Few people actually pay attention to how bad the situation of gang activity and how the youth have not gotten involved. In the past 3 years the rise of youth involvement in gang activity has begun to spring up and take center stage. A lot of the blame has been put on the pandemic. While reports suggest that gang activity is the main reason why so many kids are being exposed to this dangerous lifestyle that has so many illegal activities. 

As a result of having gang connections, teens are more likely to engage in the use of drugs and get caught with weapons and go on to live a dangerous life in and out of jail.

Much like my friend Anthony, who has been arrested 11 times on different charges before the age of 18, this cycle is nearly unbreakable when starting young. Anthony was involved in robberies, assaults, gang affiliation, and many more other things. But this should not deny him his rights as a human being. He is still my friend since and there has been a transformation that he has been putting himself through to become a better person and get a fresh start away from gang life

Anthony, who was a gang banger and repeat offender, talked about what it was like to come out of rehabilitation and juvy after being caught by the police with a substance: “When I got out I already knew the police and the rehab center were waiting for me to slip up, so they could put me back in there again.” 

The new bail and minor offenses reform has loosened the bail requirements for certain crimes and has either offered low bail or a few days in jail with no bail. The new minor and minor offenses reforms have changed the age to prosecute a person from 7 years old to 12 years old and will not give severe punishments to anyone convicted under the age of 12 as reported by Gothamist . While minor offenses will now be waived in order to make less arrests

This new law reform has significantly lowered his chances of getting sent to prison as a repeat offender because he is a minor. Anthony talked about his experience inside these rehabilitation facilities and how “fighting people was normal in there. No one cared, we still did everything we used to do outside but we had to do it more quietly or we would get moved to another location farther from the city.” 

This new system that is trying to stop an offender from being let out is not working. Young adults are being let out and are continuously getting sent back into rehab facilities and later on could be sent to prison. They can potentially be tried as adults, not kids too.

iSchool Junior Nigel Pinn blamed the pandemic for a rise in crime and violence in the city: “The pandemic has laid off a lot of workers, causing the unemployment and poverty rates to rise. People switch to committing crimes at times to put food on the table for their families or for just themselves.” 

Since October 2020 to October 2021, the index crime rate has risen by 11.2%. Robbery and Felony Assault have increased by 15.8% and 13.8% respectively, according to the NYPD Crime Statistics Report. This rise in violent crime has been covered by the media extensively with camera footage or phone recordings. Even though you may see this on the news and may hear about it from others, most of the coverage of these violent encounters can be found in the phones of young adults. These cases of fights involving weapons or just straight up fist to fist conflicts have gone too long without having any serious consequences to prevent kids from fighting each other brutally.

On January 1, 2020, instead of  kids hanging out on the streets and getting involved in gang life, New York City set new bail and minor offenses reforms, which loosened up the amount of money put up for bail and minimized the time someone must serve when committing minor offenses. These new bail reforms have made a huge difference and affected the rate of crimes committed in NYC. 

In an article by the New York Post, an officer blames these new reforms as the reason why people become less afraid of being arrested: “No bail, no jail, and no threat of being stopped by the police.” These new policies put into place have allowed repeat offenders to walk out of jail and continue doing their crimes. The city has decided to let them out onto the streets of New York. 

In an incident inside of Queens Technical High School, a student refused to take off his headphones and when security came to talk to the kid, the student just threatened the guard and the guard left. There is no enforcement across various schools where students are given a punishment or disciplinary consequences to change their behavior.

It is no surprise that nowadays you can pull out a phone and visually record a moment or an event anytime and anywhere. But the phones of many young people have videos of brutal fights, brawls, screenshots of death threats, people holding guns and other things. These actions are not reported nor are they taken seriously. Take for example a fight that happened in a classroom in Queens Technical High School, where one student threw another to the floor in turn knocking down computers and school equipment. Randy, a student at the high school, has also talked about various fights happening in hallways, classrooms, bathrooms, or in front of the school where kids have been getting seriously, he was in the classroom when the fight had happened.“One of them called the other annoying, and 2 seconds later they were throwing each other on the floor.” In another incident.

This has not been the only case where a student may have been badly injured. In front of the High School of Economics and Finance, a fight was recorded where one student can be seen with a massive bump of swelling on his head as shown below.

All of these fights and violent encounters are a result of the people who are affiliated with gangs.They encourage these kids to get into fights or do other illegal things in order to gain some high status in their school or neighborhood.  

NYC Courts reports the reforms put into place were minor offenses, and the age in which minors may be tried because, before, a minor could be tried as an adult from the age of 16, but as of recently the age has been bumped up to 18. This is why Anthony was able to be set free multiple times. This in turn causes minors to be released from jail and allowed to roam the streets without having any fear of being stopped and put into prison for a long time.

When the youth does not respect or care about punishments, problems tend to arise. The new bail reforms and minor offense reforms are what pushes these young adults and majority of New York City to not fear getting caught and charged as they will just pay their way out or will just be let out in a few days or a couple of weeks.

Residents in the Bronx and upper Manhattan talked about how some of their friends turned into gangbangers when they were introduced to drugs, such as marijuana, percs, and other substances. 

When approaching Anthony for permission to get his story, he openly talked about his experiences of being arrested and sent to rehabilitation as well as gang life and what it was like to be in that world.

He recalled times when he was caught smoking weed or was trying to sell substances to people. Anthony talked about the time when a police officer was walking in front of him while he was smoking a joint. The officer immediately arrested him, and he later said that he was annoyed that they detained him and sent him to the precinct.

In areas such as the South Bronx and Harlem, distribution of drugs and other gang and violent activity is very common. 

iSchool junior Madeline Ortiz, a resident of Harlem, speaks about the local drug dealers who get into violent disputes because of their gang connections in the area. “I literally walk down to the corner of my block and I see them yelling at each other and getting ready to fight”. There was an instance where someone was shot in a drive by in front of her house.

*Photo of bullet holes inside her apartment lobby*

These instances are not anything but normal as most recently someone came to her apartment door and proceeded to stab the door. The intruder was caught on video surveillance. 

The same  gang violence is seen in parts of Brooklyn. Laischa, a resident in Cypress Hills, spoke about gang activity: “There’s plenty of gang activity and gang members at the corner, most of them pretty young and already in that life. You can see gang tags and graffiti and people. In school alone, the new metal detectors are only revealing how dangerous schools have gotten as kids are getting caught everyday with a gun or knife on them.”

Sometimes people do not want to report these incidents as the perpetrators are close friends of them or are family. Marianela, a resident of the Bronx, has a relative who is in prison right now for destruction of property and has also had weapons, such as guns. He has been locked up twice now as he is viewed by the State of New York as an adult. He sent death threats to multiple people as well as being there when gang members got into a discussion and started a shoot out, after he was released from prison the first time. 

Many people who are involved in gang activity and use of illegal substances do not want to change their lives and are in serious danger. Much like an incident reported by the New York Post,  3 teens in the Bronx were shot dead within a week over gang conflicts and retaliation killings. 

The same violence has happened in other boroughs like Queens where MS13 members killed a teen for having a tattoo similar to the one of rival gang Latin Kings, as reported by the Department of Justice. 

When looking through a variety of sources that talk about the rising gang violence and youth violence in NYC, a majority of these attacks have happened at or near housing projects or other poor neighborhoods. For example, in a report by the New York Post, a woman was killed and then burned in her own apartment in the Queensbridge Housing Projects. 

These housing projects are notorious for having high gang activity and very little law enforcement that controls the area. Areas like South Bronx, Rego Park, and Queensbridge are full of housing projects with their own respective gangs that work in those areas. Crime follows poverty, and that is most visible in these housing projects. A lot of ex-convicts, criminals, and gang members settle down in these projects and are able to still operate while having the protection of the community of the projects itself. 

According to the New York Post, one unlucky victim was shot and killed in Fordham Heights, the 5th poorest neighborhood in
NYC. He was killed not too far from the Twin Parks West Apartments, which has reports of active Young Gunnaz gang members. 

Areas like these and especially in the South Bronx are plagued by violent turf wars because of gang members getting into conflict and trying to get more power over another gang through territories. and now that the age minimum for someone to be tried as an adult is 16, this allows a whole younger wave of gang members to enter. This new trend of initiating gang members or letting kids have guns has influenced places that have never seen this much violence before.

A 13-year old boy was charged with attempted murder after he shot another boy in a nearby park during an argument. In a report by PIX11, a 17 year old boy was caught with a loaded gun at school, and during the month of October alone, 3 guns were seized, all of them within the same day. 

Anthony, a ex gangbanger for a gang in Queens, said that  “It’s really crazy out here, people get shot and stabbed everyday at night or in broad daylight, I seen it happen and I’ve had people come up to me even when I go to the store, you see new faces everyday and they look younger than 16.” 

Meanwhile inside of schools, there are small scuffles between students over small comments or small physical contact. “Kids nowadays are getting really offended by simple comments and are really fighting outside or threatening each other with weapons,” said Pinn . 

There have been various reports where people have been let out and walk free from prison after a few days, and a majority of these people are repeat offenders. For example on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, a homeless man attacked a good samaritan who was trying to help him. Witnesses reported that the samaritan wanted to give the attacker, who was laying on the floor, a jacket. The attacker quickly sprung up and attacked the man and robbed him. Police have arrested the man and reports by Fox News reveal that he was previously arrested already for assault and that this was the second attack in the same week. This man was put in jail and let out quickly and has done the same thing he was locked up for. 

In another incident, a man kicked someone down the stairs of a subway, and after he was arrested, reports revealed that he was a repeat offender with dozens of crimes going as far back as the 1980s. As reported by NBC, “John Chappell, was arrested for the alleged assault and later released. The 64-year-old Chappell is a familiar face to police, with 67 previous arrests dating all the way back to 1982 for attempted arson, police said, after trying to set fires to garbage outside people’s homes. He’s had other arrests for arson, as well as robbery, fraud, public lewdness, reckless endangerment, petit larceny and jumping turnstiles.” Yet another dangerous person was let out various times and continued to commit the same crimes and does not look to stop anytime soon.

Eyewitness News has given another example where repeat offender for minor offenses, Zamori Simmos has been arrested on various occasions, for robbery, assault, and possession of a gun amongst other things, and has been released on bail or no bail or not. As reported by the LET,”Simmons incident comes amid several other cases where suspects committing violent crimes are released with low or no bail at all.” Among these various cases are repeat offender Darrel Johnson who has various assault charges and has been arrested on multiple occasions, and Craig Tamanaha who was arrested for allegedly setting the Christmas tree in front of the Fox building on fire but was released soon after because of the new bail reforms. 

All of these repeat offenders with crimes ranging from assault to arson to robbery are all being let out on low bail or no bail at all. German Jarama, a construction worker in Yonkers, spoke about safety New York:“This just puts so many more people in danger as you don’t know if you’re going to get attacked or robbed wherever you are”. German has also had a friend who was robbed in a park near his jobsite. The man was confronted by 3 young adults aging from 16-19, who pulled out a gun and robbed the man.

All of these reports of repeat offenders, youth fights, violent outbreaks, and gang activity all stem from the problem of the new bail reforms that have been put in place and minor reforms that let people walk free after committing crimes. These new bail reforms have made it virtually impossible to be locked up for a long time. 

When these laws are changed and given much tighter enforcement, New York City will become a much safer place for all. Keeping those dangerous people off the street is what is needed as this will stop these repeat offenders from infecting the youth of New York City and keeping them out of violence, gang life, and away from drugs.