HARTFORD, Conn. — A group of residents with the Self-Defense Brigade and the Walk In The Light Church of God started armed neighborhood patrols Saturday.
The group started their patrol with a presentation on Connecticut’s gun laws and then held a "clean the street" event as the first patrol got under way.
More than two dozen volunteers walked down garden street picking up trash along the way, with the self-defense brigade also wanting to also clean up the crime in Hartford’s North End.
Archbishop Dexter Burke said with continuing violence in the area and a double homicide just a block away from his church, he was ready to see change.
“Two individuals got killed there, and we just decided it's too close to the church. Enough is enough. We can't allow it no more. that was the tipping point,” said Burke.
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The group plans to hold armed patrols down Garden Street in the area surrounding the church at least three times a week mostly at night.
Some in the community say they're glad to see community members taking crime prevention in their own hands.
“It's great because it's us coming together. It's not just relying on the police,” said Berline Francois, who grew up nearby.
This step to hold armed patrols by community members instead of police have drawn criticism from groups like Mothers United Against Violence and Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam.
“We’ve heard over and over again from the community is that they're tired of people coming into our community with guns and for a group of people to come in armed in our community looking for trouble. It's not the right thing for Hartford. We are a community that face such trauma that is trying to work together to heal, and we need all of our leaders everybody who really cares about the city to come together and try to heal as a community, not to inflict more violence not to bring more weapons into this community,” said Arulampalam.
Cornell Lewis, the founder of the self-defense brigade wanted to make one thing clear…”we are not vigilantes."
Lewis continued, “We have organized discipline, legal security, and we train everybody in hand to hand combat."
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Jake Garcia is a multimedia journalist for FOX61 News. He can be reached at jgarcia@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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