White House "Drug Czar" Visits The Bronx

Gil Kerlikowske, the White House "Drug Czar" (center, in white) stands with students and staff beside an anti-drug mural outside the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona.

The director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy visited the Bronx yesterday, holding a press conference at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona to officially launch a new nationwide anti-drug youth campaign.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, who serves as the 6th ever “drug czar,” under the Obama administration, was given a tour by Mary Mitchell staff and other community leaders, stopping off at one of the Bronx’s most notorious drug-ridden areas—a neighborhood in Fordham-Bedford Park—as well as a more positive visit to the Garden of Happiness, a community garden on Prospect Avenue and East 181st St.

Kerlikowske’s trip was part of a greater, nationwide campaign from his office aimed to keep teenagers away from drugs. Dubbed the “influence project,” its goal is to engage young people in talking about the positive and negative pressures that influence their behavior.

The drug czar met with students from the Mary Mitchell Center and the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club to talk about what keeps them drug-free.

“I heard stories about how important their parents were to them, in guiding them,” Kerlikowske said. “I heard stories about how they felt a true responsibility for their younger siblings to make sure they didn’t get involved in drugs.”

Join the conversation on crime in your Bronx neighborhood

Yesterday we kicked off a conversation on crime. We wanted to start a dialogue about how you perceive crime in your neighborhood and we've received a few responses. Thanks to the Boogie Downers, a concerned anonymous poster and Msgr. John Jenik of Our Lady of Refuge Parish in North Fordham (or Fordham-Bedford as others call it).

Keep them coming. We'll bring up some of the other points made, but let's talk about violence for a minute.

Msgr. Jenik brings up a good point when he says the statistics for the sector around his parish validates his and other local residents' feelings that their neighborhood is saturated with crime.

What we've heard from Jenik and others in that neighborhood is that many feel the violent crime there stems from the drug trade. Turf wars. Junkies robbing people to get money for drugs. Drug dealers robbing other drug dealers for product. These are the types of issues that ignite violent crime. Sounds like a very plausible theory. Police have told us this is often the case, as well.

When we brought this up with Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., who's in line to take over the borough presidency following a special election vote on April 21, he had an interesting take. He said that much of violence in the borough and elsewhere in the city didn't stem from the drug trade. Instead, he said, the vast majority of violence is born out of everyday disputes that escalate into something more.

He then launched into a long explanation about his belief that males, especially black and Hispanic males (who are overwhelmingly the victims and perpatrators of violent crime in the borough), are brought up to express themselves through violence. Toughness or masculinity, he said, is expressed through violence. Essentially, Diaz said, young men are taught: If somebody is messing with you or disrespecting you, then you should respond physically. If you don't, you're a punk.

Diaz says this whole thought process needs to change, starting with how parents bring up their children and teaching them how to deal with disputes.

Lyn Pyle, a resident of the tough Norwood enclave of Knox-Gates, actually wrote a play about this called "Ain't Easy," as a way to teach young people how to react to disputes or frustration without using violence. It runs for a month or so every year at Hostos and sometimes travels to local public schools and has received great reviews. If anyone knows of any other efforts to stem violence through conflict resolution or other means, let us know. If you have other theories on the reasons for violence or ways to stop it, let us know.

We'd like to collect all the comments on the original post. Just click here, follow down to the bottom and post your comment. Or just comment below if you're in a hurry.

Confronting Crime: Sunday Meeting at Our Lady of Refuge

Very important meeting this weekend at Our Lady of Refuge, 290 E. 196th St. (Parish Center) at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Basically, community members in the North Fordham area (or Fordham-Bedford, if you prefer), many of whom attend Our Lady of Refuge, want to talk with police about a sharp rise in violent crime in the area.

Here's our story about a recent spate of murders in the area and a police shooting there. Earlier this week, a woman was found murdered close to the church.

This is not the first time residents have asked for more help and accountability from the local police. In November 2007, Deputy Inspector James Alles and other top cops from the 52nd Precinct attended a forum about a surge in crime in the area. Alles is supposed to show up again on Sunday.

Here's a quote from the press release about the event:
>“In addition to needing more police patrol, residents have grown frustrated with slow response time to 911 calls and the lack of police intervention as crimes happen before their eyes. Many residents also report that police donot file police reports after assuring crime victims that they will. This may affect the supposed drop in crime that the NYPD has heralded. Overall, it appears that the NYPD is attempting to contain Bronx crime to the historically-troubled Fordham Beford area.”

In other words, folks are not happy and they want something done about it. Again.

Bronx News Roundup Oct. 24

The case against two cops from the 44th Precinct, who allegedly beat a man outside a Yonkers bar in September, could be falling apart after the injured man failed to pick them out in a police line-up, says the Post. More on the attack here.

Mayor Bloomberg wants to make each and every borough responsible for handling its own trash, but his plans took a setback yesterday when Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver stopped a key vote. It's now looking unlikely that a recycling transfer plant will be built in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, at least in the foreseeable future. That's bad news for the Bronx. As Assemblyman Ruben Diaz told the Times, "There’s still going to be thousands of trucks and tons of garbage coming into the Bronx that isn’t from the Bronx."

In yesterday's Daily News, there was more on the alleged drug deal inside Our Lady of Refuge Church in North Fordham. CBS also picked up the story. Also in the Daily News was this story about community opposition to affordable housing, and a profile of Mount Hope Housing Company by former Norwood News intern, Heather Appel. Mount Hope celebrates its 21st anniversary at a gala this evening in the northeast Bronx.

We missed this at the time, but here’s a Bronx Times’ article on University Woods, a four-acre wood in University Heights that’s routinely named "the city’s worst park." The story follows on from Greg Fuchs’ opinion piece in the August/September edition of the Mount Hope Monitor. For more about the park check out Friends of the Woods.

Ok, so this has nothing to do with the Bronx, but readers may be interested to hear that the Guardian, Britain's left-leaning broadsheet, has launched a new Web site called Guardian America. It's an attempt to pick up more American readers, and, no doubt, more advertising revenue, too.