People across the country are raising awareness on domestic and gender-based violence, and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson is relaunching the domestic violence advisory council to fight against those acts of violence. 

October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Sisters in Purple stood alongside Gibson outside Bronx Borough Hall on Tuesday, calling on other lawmakers to make change.  

“Domestic violence don’t stop at October,” said Angelina Rosado of Sisters in Purple. “Domestic violence still continues because we still get the call Nov. 1, Dec. 1, Jan. 1.” 

The Sisters in Purple refer to women like Arianna Reyes-Gomez, an NYPD officer who police say was stabbed and killed by her estranged husband in her Bronx apartment this past summer, as “fallen angels” and a point of reference for the necessary changes to protect victims of domestic violence.  

Gibson says that her administration is focused on making protections for these victims stronger.  

"We want to make it easier. We want to reduce those layers of red tape. We want to make orders of protection stronger,” said Gibson. “When you hear about these cases of mothers, of wives that are​ abused and fatally killed by their abusers, they leave children behind. They leave a whole family behind."