For our latest print edition, we asked readers for their thoughts on the recent spike in shootings across the City.

 

I like this area here in Belmont, and I prefer to do most of my activities here because I don’t feel comfortable where I live. It’s safer in Belmont than it is anywhere else around here. I like to do all my shopping. I even come here to do all my laundry and in the other neighborhood I see a lot of homeless people, and homeless shelters spread all over the Tremont Area and yes, I see crazy people everywhere. I haven’t seen anything myself. I’m not into anything like that, thank God. I really don’t know. I don’t think it has too much to do with the police. I think it’s mostly about the community, and there are places where people behave better than other places.

Tony Jag, Tremont

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen a lot of crime scenes and people fighting and pulling out guns lately – yes, this year. People are waking around angry. It probably has to do with the pandemic, but I can’t say for sure, but that’s probably what’s causing it. Yes, a lot of people are unemployed because of the COVID-19 virus. It’s keeping a lot of people from working and a lot of people are dying from the virus every day. The police just want to sit in their vehicles and have coffee and donuts.

Alexander Ottis, Bedford Park

 

 

 

 

 

I think the cause of the shootings is a little bit of the COVID, a little bit of a lack of jobs, and definitely the Black Lives Matter thing. I don’t think it’s causing the shootings but it’s in the air, this momentum of animosity. I’m tired of the shootings but we can’t preach Black Lives Matter when we’re killing each other, and I feel that’s the biggest hypocrisy because how can you expect others to respect us when we’re out here doing this to each other? There has to be a common ground – you have to get educated and understand what’s going on and act accordingly. No, I don’t think the police                                                                        are doing enough. Honestly, every cop is not bad                                                                            but it’s kind of like guilt by association and no one                                                                        can hand pick who’s good and who’s bad. We just                                                                          see the videos like what we’ve been seeing for years.

                                                                Vaughndre Banks, Parkchester

 

We have the elderly and the young here and everybody’s happy, but then when the sun goes down, all hell breaks loose. So, what do you do with that? I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s this COVID-19 thing, if it’s everyone being cooped up, or if it’s because no one has a job, and they’re looking to take away the extra $600 unemployment benefit. I mean how are people going to live? There are lines right now going from New York to Chicago for people in line for food, so what are the Republicans thinking about? I believe the police are trying to save their own souls. They are not going to put their lives and their families lives on the line for something silly and getting sick and giving it to                                                                              their families. There has always been crime, there                                                                          will always be crime. [It’s] just now, it’s being                                                                                  hyped up. I don’t know, but it’s not good.

                                                                   Joe Gari, Bedford Park

 

I’ve been on this plant 67 years and like the commercial, I know a thing or two. This thing was brought about due to indoctrination. People, especially people of color, have been indoctrinated to think a certain way and to turn on one another. But we must first ask how is an intelligent man, and we are the most intelligent creatures on the planet who know the difference between right and wrong and still go ahead and do wrong? What’s causing us to behave like this has been going on for thousands of years. He was known in the beginning as Lucifer. Yes, I have seen a rise in crime, just the other night two people got killed in the area I was staying.

                                                                    Ervan Vincent Purnell lll, Fordham