NYC NOW - July 18, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

A new report finds that 1 in 5 New Yorkers may be getting their water from lead pipes. Plus, a federal judge approved a nearly $4 million settlement against the Suffolk County Police. Also, WNYC’s Brittany Kriegstein looks at a study in Brooklyn that explores why so many kids carry guns. And finally, we mark the 50 year anniversary of hip hop with Brooklyn-based artist Nubian Néné.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. As many as one in five New Yorkers may be getting their water from lead pipes. That's according to a new report by the New York City Coalition to end lead poisoning. The group used data from the city's Department of Environmental Protection to map out the number of lead pipes used to carry water, from water mains to people's homes. Exposure to the metal can cause brain damage in children. Joan Matthews is a member of the coalition and says the pipe.

need to be removed for people's safety. We know what the problem is. We know what the solution is. We just need the DEP, Department of Environmental Protection, and the City Council to get to it. New York City's water supply is naturally lead-free, and treatment facilities help prevent the pipes from flaking. But let levels can still spike, depending on the temperature of the water and some other factors. A federal judge has approved a nearly $4 million settlement against the Suffolk County Police.

It's the final step in an eight-year-long court back. WNYC's Charles Lane has more. The judge's approval was a technicality, but for the lawyers and drivers who were stopped and robbed by Suffolk Police Sergeant Scott Green, it was a moving capstone. One of the plaintiffs brought his now teenage son to the proceeding who was just a boy when his father was handcuffed and he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom. Beatrice Ramirez told reporters before the hearing that she went to every meeting for eight years. She says this lawsuit will bring a better life for her and Latinos on Long Island. In addition to monetary damages, Suffolk agreed to improve training, better screen officers, and publish more robust data on traffic stops.

Stick around. There's more after the break. Nearly 70 children under 18 have been the victims of shooting so far this year. That's according to the NYPD. That number is lower than this time last year, but it continues an unsettling spike of violence among young people that started in 2020. As the city tries to handle the issue, a group of researchers in Brooklyn set out to find out why young people carry guns by asking them directly. WNYC reporter Brittany Krikstein has more on the findings from their study. As the pandemic raged across New York City and gun violence spiked across all five boroughs, something unusual was happening in a covered backyard of a crew.

Crown Heights storefront from February of 2020 to March of 2021. People between the ages of 14 to 24 were trickling in, leaving beefs and street affiliations outside. Over the course of the year, about 100 young people came into a neutral space with potted plans and cozy chairs and sat down with researchers from the Center for Justice Innovation to answer a fundamental and complicated question. Why do you carry a gun? They were paid $30 for their time. White was one of the interviewers. You know, a lot of times the portrait that people or the picture that people have in their minds of gun carriers is that they're just antisocial criminals out there who have, like,

they just don't care, they have no concern for people's life. They have no concern for the community. And in fact, what we find almost across the board is that they're very mindful, actually, of what it means to carry a gun. They know that it's a serious thing. but they also feel like they just don't have other choices. White and her colleagues, Giovante Alexander and Basim Spate, say they learn that gun carriers fall into four main categories,

those who carry for protection, those who carry because they're involved in street hustles, those who carry for reputation, and those who are actually shooters, which they say is a smaller group than all the rest. But White says each is rooted in one main theme, their own fear of dying. As we heard over and over again, they say, I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. I'd rather jail than death. And that's the question, and that's the thing that they're weighing. And that's the thing for so many of them, this fear, this fear is the thing that drives the weapon carrying.

Young people aged 14 to 24 account for 37 of this year's 123 gun deaths across New York City, according to data from the police department. 25 people in that age range have been arrested for carrying out fatal shootings. Researcher Basim Spate lives in Crown Heights. He says he hopes the study changes narratives about gangs, which he says can be a source of guidance and protection for young people. Spate says solutions to gun violence need to include partnerships with gangs.

When we talk about gangs and guns, really got to bring in the gangs, really bring in the big homies, and give them a platform on a table to see. speaking, hear those voices. For researcher Giovante Alexander, also a Crown Heights native, the solutions lie in helping young people get legitimate paying jobs.

I feel like once you have something to look forward to financially, it keeps your mind away from thinking negative. Like if you broke your back against the wall, you think about stealing, you think about robbing, you think not necessarily mean you're a bad person,

it's just your back against the wall, and you might got to make ends meet that way. NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Madreys said in a recent press conference that a thousand teens have signed up for the city's summer youth employment program and an additional 1700

have signed up with the NYPD for the youth policing program. That doesn't include independent programs in other neighborhoods. Researcher Giovante Alexander says he knows not every kid is going to seek assistance on their own, so it's paramount to keep up contact and conversations with young people.

A lot of people do need help out here. are people not going to just be openly vulnerable with you, but if you pull these kids aside and you really buy yourself one-on-one talking to them, they open up to you and they let you know really all their problems. So Basim Spate says the question now is how to keep their progress going in Crown Heights beyond the scope of the study. How can we continue this, but not in our research form, right? And continue this going, you know, I think that's our challenge right now, off the information

and the vulnerability that we got from the UFNN community. The researchers say they hope the project informs more effective gun violence prevention strategies. That's WNYC reporter, Brittany Krikstein. It was 50 years ago this summer that the streets of the Bronx witnessed the birth of hip-hop culture. To celebrate this milestone anniversary, we're highlighting the voices of women from the New York region who are forging their own path and leaving an imprint on the genre. My name is Nubian Nene and I am an artist, a dancer, choreographer. I wear many hats and I'm currently located in Brooklyn.

My background is Haitian-Canadian. So I was born in Canada and Montreal, no precisely. And both of my parents are from Haiti. When I think about hip-hop, it goes so far back. Being Haitian, there's a lot of parties that we would go to. So, you know, like baptism or First Communion or, you know, just family gatherings and there was always like videos, you know, those music videos that we used to watch.

And so when my cousins and everybody would come at the house, we would be like, did you see this last video? And we're trying to do the dance moves. And like we're trying to pretend as if we're in rap videos. Also coming to New York to see family, that it be grandparents or aunts or cousins, we used to always do the trip. So I used to always come back to school with New Gear,

And then like it would really just, you know, scream hip hop. Sometimes you do something and you don't realize how involved you are in it. And I think hip hop is one of those things. You know, a lot of us, we will say that hip hop saved our lives or will say that hip hop changed our lives for sure. Sometimes the lyricist that I listen to in hip-hop, the women lyricists, they're talking about the black women reality. I'm dancing the black women reality. In order for us to understand everything that happens in hip hop alone,

we have to understand these realities, you know, and they're pretty deep. I think what would be cool is like, you know, the majority of the world understanding that hip-hop has influenced them, just like jazz has, that, you know, hip-hop is jazz, that a lot of people didn't want to hear that, and they say, oh, no, this is not the music, you know? But to understand that this has changed the world just the same way that jazz had changed the world at one point, just like funk had changed the world at one point, you know? And it's also a movement of the people. And once you understand that it's a movement of the people,

that is why a lot of people from different places around the world are connecting to it. Nubian Nenei is a Brooklyn-based artist, dancer, and choreographer. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.