The 69th Precinct held its Annual Night Out Against Crime event on Tuesday, August 1st, in Canarsie Park.
The goal of the annual event is to inform the community about steps being taken to keep its residents safe. Since its inception in 1984, the National Night Out Against Crime has been a tool to bring communities closer together and have a day where everyone gets to meet those tasked with keeping the safety and peace of their neighborhood. A crime prevention program that emphasizes building a working partnership between the police and the community is one of its core values.
U.S. Representative for New York, Hakeem Jeffries, opened up the event for the first time since becoming the highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Congress.
“I look forward to continuing to work hard on your behalf to partner with the police in the community and community leadership and the clergy members and everyone who makes Canarsie USA and all of the communities within the 69th Precinct a very special place,” Jeffries said.
“That’s what National Night Out is all about; that’s what this day is all about.”
The community wants to build a better relationship with all its residents and those within the 69th Precinct and plan to do that by hosting local events for families with an emphasis on our youth. The thought process is familiarizing the community with one another would allow for residents to look out for one another and band together to stop crime.
The program also aims to refine the nationwide crime prevention campaign, document successful crime prevention strategy, disseminating information about successful community-based strategies and developing the National Night Out Against Crime website among other initiatives.
“In the 70s and early 80s, crime was so bad that most people didn’t even want to leave their homes in the evening,” Melba Brown, vice president of the 69th Precinct Community Council, said.
“It got to the point where something had to be done, so in 1984 the idea of a National Night Out [Against] Crime where we would take back the streets from the criminals [came about],” Brown said.
The program saw a major increase to more than 32 million people in 9,530 communities in 1999 from the 2.5 million people from 400 communities back in 1984.
State Senator Roxanne Persaud was in attendance and thought it was important to show we are all united in the fight against crime.
“No community is safe until all communities are safe, and that is why everybody is coming together.”
