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Darly Craig, also known as Brother D, is an Erie Blue Coat leader. He has been helping this community since 2004. His main goal is to promote safety for students in the Erie School District and to remove violence from their education. Not only schools, he even spreads peace to the neighborhoods around the school buildings. Daryl and our other members have become a large role in this community.

At the school speech, Daryl said “We either pick them up or let them down. Either way, we are responsible. They operate in a world we create. The mission of the Blue Coats is to create heaven wherever we go – to create a positive world for the children. You do that by telling them how great they are and how great they can become.”

When the pandemic happened, many things went wrong. The city was shut down for some time which led to some children making bad decisions. Children between the ages of 11 and 12 years old were turned to “street life”. This is because they live in a household where things are not stable and are influenced by parents, friends, and neighbors.

These kids not being in school opens the door to inviting these activities. Younger kids are hanging out with much older people immersing themselves in gangs, violence, and crime. Seeing the violence in the neighborhoods around them makes the children think it’s fine to do these activities. When these children return to classes, they may not be the same children they were before. This can be a dangerous occurrence for other classmates and teachers.

The Erie Blue Coats have been working hard to stop gun violence within the Erie communities. Gun violence isn’t just a problem in Erie, it is a problem all across the country. Not everyone who owns a gun is in the wrong here, but when guns come into the hands of broken or misguided people, then it becomes an issue. Since Erie is such a small community compared to cities like Chicago, Buffalo, and Detroit, gun violence takes a larger toll on the community.

Because there are some guns that are cheap, inexperienced and untrained kids could get their hands on one with little to no effort. This becomes a problem because when they go to use that gun, they may cause damage when missing their targets. This is where bystanders get injured or even killed. A small argument between rival gangs could be ended by walking away. Since they don’t want to seem weak, they use violence.