Advocates say violence in the city is a public health crisis

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – On Tuesday, community organizations came together to call for change. Thirty-one people have been killed this year in Rochester, the majority by guns.

Some advocates say the violence in our city is a public health crisis. A community plagued by violence.

“We are our community. They are us and we are them.”

Demanding that things change sooner, rather than later.

“If you are shooting in our community that’s lame. If you can take someone’s life and cause a mother to cry in our community, a daughter or son to lose their father; you’re a coward,” said City Council President Miguel Melendez.

Members of several community organizations were standing together on Tuesday at the International Plaza on North Clinton Avenue, just steps away rom where eight people were shot over two nights last week. Anthony Mcintyre the third was killed.

Community Resource Collaborative CEO said, “Our messaging today is about justice, it’s about individuals in our community that are carrying illegal firearms and killing and hurting folks in our community, they have to be brought to justice.”

Calling gun violence a deadly disease, they say it takes everyone’s help to cure it.

“There’s other folk who are out here on these streets, been on these streets, not just since something happened Friday, not just since something happened last year. There are folk that have been on these streets making relationships for years, but you need all of us. You need the people at the grass tops, at the grass roots, in the middle and on the grass,” said