Those of us who work and worship in the Bronx realize that two seemingly contradictory things can be true when it comes to public safety.
On the one hand, we realize that the borough is significantly safer than it once was. At the same time, we represent communities that suffer more than most from the crimes that do occur including one third of shooting victims last year were in The Bronx.
Our immigrant families, people in service jobs, or young students confront the daily dangers that remain.
One of us is the Secretary of the Omar Islamic Center on Grand Concourse and Fordham Road. Frequently, my members run a gauntlet of assault as they make their way to daily prayers.
Recently, in a meeting of a dozen members, every single person reported having been struck in the face at least once in the past few years. One man even lost sight in one eye.
The first homicide of the year in NYC occurred right here in the Bronx early on New Year’s Day. Issa Mbolo-Isac, a Muslim Uber driver, was shot twice in the face and killed while trying to support his four children back home in Burkina Faso.
Five days later, a Ghanaian brother George Ennin, a Christian, and father of two, was stabbed to death while on his way to work on Third Ave.
Even in the safe bubble of midtown Manhattan, violence and danger have a way of singling us out. The last NYPD officer to be killed was Didarul Islam was shot last summer at an office on Park Avenue.
Mr. Islam’s funeral in Parkchester was attended by many thousands of Bengali families, NYPD officers and city leadership. The presiding imam wondered if the awesome display of grief and unity in pain would convert to meaningful change later. It did not. Tragedies without organization rarely do.
One of us is the head of external affairs for the Islamic Cultural Center, which represents 11 mostly Gambian and West African mosques with more than 11,000 weekly worshippers. Even in the crowded places we call home, we are not safe.
Seventeen members of our mosque, including eight children, were killed in the Twin Parks Fire. A slumlord refused to provide adequate heating and fire safety measures. A city shirked its basic obligation to keep people safe and enforce open violations.
The first two major fires of this year were also in the Bronx, killing one and displacing hundreds. The last two major building collapses happened here, too. Like gun violence, there is a predictable burst of prayers and proclamations followed by a resumption of danger.
So, while we applaud the effective professional work done by the NYPD and the Fire Department, we live with the daily reality of crime, violence and squalor conditions. We don’t get the same concierge-level safety provide
That’s why our West African and South Asian mosques decided to join African American churches, Jewish-founded settlement houses, Latino Catholic parishes and many more to form a new Bronx Metro IAF organization, The Bronx First – the newest affiliate of Metro Industrial Areas Foundation in New York.
A total of 1872 leaders met in the Rose Hill Gym of Fordham University on a frigid night and voted to make improved public safety one of the top priorities of our new organization. We also voted to pressure the mayor and governor to build truly affordable housing; and develop and act on solutions to our mental health care crisis.
Our fellow Metro IAF leaders met recently with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and were encouraged by her focused and no-nonsense approach to crime prevention and crime reduction. We welcomed her recent announcement that the NYPD is reorganizing the Bronx police leadership and deploying additional resources in response to the persistent violence across our borough.
Sadly, the same day the commissioner held her press conference, a middle-aged man was shot and killed in broad daylight on a Bronx subway platform. A few days after that, a young student was killed outside a McDonalds after school. Both individuals were connected to our settlement house community, with their own dreams cut down.
The combination of a reorganized and bolstered NYPD presence in the Bronx, along with the kind of deep community knowledge and insight that the leaders of The Bronx First are marshaling, sets the stage for even greater reductions in crime.
To ensure that outcome, leaders of The Bronx First have committed ourselves to form teams in each of our mosques, churches, non-profits and Business Improvement Districts; to identify crime sites, slum lords, and other problem areas; to develop and recommend solutions that will range from more police patrols, to the use of mental health care workers, to accountability for slumlords who allow their lobbies and courtyards to serve as gathering places for those committing crimes.
We will meet on a regular basis with precinct commanders and others to demand follow-through. If the results aren’t forthcoming, we will return to Commissioner Tisch, who has promised to make sure that local commanders respond.
While we recognize the measurable progress already made, nobody is going to tell our people to be more patient and understanding. We are still burying our members and consoling their families. We continue shivering through this brutal winter in overcrowded apartments with precarious space heaters.
We are not waiting for The Bronx to get better on its own. We intend to make our neighborhoods and this city safe and affordable for everyone.
Aboubakar Amadou is the Secretary of the Omar Islamic Center. Bakary Camara is the Director of External Affairs for the Islamic Cultural Center. Both are leaders of The Bronx First, Metro I.A.F.
