By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER EAST SIDE — About 30 parents gathered in a Lower East Side church hall Thursday night to tackle growing youth violence in the neighborhood.
The meeting was organized by a group of neighborhood moms who say they are fed up with a wave of crime that has included stabbings, shootings and violent brawls.
"This is an emergency," said Maizie Torres, a single mother raising three children in the Lower East Side. "We have to worry that if we go to the bodega, to the corner store, we're going to get shot."
Torres and childhood friend Aida Salgado said they began brainstorming ways to tackle teen violence in the Lower East Side last summer, after both their teenage sons, in two separate incidents, were attacked by gang members. They decided to call the group Mothers in Arms (MIA).
They plastered telephone poles and lamp posts in the neighborhood advertising Thursday night's "state of emergency" meeting in the hope of recruiting more parents and youths to search for solutions.
The parents were joined by community organizers at the East Side Tabernacle Church to discuss programs that would engage youth in the community, including plans to hold a basketball tournament and a leadership breakfast for young girls.
The parents agreed that more after school programs were needed to combat the allure of gangs and drugs. But they also emphasized the need for parents to be good role models at home.
One member in the audience asked that the name Mothers in Arms be changed to Mothers and Fathers in Arms (MAFIA). Some of the parents argued that it was a lack of positive male role models that was contributing to the increased violence in teenagers.
"There's hope, they're just lost," said Jahida Mariani, a Lower East Side mother who works as a corrections officer at Rikers Island. Mariani said she interacts with prisoners as young as 16 years old every day.
Recent crime in the streets has put the community on edge, including violent attacks in Tompkins Square Park, the pursuit of a teen by gun-wielding men in SUVs, and the murder of Glenn Wright, a college student who was visiting his grandmother near Delancey St.
Shortly after the meeting concluded, police responded to a call at E. 6th St. and Avenue D where they found a man who had been shot with a BB-gun.
At least nine people have been shot and several car windows have been blown out in a total of six recent BB-gun shootings in the area.
In late September, police arrested three people in connection to the shootings, but are continuing to look for additional suspects.
City councilmember Rosie Mendez was at the meeting, as well as representatives from the offices of State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
The next Mothers In Arms meeting is scheduled for Nov. 5.
