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<b>News 12</b>’s Kurt Semder speaks with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark about whether drill rap is contributing to gun violence in New York City streets.

News 12’s Kurt Semder speaks with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark about whether drill rap is contributing to gun violence in New York City streets.

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Way towards the weekend and one day definitely better than the other. We got to let you know what's going to happen on Sunday because it's definitely going to impact things, maybe heading even into Monday. Hope, what are we looking at here? Yes, a lot of travel woes starting Sunday evening and lasting into Monday morning. So here's the travel timeline. As early as 9 a.m. on Sunday, we'll be dealing with some scattered showers and throughout the day, it is going to turn windy and even gusty 25 35 MPH after 8 p.m. through at least 4 a.m. on Monday, expect windswept downpours that can reduce visibility and also just bring some hazardous travel conditions with any of the flooding concerns that we have across the boroughs. Now Monday morning, around 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. we're still going to be dealing with some standing water. But thankfully, the rain is coming to an end. It is turning drier and colder with temperatures in the mid 40. So here's where we're starting our weekend, the sunshine and the chilly temperatures are with us on Saturday and then we'll be climbing into the mid fifties throughout the day, a blend of sun and clouds really gonna be a nice time to go outside and enjoy the conditions while we have its Sunday, excuse me, starts off dry and then we're seeing some scattered showers during the late morning, early afternoon and then it gradually begins to ramp up in intensity again, steady rainfall, moderate to heavy downpours will be possible even through the overnight. This is around 1 a.m. On Sunday night, we are seeing those temperatures crashing from the sixties to the forties and the rain doesn't even take us into early Monday morning. So your Monday morning commute will still be impacted by the storm and we will notice that chilly gusty wind throughout the day, highs will be in the mid forties and this is what's new. We actually have a slight risk for some scattered flash floods across portions of the city.

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Power & Politics: Drill rap and gun violence

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Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for another edition of Power in politics right here on news 12. I'm kurt senator. Well recently we've been talking a lot about violence here in our city. Specifically gun violence. Many of our local officials, advocates, community leaders. All pointing to a variety of reasons for the uptick in shootings and suggesting just as many different solutions to the problem. Now, one thing that appears to be a trigger for some of these incidents is drill rap, a new type of music that some say is the reason for more than one murder here in our city. In just a few minutes, we're gonna sit down with Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to talk about it. But first what is drill rap? How did it get started? And is it really responsible for some gun violence incidents here in our city or is it more than that? Well, News twelve's Anthony Carlos speaks with the family of one Brooklyn drill rapper who was gunned down and takes a closer look. My son was a very jovial person. He loved to make people laugh and, and, and have fun. He said I'm going to be a star in Hollywood. That's exactly where rising Brooklyn rapper jay Dobson was headed. The 22 year old known as T dot woo had just signed with million dollar music label and was on a fast track to stardom? Yeah, Justin tonight. Police say a 22 year old is dead on february 1st it all came to a sudden halt Dobson was gunned down his life and music coming to an end, just steps away from his home in Canarsie a tragedy, his father is still trying to make sense of it had to be over jealousy over some hatred because people love my son. His son was involved in the Brooklyn drill rap scene, as was Jaquan McKinley, another young drill rapper killed in Brooklyn just days after tea dot woo, getting the attention of mayor eric Adams this music was anything but hopeful he was a drill rapper. The mayor, sparking a debate on the controversial hip hop sub genre, the origin of new york drill stem from, you know, distant records and beef records Starting on the south side of Chicago before coming to New York. But Hot 97 DJ drew ski says drill is now getting a bad rap. It's not a dissing or gang genre of music, it's a sound of music that they use this content over. There's drill records where they're not dissing each other. Big ones like the late Pop Smoke's Dior Drew Ski says the DJ says pop and Fabio foreign went mainstream where T dot was also headed. But Bruschi admits the drill scene has also evolved in a bad way. It became, I gotta mention your name or I gotta dish you or someone, I might have passed away to get people's attention. The DJ publicly announced he was pulling the plug on diss tracks on hot 97 after the shootings in february and you start to realize, oh, we're adding fuel to that fire and it's not cool because I personally know these people, Brooklyn's top prosecutor, eric Gonzalez says, rival gangs take shots at each other in their songs and out on the streets. They celebrate when they've been shot or killed. They call out their rivals, they say we're here in your territory. Come get us. The Brooklyn D. A says whether drill music led to T dot wu's shooting is under investigation, but Gonzalez says the bullet was meant for him. This was a targeted assassination of this young man. Um, he's have watched some of the videos, they were provocative robert. Do you think drill music put a target on your son's back? Not really to drill music, This is their outlet. Mayor Adams first suggested banning drill rap on social media following the violence in february. We are allowing music displaying of guns later, Backtracking saying violent artists are the problem, not the music itself, you speak to a lot of older gang members and they tell you this new generation, they're just off the hook, very violent. There's no discipline. You know, they're, they're, they're shoot now, ask questions later. If it's too crazy. I feel like taking down Bronx drill artist Erica Kane says record labels need to pay more attention whatever you invest in growth. So if you invested in violence is going to grow. However, Prince pootie says censoring the music is not going to stop the violence. That's going to happen. Whether people make music or not. The music is really actually getting people out of that situation. Music was his way out. Nobody can come and say that my son was a dog or or criminal or anything. He was just an entertainer. His family says the focus should be on stopping the flow of guns, not the music. There's nothing really going on for the youth in the city. So you know, all you all we have is expression. All that's left the last words T Dot shared with his father and brother. We always end well, I love you once I tell him I love him and then that's everything. The only love strong enough to exceed T dots love for music. He will not go away living on Through the music, Anthony Carlo News 12 and our Anthony Carlo joining us here in studio, Anthony great reporting there. As usual. You know, we heard from T Dot was family there. Can you provide us any details on what the latest is in the investigation into his murder? Absolutely. Well, I've been speaking with his father and he's been speaking with police and he says the police have told him that the car used in his son's shooting was a stolen car. T Dot's father says police have told him there were two shooters and a driver unclear If anyone else robert also tells me, detectives have secured surveillance video of those suspects, but again, that motive is still under investigation kurt and we're going to keep our eyes posted on that investigation. Meanwhile, the mayor did say that he was looking into this issue, but that was a while ago, Anthony, Is there any update on that? That's a good point. Back in february, the mayor invited a number of top drill rappers to city hall to sit down and talk about ways to combat gun violence without silencing the music. At that time, the mayor said they would be rolling something out, but we haven't heard much about a plan since. So I checked in with the mayor's office and they told me there's nothing new yet on that front. So we will be monitoring closely. Alright, Anthony, thank you for that report. And joining us now is Bronx. District Attorney Darcel Clark to discuss drill rap and its impact in her burrow. D A thank you so much for being here with us this week. Thank you Kirk, thank you for having me. Of course. So I want to start here. Has your office identified a connection between drill rap gangs and gun violence in the Bronx? Well, there's there's a connection only because we have so much violence and as we work our cases and do our investigations, we follow the evidence wherever it may lead. And as we do the investigation that we identify the persons who are involved in some of this violence. Sometimes it's gangs as we uncover, uh, the evidence, there have been times that we have found that it has been connected to drill rap music. So that is just one of many pieces of evidence that we have in the investigations that we've been conducting as far as the violence in our community. And it's important to note that it is just part of the evidence right here. I mean, this isn't a situation where, you know, district attorneys and law enforcement are just looking for videos and then acting strictly on those. Absolutely not, absolutely not. The violence happens. We follow the evidence. We we we get the ballistics, uh, information, we have surveillance, we have witnesses, we follow everything. And as we uncover and do more and more and find out more and more about who perpetrated the crimes, where it happened, who's involved, what evidence we do have and and looking into that evidence leads to more evidence. And as we do that, we have come upon these rap videos. It is clearly not the only evidence and it is not any investigation where we started only with a music video, There has to be some kind of act of violence first. That's, that's important to get across to everyone, right? Yeah. We're not, look, look, I don't want to get in the way of these talented artists doing what they do. I embrace it. I'm happy the Bronx is known for hip hop, this is the birthplace of hip hop, we got a museum coming about. So our young, talented people in our community, that's what this is all about. I want them to be able to express themselves. What I want to see, really is the violence out of the music. I I wish they wouldn't have to sing about or rap about the violence that they're seeing or they're experiencing. I'd rather them use these talents that they have to promote safety, to promote togetherness in our community, to promote uplifting the community, rather than talking about or taunting others about the violence that has happened. That being said though, how concerned are you about this? You know, new way of I guess, seemingly escalating tensions through these music videos. I'm concerned because I think there's a better way for people to to voice their opinions to to deal with the differences that they have in their community. Look, there's gonna be conflict. You know, growing back when I was growing up in the day, it wasn't about pulling out a gun because somebody said something about you or something, we settled our differences in the community now With everything 24/7 and everything on social media, it just escalates everything. And to use violence is the wrong way to go. We're losing an entire generation. We're losing the community, innocent bystanders are being shot because of these beliefs that are happening between different gang members or different groups in the communities. We there's better ways for us to resolve these differences that being said. You know, we were gonna talk a little bit about some of the things that have happened. You know earlier this month, you indicted 20 people in charge is related to this. I want to talk about that with you in just a couple of minutes. We're gonna get to that in a couple of minutes. Actually we have much more to talk about with you Bronx. District Attorney Darcel Clark's. Everybody just hang tight with us here on power and politics. We're gonna have much more of our conversation with the D. A. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about drill wraps, impact in our community coming up in just a couple of minutes. So stay with us. Yeah, mm hmm. Welcome back to Power in politics. Everyone here on news 12. I'm kurt sender. And this week we are discussing drill rap and its impact on our community. And joining us this week to discuss that is Bronx. District Attorney Darcel Clark and I want to jump right back into our conversation because earlier this month you indicted 20 people in charge is related to this. Can you explain a little bit more about you know what was in those videos and how that helped lead to an indictment? Well, the video didn't lead to the indictment. The violence led to the indictment. So we had cases that we were already investigating that involved fatal shootings, nonfatal shootings, just different violence that was happening in the community. And as we started investigating that and identifying the individuals who were involved. It led to other evidence. And part of the evidence that it led to was some of these rap videos where they were actually talking about the violence that had already been committed in the community. Some of the very same things that we indicted people from. So it wasn't the video that led to us to investigate It was the violence itself. And as we unfolded the violence, we found the videos. And in those videos, they started talking about some of the incidents that we actually had had indictments for that being said, how important was it for you to get this, these type of people off of the streets when we're talking about that indictment that you had here of these 20 people? Well, it's it's just important to get the people who are causing the most harm in the community off the streets. We're not talking about sweeping up everybody in the Bronx. We're talking about those people who are pulling triggers who are doing the violence against each other. This is our community hurting each other and innocent bystanders. And as the district attorney, it's my job to make sure that we keep the community safe. So those people who are causing this harm have to be held accountable from what you've seen. What is the solution here? What is your office doing? What's your office doing right now to work with young people, you know, so they don't get caught up in this. And you mentioned a little bit there. What would you like to see others do to maybe help in that effort? All right. I'm in particular about the drill rap. I want to say this. I would love to sit down with these young artists for them to know that I'm not their enemy. Trust me, I love them. I'm proud of them. I don't want to indict anybody if I don't have to, I want to, this is about life, it's not about death and I want to see people live. So I want them to be successful in their music. I want to do anything that I can to be helpful in that. And I really want them to think about being more positive in their messages, in their music. That's what I would love to see. I would love to sit down with the promoters that assigning some of these people and let them know, you know, there's another way there are other things that you can rap about, that that would be so much more helpful to your community. I want them to to rap about building businesses and doing more for younger kids, teaching them the skills that they're learning in their apartment buildings and in their basements, so that they're becoming successful. That's what I want to see. And then the record companies, I would love for them to say to these artists, you're talented and you're great, but I don't need music that is promoting violence. If you come with something more positive, we would love to sign you now. I get it. There may be singing about the conditions in their community, that's our job, and the government to do what we can to make sure that their experience in the community is not about violence, but about peace. And we need to bring the resources to make sure that they're able to live a peaceful life. I would love to sit down with them and say, what can I do to make you put that gun down? What can I do to help you decide to rap about something positive as opposed to rapping about violence or shootings or um you know, depicting guns in your video. Those are the conversations I would love to have, this has been done all over you know, when back page was was working and they were promoting sex trafficking and things like that. You know, the the government and the media got involved to take back page away. So they are not allowed to promote in that way. And a lot of that went away. I want to see the same thing here, just say to them, records, state radio stations, you're not gonna play the music if it's promoting violence, we want to promote peace. Those are some of the things I wanna do. My office is doing great things. It's trying to engage young people and the things that they like to do to keep them safe and off the street. We have the saturday night lights program that we're opening up gems all over the city and in particular, 25 gems here in the Bronx so that young people can have somewhere to go on saturday nights as opposed to getting in trouble. We have programs in our schools, the concept program that teaches them self esteem. You know, we have, we have alternatives to incarceration programs for those who find themselves justice and Bronx. There's a lot of solutions here. I think we just need to have all the stakeholders at the table so we can all sit down and have a real conversation about this and we'll be able to get things done and D A clark in the Bronx, so many artists, so many performers that are well known that have a lot of influence over a lot of people. Be nice to see them do a little something to help you out here as well, wouldn't it? I would love for that to happen. Like like I said, this is the birthplace for hip hop, we got a lot of legendary artist fear um, from the past, the present and these drill rappers are the future. They all need to come together. They can learn some lessons from, you know, from the, from the older a generation and then and the older generation can learn from them as they do this music in a new way. It's all about the music. One thing about music, it unites so many people all across the ages, genres, whatever music can make it happen. This I know there's an organization called music over violence that is so powerful because that is what can happen. Music is the way and I just hope that they'll take me up on it. Sit down with me. They don't want to be seen with the D. A. I mean I can understand that, but there are so many people in the community, the other legendary rap artists that we have, um, some of the other elected officials. I know we have a brand new barrel president, she's always involved. We have the cure violence groups that do the work every day. We have clergy members, there's so many people that work with me day in and day out on this violence. I would love to have these young people at the table because we're making plans about them without having them at the table. I'm right now through your show curtain asking them to come to the table and speak with us so we could come up with solutions that everybody could live Well hopefully they will hear that and hopefully they will take you up on that offer Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, Thank you so much for being here with us this week to discuss this very important topic. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Alright everybody, we've got much more power in politics straight ahead right here on news 12, so don't go anywhere. Yeah, welcome back everyone. And finally today in the wake of violence, some drill rappers are now pushing for peace. Prerogatives drill for drilling, not killing this really positive. In fact, a number of drill rappers band together to create a song called drill. Don't kill Prince pootie. One of the artists on the track is fighting back against the narrative that that's out there. Rapper Erica Kane says labels should be signing more artists who don't promote violence and DJ Drewnowski says drill needs to be fine tuned, not canceled. You don't gotta diss nobody, I don't really do this people and your music and hopefully they don't stop drill because drill is really, it's not just, it's possible. I see a lot of young people when they do get their deal and their money, I see them get back to the community all the time to think about real society is if your resume ain't good for the people that just want to go get a job might have did jail time. You can't get that job because they don't know who you are. But it doesn't make sense that they will put millions in somebody who's talking about committing murder. You say you're an artist. You can step up to that mic and go viral without having a distant one. That's the real challenge as an artist. I'm telling the artists your challenge yourself. And of course, remember you can head on over to our website, click on sections on the left side of the screen and then for politics and you will get all of our power and politics content right there at your fingertips. And a quick thank you to Bronx. D. A. Darcel Clark are Anthony Carlo and all of the artists who took part in this very special edition. That's all for this week here on power and politics on News 12. Thanks everyone for watching. I'm kurt sender. Have a great rest of your day. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Okay.

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