April 16, 2019, four shootings took place in New York City. This is a story about one of them and the death of Davion Powell, an 18-year young man who grew up and died in Brooklyn. At first glance, it is a tale of another young Black man lost to street violence. But when you look closer as done in a New York Times piece that brought him to my attention, you see that his death was caused in part by our nation refusing to invest in people and nonviolent solutions.
Read the article for yourself; it is well worth the few minutes it will take. But to give you a few details. Davion was a father of two children who he parented with his partner Damani Troutman. Davion was a member of Folk Nation, a national gang with roots in Chicago. He was introduced to the gang by older men he grew friendly with after being shunned by his father. But while Davion was in a gang, he also had dreams of a successful, gang free life taking care of his family. He wanted to be a forensic psychologist.
Davion had plans and was making strides to reach his dream. A critical rung on the ladder of success Davion attempted to climb was Save Our Streets, a community organization dedicated to ending street violence. The organizers there showed him his dream was possible. Davion and Damani moved to North Carolina. Davion graduated from high school, applied to college writing an essay that helped him receive a full scholarship. He was making progress. The light at the end of the tunnel looked less and less far away.
But something happened. You will have to read that for yourself to find out what. I ask you to take time to do that as a way to honor this young man who should still be with us.
Many things in the NYC piece stand out for me, but I want to highlight two.
The first, “As the city has poured billions of dollars into aggressive policing tactics; it has funneled a much smaller sum — $36 million in 2019 — to Cure Violence groups like S.O.S.“
“Whether Mr. Siagha and S.O.S. could have saved Davion is impossible to say. For proponents of Cure Violence programs, he’s a tragic example of its limitations.“
The age-old question of how much control do we have of what happens to us and others. I believe more times than not, we have choices and can make a difference. I believe in self-determination. We make choices every day that either improve our lot or not. However, we must also examine what forces create negative situations in our lives. Is it really impossible to say whether or not S.O.S. and Mr. Siagha – a councilor there, could have saved Davion? Clearly, they were not able to save Davion. He’s dead. But what impeded S.O.S. from being a stronger lifeline for Davion? What other forces pushed Davion?
Davion’s death is an outcome of bad policy. With a little more support, Damion would be alive today. The city and our country invest more money in accountability than possibilities. Violence is our nation’s tool of choice in both foreign and domestic policy. Spend more money on police and soldiers to protect us from “bad” people. Forget about education, healthcare, and mentorship for investment in the future. Again, domination is the prescription, and patriarchy is the architect.
We honor Davion Powell today by telling a little bit of his story and asking all of you to say his name, read about him, and remember him.
