A victim and a murderer agree — we need to end violence
Recent polls consistently show that crime and public safety are among the top concerns of voters, but views on what to do about it vary.
For example, in a massive community survey in New York City earlier this year, most respondents listed expanding affordable housing as the best response. This was followed by sending “trained mental health first responders instead of police officers” to assist those experiencing a mental health crisis. Adding more police came in third.
As the sister of a murder victim and a person serving a prison sentence for homicide, this doesn’t surprise us at all — and we believe the results hold lessons for policymakers.
Kathleen Pequeño came to this work in a long journey that started as a teenager, when my big brother, Edward Pimental, who I adored growing up, was murdered at the age of 20 in a terrorist attack on a U.S. airbase in Germany in 1985. I watched my family get torn apart, finding ways to muddle through with little ongoing support.
Leroy Taylor is serving a 22 years-to-life sentence for the murder of a smart, vibrant, young woman who had a bright future ahead of her. I’m speaking out against the person I once
We all must demand our elected officials do more to prevent violence.
was by mentoring men to learn from women and gender nonconforming people and fight to eradicate patriarchal violence. I’m also a survivor of child abuse, which does not excuse my crime but it does inform my personal transformation and my work with others. Some of the incarcerated elders who guided me have tragically died behind bars, and I do my best to carry their wisdom forward to prevent others from causing violence.
This is deeply personal to us. We have both spent years calling for our government to change how it meets the needs of people affected by homicide.
The people who think most about homicide and how to prevent it are family members of murder victims — who live with that irreversible loss — and people who have committed homicides, lived with unshakeable remorse, and worked to take accountability and rehabilitate themselves.
Most people don’t realize that we can be each other’s natural allies. We’re the people most directly impacted, the people most willing to do anything it takes to prevent future homicides. We’re the people who lie awake at night thinking of specific tragedies — not just “true crime” podcasts, but lives extinguished. We are the ones who have to grapple with knowing the reality behind the rhetoric — that it’s not about monsters and boogeymen, but actual people experiencing terrible loss.
We’re motivated by our pain, deep in our bones, to prevent future violence, and we know that simply adding more punishment doesn’t bring about the change in people — and in our communities — that we need to be safe.
If longer prison sentences prevented homicides, they would have worked by now. America is the world’s leading jailer. Yet our rate of homicide is much greater than, for example, the European Union, where the incarceration rate is much lower. And we suspect most New Yorkers who took that poll understand this reality, which is why they want the government to get to the root of the problem by expanding access to affordable housing and quality mental health services.
We all must demand our elected officials do more to prevent violence. Beyond housing and health care, some steps should be obvious, like expanding access to victims assistance to address people’s trauma before it feeds into the cycle of violence, as the Fair Access to Victims Compensation bill in New York would do.
We are also demanding that our government quit the tough-on-crime rhetoric and instead get smarter, with thoughtful policies like the Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole bills. Together, they would expand access to case-by-case parole release consideration for people who have matured and transformed, make the parole process more fair, and allow rehabilitated incarcerated people to return to our communities to serve as credible messengers and violence interrupters, improving safety for all. The parole reform bills would also free up hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support victims and prevent violence.
These bills are just a start, but they’re concrete steps to end violence and put resources where we really need them.