Coney Island mothers grabbed their children and took cover behind wooden benches this past Tuesday as a shoot out disrupted the pleasant August afternoon on the Surfside Garden playground.
A Surfside Garden source said that the two cops often stationed in the corner of the playground ran after the shooters, but the perpetrators got away.
This did not slow down The Coney Island Anti-Violence Collaborative (CIAVC) from gathering in that very playground the next day. With mega phones to echo their words of motivation through every open window in the buildings that towered above them, the group urged residents to come down and take part in their awareness campaign. They handed out t-shits that read “Give Respect, Get Respect” and bracelets that read “Stop The Violence Coney Island.”
The shooting incident comes as felony crime in Coney Island is about even to where it was at this time last year.
While murder so far this year has fallen to two as compared to five at this time last year, robbery is up about 18 percent and shootings are up 38 percent, according to police statistics.
Coney Island City Councilman Mark Treyger voiced concerns about whether shooting incidents such as what happened Tuesday at Surfside Garden where the perpetrators aren’t caught and nobody was injured are always recorded.
As such, Tryeger is advocating the installation of Shot Spotter Technology, a device that allows data to be gathered on the accurate statistics regarding the frequency and location of all shootings, using sensors, installed around an area to pick up sounds from the street that might be gunfire. The technology also locates where the shots were fired and sends the information to the Police Department.
But technology or no technology, CIACC Acting Chair Mathylde Frontus said she will continue organizing grassroots events around the shootings, giving out the t-shirts and spreading the word to stop the violence.
“It makes people feel important and it makes them want to get involved,” she said.
