‘Selfies’ to Fight Gun Violence in Crown Heights
In the latest campaign to prevent youth gun violence in Crown Heights, the medium is cheeky — but the message is dead serious.
Teens with Youth Organizing Save Our Streets are encouraging their peers to take “selfie” photos alongside messages of peace and holiday decorations the group installed in storefronts along Kingston Avenue. The teens can then post the photos to Instagram, taking the anti-gun violence campaign online.
“This year we had the idea to incorporate a social media campaign and capitalize on how much people like to take pictures of themselves,” program coordinator Ruby-Beth Buitekant said of the project, which installed reflective panels alongside the snowmen and positive messages in local shop windows.
“We hope that people will stop and take a selfie in the reflective surface and post it up.”
Each storefront “mirror” shows the campaign’s hashtag, #selfies4safety, as well as messages like “I <3 Crown Heights” and “I Am a Peacemaker,” in an effort to improve safety in a neighborhood long plagued by shootings.
“I take a lot of selfies,” said 16-year-old organizer Alexandria Pierre, who joined the group after losing a cousin to gun violence last year. “I haven’t taken any in the windows yet, because I had to see which windows I like best.”
When it comes to fighting the kind of violence that touched her family, Pierre has few tools at her disposal — some acrylic paints, foam brushes and a handful of paper snowflakes. But she and her friends seemed unfazed by the cold weather or the sometimes chilly reception on Kingston Avenue on a recent evening, as they worked to recruit merchants to their cause and decorated the windows of those who agreed.
“The youth organizers do the recruiting,” Buitekant said. “They go into the stores themselves — staff doesn’t go with them, so they have to work hard to be taken seriously.”
Despite a few yeses that turned into nos, the teens were all smiles as they decked the dark avenue.
“It’s to unite the community, make it look nice and wish everybody a nice holiday,” said 16-year-old participant Jocelyn Hart. “[Hopefully] they’ll be like, ‘Oh wait, I can see myself,’ and take a photo.”
Go for it.
The message has to get out on the street. I’m proud of these “selfies”.
Great idea!!
Creative thinking! Love it! Yasher koach!
Milhouse
How exactly are these pictures supposed to improve safety? How do they make anyone even a tiny bit safer? Do these kids think they are likely to hit someone, or shoot them, but now they will think “oh noes, i took a picture that said i was a peacemaker, i cannot do this dreaded deed”?! Or is the idea that these kids are not violent themselves, but think that those other people, the thugs who are violent, will see the selfies and be overcome with remorse and the spirit of rainbows and kittens, and shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain? Give me a break.
Tzvi
Anything that will structure a kids free time while automatically building up their self esteem is positive.
Look, it may not be the way you find to stay out of trouble but why knock it. It shows that some kids want to make a positive statement and also do something they view as positive.
Milhouse
I knock it because it makes no sense. Do you think these kids who are doing this are thugs?! If they’re not, then they don’t need anything to keep them from becoming thugs. Violence isn’t a sudden urge strikes perfectly ordinary people out of the blue; it’s something that certain people do because they are thugs. And a thug isn’t going to change his ways because someone persuaded him to take a selfie or use a hashtag. Meanwhile, normal kids who are not thugs have no need to remind themselves with selfies.
declasse' intelelctual
just remember guns do not kill people but people kill people and until that is addressed.
Remember booze does not cause car accidents, but people who drink do. the culture needs to be changed in both cases