A Borough of Trauma
“But that’s why it’s called generational trauma, isn’t it? It always gets passed down.”
As I sit here in this classroom at Comp Sci High and begin to write this article, I am looking at the Citizen App on a phone, where I just found out that 15 crimes were committed in the surrounding blocks in just the past week alone. I wasn’t surprised, because this is the norm for a lot of us. There was one report of threats, two reports of assault, three car crashes and collisions that left people injured, three robberies, a report of someone getting injured, one break in, and four reports of someone either being shot, someone trying to shoot someone else, or someone possessing an illegal firearm.
According to the official NYC website and NYPD statistics, index crime arrests are at a 24 year high, fueled by a 15.0% increase over the first quarter of 2022 and a further 7.9% increase in March of 2023. This means that a lot of crimes are being committed, but they are being caught and arrested more. According to another source, there are, in total, 25,658 youths currently serving time in prison for a crime they committed. This source also lists the amount of incarcerated and arrested individuals in each borough of New York. The highest borough with juvenile arrests is Brooklyn, with 7,230 youths serving time; in second is the Bronx itself, with 6,444 youths serving time. But we all know that a life of crime has more consequences than just serving prison time. There are darker statistics, like death rates. According to one of my sources, in the past two years (2022 and 2023) there have been a total of 1,676 shooting-involved incidents, 1,986 shooting victims (meaning people who were shot), and 314 people who have died from those shootings.
I spoke with my grandmother, who grew up in the Bronx. She never left, never really lived anywhere else – she's a veteran Bronx resident. I just asked her very simply, how has the Bronx changed over the decades. You wouldn't believe how much I had to push to get her to answer. I’m not sure why, butmy best guess is that she didn’t want to look back to the memory of her once wonderful and united home and compare it to its now-ruined state. This assumption came from the reflective look in her eyes and the sudden frustration in her voice, so instead I just gave her a piece of paper and a pencil and left her alone to write it down herself when she was ready. About an hour later she called me into her room and handed me the paper, and this is what she had to say:
“Back in the 80s when I was growing up in the Bronx, we used to be able to play outside with our friends without the fear of getting kidnapped or taken; now all I hear about on the news is how people go missing every day. Children these days will never know the true freedom and fun of riding your bike or playing hopscotch with the other neighborhood kids. Not to mention there isn’t any loyalty or respect anymore between people, back then if there was an argument with a man and you were a woman, the man wouldn’t put his hands on you, he’d just get his female family members to do it. Also, kids back then respected their elders. Now these kids today will beat on anyone, no matter who they are and think it's funny or makes them tough. Not to mention that back then, the only people who had weapons were cops, drug dealers, and thugs, but today everyone has one. Even 11 year old kids can get a gun without a problem, and they are more liable to use it to kill someone than an adult is when they start playing around with them like toys or when they're scared or to prove they are cool or tough. Back then the street code was no women and no children but now it's like women and children are the everyday targets. The crazy part is that back then was the crack era, and even then it wasn’t as bad as it is now. Now it seems like killing or hurting each other is a sport and we are all losing the game.”
Originally, I was supposed to interview my uncle as well. I had chosen my uncle because my uncle is one of the many people I know who grew up in the community and who is currently dealing with the consequences of the generational cycle of poverty, violence, and drugs. However I could not conduct this interview because my uncle, who is in prison, had gotten in trouble for harming another inmate and he lost his “privileges.” Sadly, he was sent to solitary confinement.
My uncle is a man who has faced a lot of hardships and a lot of challenges, especially with his lifestyle, and it resulted in not just him physically being thrown into a cell, but it also resulted in unresolved emotional and psychological trauma, which I think fuels his violent tendencies. However, he isn’t the only one suffering from his actions; his children are, too. They have had to grow up without their father, knowing he won’t be out and be with them until they are grown adults, and that pain in itself is another form of trauma. But that’s why it’s called generational trauma, isn’t it? It always gets passed down.
However, this news didn’t stop me from conducting my research and doing my interviews, it actually encouraged me to look for a different view. My grandmother and my uncle are old heads; they think with older minds; they don’t fully comprehend what it’s like today for the youth, so I sought out to find two people, two people with our minds, with our youth, with our mutual understanding and comprehension of the world.
This is what Laila Ayala, a senior here at Comp Sci High, had to say:
“I don't feel safe, but it isn't because of the place. It's because as a young woman, I know that places me at a higher risk. I find that I feel unsafe in areas where I've been made to feel unsafe before, but if I've never felt unsafe in an area before I'm more likely to feel more comfortable in it. One time I was walking to school on a Saturday to work on college apps and a man walking in front of me turned around and walked up to me and started cursing me out and calling me a slew of derogatory terms although I hadn't even said anything — I was just walking. He then proceeded to follow me down the street calling me things like "bitch" and "whore" and threatening me. I ended up having a panic attack because of how scared I felt. I think when it comes to crime, youth are greatly impacted because they don't know better. At such a young age it's hard to form your own decisions, and oftentimes, youth make the wrong ones because they are so impressionable.”
I asked another student, nicknamed DJ, to tell me about his experiences and thoughts on the matter, as well. DJ even gave me an example too, just like Laila had done, and originally I was going to summarize what he said, but as I type out this last interview, I don’t think I should; it isn’t my place to censor or edit out people’s voices. My job is to embrace them instead.
Here’s what DJ had to say:
“In my life outside of school, I wouldn't say that I live in fear for my safety or life. However, I do acknowledge the need to be cautious about what I do or say in certain situations. When I'm commuting, whether on the bus or walking, I tend to adhere to a set of unspoken rules, much like many others do – keeping to myself and being cautious about my surroundings. Despite these challenging situations, I still hold a deep affection for where I live. This place is my home, and despite the impact of crime and negative experiences, it's been an environment that has contributed to my growth and development. There have been moments in my life where my safety felt threatened. One such incident occurred when I was returning home from school. On my block, someone I knew was shot twice in a week. Initially, I hoped it was an isolated incident, but sadly, it happened again within the same week. This is just one example of the unfortunate events that sometimes occur in the Bronx and around my school.”
I won’t deny that in today's world it is harder to survive, especially in a place like the Bronx which has a reputation for being filled with poverty, drugs, and gangs, even before any of the students reading this were born. But there was a difference between now and back then, especially when it comes to the youth and their involvement and contribution to these crime rates. How has crime changed over the recent decades? How has crime affected the minds and behavior of teenagers and children? Is there a way to end the generational cycle of violence, drugs, and domestic warfare? You tell me.