Weapons seized from gang members.
Photo: Bronx District Attorney’s Office / Courtesy
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Twenty-three suspected gang members were charged Tuesday after shooting “salvage” shots at rivals during a Bronx turf war and bragging about gun violence in rap songs, authorities announced.
“These defendants allegedly engaged in gun violence, committing six shooting, one who injured a rival gang member,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark was quoted as saying. New York Post.
“I call on rappers in the Bronx to stop using music to encourage shootings and use it to improve the community”
Darcel Clark, District Attorney of the Bronx
“I’m calling on rappers in the Bronx to stop using music to encourage shootings and use it to improve the community. I’m asking to have a summit with aspiring rappers and rap stars who come from the Bronx, record companies, radio stations and social networks so that we can find solutions to prevent further violence.”
The defendants are 22 young adults and a 17-year-old adolescent, all alleged members of the pandilla “River Park Towers”. They were indicted for conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and weapons, in a trio of charges for multiple acts of violence in the Bronx, as well as a gang Assault On Rikers Jail, according to the prosecution.
Clark said that the alleged gang members “allegedly They shot wildly in the streets with no regard for anyone else’s life.” In one of the shootouts, nearly a dozen shots were fired into a building lobby on August 17, 2020, narrowly missing their target’s head.
The suspected gunmen they bragged about the violence and how easy it was to buy guns in rap videos posted online, according to prosecutor Clark, who added that even they posed with one of the guns used in a social media shooting.
They also tried to recruit online, using “shocking acts” to gain members, such as promising to kill a pigeon on “Facebook Live” for 100 “Likes.” Therefore, the prosecution accused them of animal cruelty.
In February, a few weeks before taking office, Mayor and former police officer Eric Adams urged social media to ban rap videos that glorify and promote violence, just as they did with the controversial former president Donald Trump.
“We took Trump off Twitter because of what he was saying. Nevertheless, we are allowing music [con] weapons show, violence. We allow this to stay on the sites,” Adams said in February. He added that social media companies “have a civic and corporate responsibility”, and therefore should remove violent rap videos from their platforms.
The mayor’s request came a day after he delivered an emotional speech at City Hall about the short life of 18-year-old rapper Jayquan McKenley (Chii Wvttz), shot to death in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the second such case in less than a week in February.
Previously, in January, a 16-year-old rapper with a history of violent videos shot a police officer in the Bronx, days before two Hispanic NYPD officers were killed in Harlem, which motivated the visit of President Joe Biden to the city.
In recent years, the wave of armed violence in the city has involved minor and adult gunmen, men and womeny victims of all ages. After the boom in 2020 and 2021 particularly among young gang members and/or victims, 2022 continues with the same trend, putting up a great challenge to Mayor Adamswho since taking office in January has found obstacles within his own Democratic party y Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders to face the crisis.
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