Brooklyn Lawmaker Compares Violence In Brownsville To Libya, Afghanistan, Iran

Zuranna Horton at left, victim Cheanne McKnight at right, via CBS 2

Brownsville residents, community leaders, and politicians continued to express outrage yesterday in the wake of the death of Zuranna Horton, who was killed while trying to shield children from a spray of gunfire outside a school Friday afternoon. There was a candlelight vigil and march Sunday night, and yesterday Rev. Al Sharpton met with Horton's family, praising her ultimate sacrifice and noting that two of her siblings had previously died from gun violence. State Senator Eric Adams, whom you may recall from his "Stop the Sag" campaign, also weighed in.

"This is not Libya. This is not Iran. This is not Afghanistan," Adams "railed," according to the Daily News. "This is Brownsville, USA... What happened to this young lady here should not have happened." We're not really sure what this gang-related violence really has to do with Iran, but Adams isn't alone in comparing the neighborhood to a war zone. "It's going to take an army to stop the war that’s happening in our community right now,” one local tells CBS 2. And here's Horton's mother: "This is the third child I’ve lost from gunshots. I’m really going to miss my daughter."

Two other people were injured in the shooting: A 31-year-old woman and 11-year-old Cheanne McKnight, who was grazed in the right cheek by a bullet. McKnight got 26 stitches but was back at school yesterday. "I heard gunshots, and before I got to run, the bullet had hit me in my face," Cheanne says. "It was burning, it was hot. I put my sweater over my face and I went in the store and I asked for a paper towel and I put it on my face and I went in an ambulance."

Cheanne says she's going to transfer to another school, and her mother adds, "It ain’t fair a woman had to die to save my child because that woman tried to save my child. I think something should have been done about this because the day before they was shooting, so these corners should have been covered with police." No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, but city Councilman Charles Barron is calling for $200 million from the city budget to create 10 youth centers in the most crime-plagued areas of NYC, in an attempt to save children from joining gangs.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on October 25, 2011 11:42 AM

Comments [rss]

Jeff

So Eric Adams openly admits that this neighborhood, heavily populated by blacks and hispanics, has a big crime problem. Yet, at the same time, he's crying racism at the disparity of police stop and frisks in heavily black and latino neighborhoods. The man's a joke.

chee1rs

Libya, Afghanistan, Iran are safer

RammyH

Yeah, the National Guard will accomplish nothing.

All those knuckleheads shooting off guns and dealing and making these neighborhoods violent, terrible places to live are all home-grown. They live right there.

So unless their own law-abiding family members and neighbors turn them in for dealing and shooting, nothing's going to change. Hell, even if everyone snitched out the criminals, the judges and jails will just release them back on the street in a day or two (if even that long).

Automatic 5 years - straight to jail, no negotiation, no pleading down jail time by snitching upward or downwards to the cops - for having an illegal gun in your possession or being positively linked to an illegal gun. That applies to minors as well. That'll stem the tide of the gun violence.

The knuckleheads will have to resort to stabbing each other and bashing each other's heads in with pipes and baseball bats - but that should cut down on the number of innocent bystanders getting killed over nonsense.

e non

how about moms laying down the law and -- gosh -- disciplining their friggin children... you know. maybe they could learn to read, do math, pull up their pants....

edgie168

i'm guessing you don't have children

brooklynRick

" Councilman Charles Barron is calling for $200 million from the city budget to create 10 youth centers" - Let me guess, to be run by your family members and associates at inflated salaries?

schmeep

1)Technically, he was contrasting Brownsville to those countries, not comparing.

2)At this point, youth centers aren't going to do anything in Brownsville except give gangs more turf to deal on, and to make it easy to locate any youth to 'recruit'. The National Guard needs to be there for a protracted amount of time.

Dan Smith

1) Fair, but in a way is it even appropriate to even reference Libya at least? The majority of the violence in the past year there is due to government clampdowns of human rights. Here, it's not Alabama in the 1950's. These communities are doing it to THEMSELVES. As long as the culture of no snitching remains in place, they're never going to get themselves out of there.

2) Either way, Barron probably doesn't give a shit. It's pocketing more money-I mean, "bringing tax dollars back to his district's taxpayers"