to come to an end. This is not normal. In this city, it's almost a normalcy," she said. "People expect something to happen and we sit back and, when it happens, we're like, 'OK, just another murder.' And we're trying to tell people that's not normal."

Acting Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio has said part of the city's summer crime initiative includes working with churches in the city to help with curfew. He said that instead of police officers picking up kids who are found breaking the ordinance and dropping them off at home, the officers instead would drop the kids off at a church, where there'd be activities. He didn't elaborate on the plan's logistics.

One of DeMaio's plans also is to bring back community policing. He has started that by opening a "full-fledged" precinct on Irvington Avenue in Newark's West Ward in the next few weeks.

"By having an area where it will be the same cops ... they will get to know the people better and they'll know who's supposed to be in that area and who's not," he said about the precinct.

Jackson said the group is working on some of their own plans for the city's neighborhoods. She said one of the most recent is a school program to usher kids to school that are seen on the street after 8 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Marques-Aquil Lewis, an advisory board member with Newark Public Schools, said that initiative is vital to begin spreading the message of nonviolence in the school system.

"It is an asset that is responsible for lowering the crime in this city because of community respect," he said. "Some of the kids live with the drugs ... with the gang-bangers ... they see the guns ... they see .... everyone on the ground getting locked up and we (the schools) don't have the proper tools to council the child or reach the child."

Akinyele, who said he lost 30 of his students to violence during the past 16 years as a teacher in East Orange and Newark, said the group is gaining traction in the city's neighborhoods, but it still has "a long way to go" — even after rally 100.

"I think we've brought some awareness ... (but) we have to start speaking louder about what's going," he said. "America's back yard is burning — it's on fire."