Allison Park Photo
“Enough is enough! Stop the violence!”
That cry arose in Beaver Hills Tuesday evening, On Tuesday evening, as over 50 people gathered on the corner of Carmel and Percival Streets to hold a vigil for the past week’s wave of gun violence across town. The event drew pastors, preachers, police, and local neighbors.
The feeling of unity and fellowship was immediate from the beginning of the event, which started in hand-held prayer. The evening continued with speakers from throughout the community sharing their sentiments and pleas for action from members of the community. The event took place at the scene of one of two Tuesday shootings. Four shootings were reported in three days in New Haven; Mayor Toni Harp attributed the spike to a “turf war” between gang members recently released from prison.
Alders Jill Marks (with microphone) and Evette Hamilton (at left).
“We need to stand together,” Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks, an organizer of Tuesday’s vigil, told the crowd. When she heard about the Carmel Street shooting, she said, “My heart just dropped. [We should] be able to feel free amongst neighbors.”
“We have to stand up as one community,” echoed Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton. Citing the participating of young people in gang violence, she called on the community to “steer our children in a positive direction.”
“This is our neighborhood and I’m not giving it up to gun violence,” she proclaimed, with shouts of agreement rippling through the crowded street corner.
Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow.
“There’s gloom … a cloud hanging over our city,” said Pastor Kelcy Steele of Zion Church. He said that the “church should be outside four walls.” He also offered some practical solutions to the issue amongst young people in the community who are involved with gun violence.
“We need to do more than pray on our knees,” he said. “We must pray and we must act upon it.” He suggested that people “open up camps” for children in the streets, “give [teenagers] jobs” so that they’re not in the streets, and simply talk and “open up ourselves to our young people.”
Community organizer Rev. Scott Marks.
“What are you going to do?” challenged Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, who represents West River. She said she was “reluctant to come here to speak” at first because she’s “tired of marching”, “losing people in the streets,” vigils, and the “same old rhetoric.” But she stood by her devotion to fight for her community and said that people should ask teenagers “what they need.”
Clipboards were passed through the crowd with signatures of people who vowed to stop the violence and believed “enough is enough.” The evening ended with a group prayer in a circle. Police officers joined their hands with the rest of the crowd.