POUGHKEEPSIE – People of all ethnic backgrounds, races and religions
marched Saturday in the City of Poughkeepsie’s Second Annual Stop
the Violence Campaign.
The campaign was started last year as an impromptu event to protest a
string of violence plaguing the city within a short period of time and
president of Poughkeepsie’s Stop the Violence Movement Joseph Stratford
said they had been preparing for Saturday’s event since the day
after their very first one.
An estimated 1,500 to 3,000 people participated in the march and rally
at Waryas Park.
“We come together as one people, one heart, and we’ve got
to show everybody that we can get along,” he said. “We’re
not against the police. We’re not against the different cultures
that’s involved. We come together as one. We don’t need to
be separate and have a certain agenda. Our agenda is unity in the community
and you’re all in, or you’re all out.”
Poughkeepsie Robert Rolison said the event was a perfect way to show the
rest of the country, and world, that Poughkeepsie is united.
“It’s the right event, at the right time, in the right city,”
said Rolison. “This community has unity to begin with, and to be
able to talk about it more and to be together as a group on that march
was powerful. It sends a powerful message and not only to ourselves, but
to the community at large that we care about one another. We also have
to able to understand our differences, whether they’re opinions,
whether they’re feelings, that we have to respect that and I think
that’s gotten lost in some parts of this world and in this country,
and we have the opportunity in Poughkeepsie to show everybody else how
it’s done.”
Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro said these rallies are great,
but it’s just the first step in a larger endeavor to combat violence.
“This city has seen too many deaths and too many young people losing
their lives to violence,” he said. “Not only is it important
that we take this first step as a community, but we have to really agree
to take the next steps: bringing people together, to ensure that we understand
one another better, that we understand what are, really, the problems
that need solutions, and that we work better to bring people together
to solve those problems. No one should fall victim to violence. No one
should live in a violent situation and we, as a community, can do better.”
Natasha Johnson, a local resident who participated in the march and rally,
said she thinks this effort is inevitably helping to enlighten people.
“I think this is actually a good movement because they’re
just trying to help out with the community because of everything that’s
going on with the community because of everything that’s going on
with the violence, the shooting and all the killing, which we’re
trying to stop. So, they’re trying to enlighten and not make it
worse than what it is,” she said.
“You’re either all in, or you’re all out,” said
Joseph Stafford, another participant in the march and rally.
