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 the weekend event since the day after their very first one.
“We come together as one people, one heart, and we’ve got to show everybody that we can get along,” Stratford 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 Mayor 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,” Molinaro 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,” Johnson said. “So, they’re trying to enlighten and not make it worse than what it is.”
An estimated 1,500 to 3,000 people participated in the march and rally at Waryas Park.
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