I Am Fed Up

by Russell Simmons

Two weeks ago, I went back to my old neighborhood of Hollis, Queens, to support the launch of the pilot program of The national Peacekeepers, an initiative that seeks to deter crime and violence by introducing a strong presence of community men into unstable neighborhoods to make their streets safe for women, children and seniors. I was inspired to fund the pilot program after the wave of youth violence that has engulfed our nation. I like so many community members am fed up.

First, it was the brutal death of 16 year old Derrion Albert in Chicago, who was clobbered over the head by a 2x4 in an after school melee. Then it was the killing of thirteen year old Kevin Miller in Hollis, an innocent, young man walking home from school who was shot in the back of the head from a bullet that was never meant for him…a passerby in someone else’s gunfight, however the someone else happened also to be young, 16. Then it was the brutal gang rape of a seven year old in an empty apartment in Trenton, New Jersey. And there are countless others in between.