Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams led a mock procession, yesterday morning, into a service with louder cries than he may have anticipated.
In efforts to raise gun violence awareness, a copper sealer casket with an inner panel that reads, “They didn’t have to die this way. Neither should you,” was put on display and will be a spectacle over the next week at an interim showroom in Brooklyn Borough Hall.
After pointing the finger at Governor Andrew Cuomo for cutting funds to battle violence and crime, Adams, along with City Council Member Jumaane Williams, requested $10 million for non-profit organizations; money that he believes will aid the gun violence conundrum plaguing the borough.
Community activist Tony Herbert, though, was highly critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio for his failure to address the rise in violent crime and suggested Adams would make a better mayor.
Meanwhile, three different civilians interrupted the press conference and cried for their voice to be heard. One woman shouted about a foster child who was going away to college but could not afford a winter jacket and snow boots.
Questioning what is being done about the police officers that have been killed, another civilian labeled Adams a hypocrite.
The final outburst was from a mother who fell to both knees in front of the cameras, shrieking, begging in Spanish and English, for help on behalf of her autistic son who has bed bug bites from their NYCHA housing.
Though Adams remained calm through the interludes, he eventually asserted, “We are extremely comfortable with people showing their pain. We do not feel as though people who are showing their pain, is being disrespectful to us. They see it as an opportunity to push their pain through, and people are hurting.”
“And I’m going to go upstairs and write that check,” he added. “I’m real about protecting the lives of Brooklynites and New Yorkers.”
In the casket, a long, narrow mirror was prearranged, in place of a body, bordered by photographs of past acts of gun violence.
After the civilian interruptions, it seemed almost as if the mirror propped up by the satin interior of the casket, reflected not only the greater need to fight violent crime, but also a myriad of social ills around the borough.
