Turning Tragedy into Protest: Violence and Crime as Civic and Political Primers in Brownsville, Brooklyn

• In Event: The Many Faces of Policing

Abstract

Research shows that neighborhood violence and crime heighten fear, decrease trust, distort morals, warp behavior, fracture social networks, and diminish public life. In contrast, this paper shows that violence and crime can also result in important local civic and political upswings. Using one year of historical and ethnographic research, the paper explores Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of New York City’s most violent and crime-ridden neighborhoods. First, it traces the shift from Brownsville’s early, Jewish years in which syndicates inconspicuously perpetrated serious violence and crime to its modern, black years in which armed street gangs commit public violence and crime. Second, the paper argues that one consequence is that extreme events, such as the 2011 murder of a mother of 13 near a school and the 2013 sidewalk murder of a toddler in a stroller, take on disproportionate importance. The incidents become primary screens though which Brownsville residents process daily violence and crime and local policing efforts, frames through which residents make judgments of and demands on other residents and the police. Lastly, the paper demonstrates this by examining the two aforementioned events’ foundational roles in subsequent local informal debates, formal council meetings, and rallies as well as changed community social dynamics.

Author

• Francisco Vieyra, New York University