Panel urges Schenectady students to do the right thing

If someone had spoken up, Steven Mollette said, the person who shot and killed his 19-year-old daughter, Unishun, in September 2003 could have been caught in five minutes, instead of three years.

His daughter was not the intended target. The bullets were meant for a friend Unishun was with, but that friend wouldn’t offer police any information about who was involved. Neither did any other witnesses.

“It was right there on Stanley Street. The block was full, but nobody said anything,” he said.

Kenneth Portee wasn’t arrested until June 2005 and was convicted of killing Unishun a year later. He is now serving 50 years to life in prison.

Stephen Mollette regularly traveled to Schenectady from his downstate home during the investigation to keep the case in the public eye. More than eight years later, he encouraged people to take a stand.

“Statistics show that a few of you — and I’m sorry to say this, but it’s true — will die from gun violence,” he said.

Mollette told his story to seventh- and eighth-grade students Thursday at Martin Luther King Magnet School as part of a panel discussion, “The Limits of Loyalty.” The goal of the program was to show students when it is appropriate to “snitch.” It came about through the efforts of the Community Empowerment Partnership, which has a goal of preventing violence in the community.

Law enforcement officials have said in the past that Schenectady has had the problem with people being afraid to report crimes. The goal of Thursday’s program was to instill in the children the importance of telling people when there are problems.

“At what point do you need to do the right thing, even if it seems like it’s violating a code of silence?” asked David Kaczynski, executive director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a member of the partnership.

Kaczynski, brother of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, said the most difficult day of his life was when he told authorities that he believed his mentally ill brother was responsible for sending for mail bombs to people across the nation, killing three and injuring a couple of dozen more.

“If I didn’t do anything, my brother would probably kill somebody else,” he said.

Other speakers told students not to put themselves in difficult situations. Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney urged students to stay away from guns.

“If you have a friend who has a gun, just walk away. That friend is not going to do anything good for you in your life,” he said.

Carney cited the recent example of William L. Robinson, who allegedly shot a man he thought had something to do with the murder of his brother, Rashad, who was gunned down outside Joe’s Bar on Nov. 12.

“His mother has to deal with one of her sons is dead and the other is in jail,” he said.

Hashim Garrett said growing up in Brooklyn, he was making a lot of wrong decisions, selling drugs and shooting people.

“I would do a lot of things to show them my loyalty and how tough I am,” he said.

Then one day, a person he thought was his friend set him up to be killed. He was shot six times.

“Why can’t I move? Why can’t I feel my legs,” Garrett thought in the moments after he was shot.

Now, he is paralyzed. But he never pressed charges against that so-called friend.

“Forgiving him wasn’t the difficult part. It was forgiving myself for making the decisions that I did,” he said.

Shariem Merritt, who is program director for the Schenectady Anti-Violence and Empowerment Project, also said he grew up focusing on drugs and being greedy. He got into all the wrong things, like running around with guns. Merritt urged students to resist peer pressure.

Lechae Rowe, who runs a program with infants at the Carver Community Center, recalled when she was 15, she had to stand up for her mother, who was being beat up by a man on a regular basis.

When her mother called police, Rowe told officers that the man had been doing this for years. “She embraced me with a warm hug and she said, ‘Thank you. You gave me a voice when I didn’t think I had it.’

“You all should always stand up for yourself. If you see somebody that’s not strong enough to do it, do it for them. You don’t know if you’re saving them from doing something tragic.”

Former gang member William Fininen said he grew up in the San Francisco Bay area in California without role models to follow. His oldest brother was murdered and two of his other brothers took revenge and ended up killing several members of a family. One is on death row and the other is serving life without parole.

Fininen said he got drawn into that gang culture to have friends and a support system. Then, he got caught up in that lifestyle, with people literally gunning for each other to get to the top spot in the gang. He ended up leaving California to get away from all that.

Garrett asked students if they hated someone. A number of hands shot up.

He urged them to just let it go and follow the example of some of the pictures and quotes of people that were behind the speakers — people like Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi and Robert Kennedy. “When you hate someone, it doesn’t affect them. They don’t lose sleep. They’re not thinking about you,” he said.

Mollette encouraged the students to get an education. “Education gives you freedom to make healthy choices in life. If you don’t have no education, you’re going to make the wrong choices in your life,” he said.

The students peppered the panel with lots of questions about their respective lives and seemed enthusiastic about the discussion.

“I know I can talk to somebody if I have an issue,” said 12-year-old seventh-grader Khaliq Woodson.

Destiny Thomas also said she enjoyed it. “I learned that I have a voice, and I should use it, and I should help people that don’t have a voice.”

Categories: Schenectady County