Thompson addresses gun violence at Coney Island meeting

October 27, 2014 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

District Attorney Ken Thompson was in Coney Island on Thursday night where he hosted a town hall meeting to discuss issues in the neighborhood, including gun violence.

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Andrea Clinton has lived in Coney Island for the better part of a century. Even as crime has dropped in the neighborhood considerably since the 1990s, she said she is still afraid of the rampant gun violence she has seen.

“I’m scared to go out even during the daytime. I don’t know where they’re shooting at. When I think everything is good, I go out to take care of my business and I see the yellow tape,” she said.

It was Clinton’s fear of gun violence in her neighborhood that led her to show up to District Attorney Kenneth Thompson’s town hall summit at Liberation Diploma Plus High School in Coney Island on Thursday night.

“When I ran for D.A. last year, I was told about the two parts of Coney Island … One part that was promoted and another part where folks feel forgotten,” said Thompson, who later added that he learned how to ride a bike in Coney Island as a child. “I felt obligated to come here because you are not forgotten.”

Thompson didn’t show up by himself. He came with 45 other members of the District Attorney’s Office, and he and his staff spent about an hour-and-a-half talking with more than 300 local residents of the Coney Island neighborhood about the issues that plague their neighborhood, primarily gun violence.

Thompson reported that there have been 99 murders in Brooklyn so far this year, down from 120 on the same day a year ago, and 511 people shot in the borough overall. Twenty-one of those shootings took place in Coney Island — accounting for nine homicides and five deaths. One of those victims was Eddie Abdelrahaman, a 10-year-old shot in broad daylight on Mermaid Avenue in June.

Thompson said there was no easy way to address the issue of gun violence, but his office is taking a multi-faceted approach that includes going after guns at their source, a new Crime Strategies Unit and programs for the neighborhood including Comm Alert, which helps people readjust to society after leaving prison, the Cure Violence Program and the Back on Track program for children who have fallen behind in school.

Thompson described the Crime Strategies Unit as one that goes after gun violence before it begins which means targeting guns before they get to Brooklyn and having a group of former prosecutors targeting “drivers of crime.”

In addition to the CSU, he created a new Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, a taskforce that essentially combines the efforts of the Major Narcotics Investigation Bureau and the Gang Bureau, as their work often overlaps, and the Forensic Science Unit.

He has also strengthened the Civil Rights Bureau in response to recent incidents and has improved the Domestic Violence Bureau adding that the Department of Justice recently gave Brooklyn one of four federal Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention grants. That money will go to the 75th Precinct first, and he hopes to expand the program to all of Brooklyn eventually.

Thompson also spoke at length about his work in freeing wrongfully convicted criminals and discussed David McCallum, who was freed last week after spending 29 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

“When I took office in January, I inherited over 100 claims of wrongful conviction claims,” Thompson said. “I am determined to get to the bottom of these cases. Not everyone is telling the truth, but a number of men right here in Brooklyn were put on trial for murder, convicted and sent to prison wrongfully.

“Wrongful convictions undermine the integrity of our criminal justice system,” he said. “Wrongful convictions lead to wrongful acquittals.”

The attendees had mixed reactions to the meeting, including Clinton who said that actions speak louder than words.

“Were there any real answers tonight?” said Tammy Harris, a resident of Coney Island for the last 16 years. When asked if Thompson’s numbers were meaningful, Harris said, “No.” Then pointing to Councilmember Mark Treyger, she said, “He’s done more than anyone else ever has and he usually addresses us by himself or with one or two other people.”