Resolution Recognizing November 20-December 20, 2022 as National Survivors of Homicide Awareness Month. On motion of Councilors Mejia, Lara and Arroyo, the rules were suspended; the resolution was adopted.
I can have a059 to counsel as me here. Laura in Arroyo offered the following resolution, recognizing November 20th through December 20th, 2022, as National Survivors of Homicide Awareness Month. Thank you. The chair recognizes counsel. Counsel me here. Counsel me here. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. And before I even read this, I just wanted to acknowledge counsel, morale and counsel of Baker for bringing the Lucy Brown Peace Institute here a few weeks ago. So I really do appreciate your support for Tina and her team. So thank you for bringing them into the space. And I would also like to thank my co-sponsors, council, Elida and Arroyo. I know this resolution will be recognizing and Awareness Month all the way in November, but we frankly need to be recognizing survivors of homicide 365 days a year. We use the word, quote unquote, resilient in a lot of political spaces, perhaps sometimes too much. But it's hard to think of another word to describe the families and loved ones of those who have survived homicide. That kind of loss, this pain that sticks to you like no other. And as we have recently seen in recent events that have happened with the graves of our young loved ones in our cemetery in Roslindale, that pain and trauma can renew itself over and over again. And I think that too often we lose a loved one to homicide. That's that's the initial wave of support. People send you meals, reach out words of encouragement, refer you to trauma services. But what happens after that? What happens during that first birthday or holiday season without them? Who is there for the families in that time of need? And I think that's why we need a time like Survivors of Homicide Awareness Month, because there isn't a moment in time when the grieving stops, when you finally move on, especially when you have lost someone to homicide, as I have. This Sunday, I will be walking in the 26th annual Mothers Day Walk for Peace as a city councilor, but more importantly, as a mom, I need to be there not only to show my support, but because I know that we can't just keep having the same conversations around violence in our community. Something has to give. So that by this time next year, the 27th Annual Mothers Day's Walk for Peace can be a place where we can celebrate the fact that we realized our potential as a city and make major systemic changes to how we address the violence in our communities. I really hope that we can get to this point. And before I move to suspend the rules and ask my colleagues to speak, you know, I met so Tina was my neighbor. And when I started my career in the nonprofit sector, her son Louis was gunned down on Geneva not too far from where I live. And that was 20 something years ago. And we keep having the same conversation around violence. And I think that what we have lost touch is, is with the folks who have to continue to carry on. My niece. Lost the the father of her son to violence. In my first year here as a city councilor. And his tomb was one of the ones that were. Uh, one of the ones that were messed with. And it was my daughter. Who told me about it. And I think that when we think about survivors and we think about the pain and the trauma, all of those things need to be taken into consideration. If we're really serious about this work here in the city of Boston, I just feel like everything here is so political and it just gets tiring and people are tired of it. And I think that. You know, we all are responsible and we all have to be held accountable to what we're going to do if we're really serious about restoring the harm that so many are experiencing here in the city of Boston. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. Here. The chair recognizes council borough council ora. You have the floor. Thank you, President Flynn, and thank you to Councilor for asking me to co-sponsor this resolution for including me in this resolution. And Councilor Arroyo, our other co-sponsor. I became a homicide survivor for the first time when I was 11, when my oldest brother, who was 25 at the time, was murdered. I didn't know at the time that I would become a survivor another dozen times over in in my life, all of my colleagues, if not most of the folks here have are either survivors themselves or know and love survivors and their families who they either work with or are in their communities. And so I feel like this resolution is an ode to that strength and that resilience and the commitment to keep going from homicide survivors. And for me, it's really a commitment to the ongoing fight against gun violence. As a member of the trauma response team. I spend most of my time responding to victims and survivors of penetrating wounds in my neighborhood. I then became a street worker and did violence prevention and intervention work in Mattapan first and then in Lower Roxbury in the South End? And so to say that I have spent most of my adult and professional life. In the midst and trying to manage and fight for and advocate for not just our young people who are victims, but their their friends and families in our communities would be an understatement. There are things happening in my district currently that, you know, the folks in our community are really feeling the weight of, including this issue that we've been seeing at the cemeteries, one of which is a constituent of ours. And our office has been working really closely to support. And so, you know, when I think about survivors of homicide, I like to think about my mom who lost her, you know, lost her first child and how she dedicated her life maybe for the possible next ten years to finding my brother's murderer who wasn't arrested when my brother was shot. And that is the kind of tenacity that I see in all of our people, in all of our pain, all the pieces of the people and the constituents of the city of Boston. Who have to carry the weight of surviving homicide. So I'm really excited and happy to support this resolution, and I hope that we can continue to honor honoring survivors by making the policy decisions that are ultimately going to create safe communities for all of us. Thank you, Counselor. Laura. The chair recognizes Counselor Arroyo. Council of Arroyo. You have the floor. Thank you. President Flynn. I think counselor here and Counselor Laura for raising this with me. I had a murder hit very close to my home. Michelle Nova, the pizza delivery man who was murdered in High Park. I was the father at the time with my partner, and so I was there for the direct impact of that. And for the years after that, that's actually how I became very aware of the services that the city offers and where they're good and where they're poor. I got to meet Courtney Gray at that time. I have to give him some praise in this moment as somebody who is excellent at dealing with trauma. And the reality is they only have the resources at that point for folks who don't know. Rochelle Nova was a pizza delivery man who had taken a shift and that night was murdered over essentially $50 and. When that happens, there's obviously a lot of trauma, residual trauma, a lot of lifelong obvious pain and harm. And what the city was able to offer, which I think is certainly better than nothing, was a week essentially of Courtney Gray and sort of the trauma response team services. They got a week of that, and it was incumbent upon myself and people close to this family to basically ask them as many questions as we could to figure out how do you guide somebody through? Unspeakable loss and trauma, just the deepest, worst destabilizing thing that can happen to someone. And with his guidance and his ability to be somebody I can check in with regularly. There was healing there and there were things that were in play. But there's still that loss. There's still that trauma. There is still residual. Every holiday is very different. Every birthday is very different. Every moment that would bring joy. Generally, whether it's a graduation or a marriage proposal or however that is going, there is harm and loss and missing. And so to think about the families in Boston and in the state and in the country experience that I think Homicide Awareness Month is or is is the least of what we can do. I think focusing resources towards dealing with that trauma that families are feeling in those moments. And I would just also note that this was a case where they were able to arrest the folks who did this and bring them through a judicial process. But we know that in Boston, especially, many families have never had that closure. Many families have had to experience the feeling of not knowing who did this to their loved one. And so as we do this, you know, I just want to highlight that there are services that we have offered that I can testify, frankly, work really well, and we need to expand that action and that practice and make that more accessible. The other thing I will just mention here, too, is that people don't often think about this, but when people are die unexpectedly about to do murder or homicide, there is a cost that a family must now carry that is unexpected, and often times it is devastating to have someone who has just lost someone. And their first request is for money or for help securing money because they are stressed and worried about how they are going to properly honor their their loved one because they don't have the resources to do so in this time of trauma need. And I know that the city does do some very small allocations in the budget to help with those things. But I think that is something that I would like to see focused on in the budget as well, because it is heartbreaking to see families that do not have the resources to make it day to day, have to all of a sudden figure out how to get into debt or how to borrow money from other people so that they can honor their loved one while also going through such trauma. And so these are the kinds of wrap around things that I think we really have to focus on as a city and figure out how to address, because homicide is awful and terrible and there are all these sort of butterfly effects and ways in which we can be helpful and I can speak to that personally. And so thank you for lifting this up. I see all of those who have suffered this harm, and my thoughts and prayers, frankly, are with you all of the time, but especially now. So thank you, President Flynn and the council. Thank you, Counselor Arroyo. The chair recognizes counsel for Charity Council, Florida U of the Fall. Thank you, Mr. President. Please add my name. And as the lead sponsor, it stated It really is a year round. A year round diet for four families. I lost my cousin back in 1994. 28 years has gone by. We think about it. The whole family thinks about them all the time. And one of the things we do think about is if the Boston of today, the Boston that supports strongly supports, arduously, supports our LGBTQ community, if that was the situation in 1994, we probably wouldn't have not have lost our cousin. And so that's constantly reminding me of of his passing, but also for those that are in this chamber or those that have lost a loved one, that I understand that and that we do think about our loved ones every day and wish that we could have that moment every day like something he had just alluded to. So please add my name and encourage others to join as well. Thank you, counsel. Clarity. Those wishing to add the name, please raise your hand. Mr. Kirk, please add Counselor Arroyo. Counselor Board Counselor and Counselor Fernandez Anderson. Counselor Baker, Counselor. Clarity. Counselor. Illusion. Counselor Murphy, counsel. We're all employees. That the chair. Councilors. Consoles me here. Laura and Arroyo. Now seeking suspension of rules and adoption of Docket 0592. All those in favor say aye. Aye. I oppose any. The ayes have it. The docket has passed. Mr. Clerk, please read docket. 05930593. Counsel of Flynn offer the following resolution Recognizing the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May.