Metro

Anti-violence coalition launches hard-hitting poster campaign

Call it a sign of the times.

For just over a year, members of the Coney Island Coalition Against Violence have talked a lot about ending what they describe as a legacy of violence at the western end of the “people’s playground.”

On Jan. 22, their point was finally visualized in a hard-hitting poster campaign the entire neighborhood will soon see.

Beginning Saturday, Coalition members began distributing 1,000 simple, yet profound posters decrying the outbreak of gun violence the neighborhood suffered through last year.

One poster shows a green “flatline” seen on a heart monitor with the words, “Violence Takes Our Loved Ones Away.” The other has a gun in a traditional red “No” symbol reading “Life is a Gift. Don’t Waste It.”

Edwin Cosme of Cosme’s Electronics, which is on Mermaid Avenue between W. 17th and W. 19th streets, was the first local merchant to put the posters up.

“Last summer there were a lot of murders in Coney Island,” Cosme said. “The incidents of gun violence has increased dramatically. [These posters] are our way of saying we have to stop the violence, get more involved in the community and let our youth know that there are resources available if they want to get out of gangs.”

The posters, which were created through a collaboration between the Coalition and students attending Coney Island’s Liberation Diploma Plus High School, and printed through a donation from state Sen. Diane Savino’s (D–Coney Island) office, were expected to be distributed to every business in Coney Island’s western end. The announcement of the campaign was followed with a panel discussion held at Liberation HS on what one can do to combat violence in one’s community.

Coney Island and Brighton Beach were marred with 10 murders in 2010. The lion’s share of them were gun shooting that took place in Coney Island’s western end.

At the time, things were getting so bad that residents asked the Guardian Angels to augment police patrols in the neighborhood.

The violence waned a bit in the fall and winter, but Mathylde Frontus, executive director of Urban Neighborhood Services and a Coalition leader, said that this reprieve doesn’t dampen their mission.

“We’re very happy that there has been a slight dip in the violence and we’ve had about two months of peace,” she told us. “We’re hoping it stays that way, but people should realize that just because its stopped for awhile we’re going to keep raising awareness. Our children should be reminded that violence is not the way to go.”

TTracy@cnglocal.com