Rochester Mayor Malik Evans expects that he will be renewing the ‘gun violence state of emergency’ when the first 30 days of that program comes up for renewal later this month.
Evans declared that emergency on July 21, in response to the hundreds of shooting incidents and dozens of gun-related fatalities in the city this year.
At City Hall on Tuesday, Evans said part of the response by the city is to target resources in neighborhoods where there has been a lot of violence.
“Zip codes (such as) 14605, North Clinton Avenue, the Lyell Avenue area, those are areas where we are seeing a disproportionate numbers of violence that are happening compared to the rest of the city, “ said Evans. “Those are on our radar, and that is where we are spending lots of resources and time and energy to make sure that we focus on that area.”
Evans said the city is going after businesses that are allowing unsanctioned gatherings to happen after hours, including taking these businesses to court to shut them down if that’s what’s needed.
“That’s not what we want to do, but we will do that, we have used that as a tool,” Evans said. “We cannot have people congregating at two o’clock, three o’clock in the morning thinking they can do whatever the heck they want in the city of Rochester, endangering neighbors and innocent people, not going to tolerate it.”
City Council President Miguel Melendez is pushing for greater community collaboration, and said that if there are community organizations who want to be part of the anti-violence effort, they should respond to a current Request for Proposals the city has put out.
Evans said that one of the big parts of the anti-violence effort is getting illegal guns off the street. He said Rochester Police, working with federal, state and county agencies, have taken 475 illegal guns off the streets since the beginning of the year.
Evans added that the city continues with its violence prevention and intervention efforts as well, including trying to connect people to healthcare, food and shelter, and other crucial resources.
