New York City, as well as a lot of other places, are having a huge issue with violence. People are being shot regularly and there doesn’t seem to be a lot the police can do about it.

This appears to be especially true in some of the public housing in the city.

Luckily, it’s all going to be better. It seems a march is planned as a protest against the violence.

The North Brooklyn Against Gun Violence Coalition is calling for change with a march against gun violence in Greenpoint Sunday.

People are participating in one of two marches throughout six New York City Housing Authority complexes throughout north Brooklyn – all expressing their frustration over recent gun violence incidents.

A group has headed out from the Cooper Houses while another group marches from the Hope Gardens houses — both marching in solidarity.

The demonstrations come just weeks after shootings at both devleopments.

Oh, well, that’ll solve everything, won’t it?

I’m curious, though. How many of these people marching have talked to the police? How many have given descriptions of people who looked suspicious who were in or around the building at the time of the shootings? Did any of them offer any assistance to law enforcement?

Based on what we typically see in public housing throughout the nation, I’m going to guess the answer to all of these is most likely to be “no.”

And yet, they want to march to protest the violence?

Look, violent crime will always be with us, but we can take steps to reduce it. There are things that can be done to address the problems and reduce them. None of them, however, are marches or protests.

As I’ve noted before, protesting violence is like protesting cancer. You’re free to do it, just don’t expect it to accomplish anything. Just as cancer cells don’t care about your protests, neither do violent criminals.

Seriously, has any bad guy ever turned over a new leaf after one of these things? Has anyone ever decided to put down the guns because they suddenly found out the community didn’t like it?

I sure as hell can’t find where it’s happened, that’s for sure.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I get that these folks don’t like what they’re seeing. If I lived in one of these buildings, I’d be upset too. However, this is a case where protests aren’t going to cut it. If you want to accomplish something, you’ve got to roll up your sleeves and sit down with law enforcement and say, “What can we do?”

That includes telling the police what they need to know when they need to know it. It means putting an end to the idea that exists in many of these buildings that the police are the enemy. It means acting like you’re on the same damn side for a change.

And it also means being ready to do more than go for a walk to put an end to violent crime. It means stepping up and doing real work to reduce it.

That’s too hard, though, so it never seems to happen.