Learn a lesson from homicide
UB professor, Amherst resident to premiere Buffalo documentary segment
by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter

Williamsville resident Peter St. Jean has devoted the past several years of his life to exploring the causes and meanings behind homicides in the City of Buffalo.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, June 28, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 6320 Main St., Williamsville, he will give audiences a taste of that commitment by showing a 17-minute segment of his full-length documentary, "Lessons from Homicides: The Buffalo Story."

"There have been over 400 homicides in the City of Buffalo since 2000," St. Jean said. "At every vigil or funeral service, they say that the victim did not die in vain, but where's the evidence?"

In "Lessons from Homicide," St. Jean is seeking not only to find a solution to the violence being experienced in Buffalo but also to examine the causes and consequences.

St. Jean is a professor in the Sociology Department at the University at Buffalo.

"Why do you study something? Because you want to understand it. But after you understand it, what is your responsibility?" he asked. "My responsibility is to help make a change, and who knows, the life I save may be my own."

The documentary is set for release in October of this year, but St. Jean noted that there has been a push from the community to wait until January, thus finishing out 2007 and adding more of an air of finality to the project.

"I want to end it on a positive note," he said. "Already this year, there have been 30 percent fewer homicides in Buffalo than last year."

He noted that while those numbers are encouraging, it is normal for homicide and violence rates to ebb and flow from year to year.

St. Jean is a member of the Stop the Violence Coalition, Parents Encouraging Accountability and Closure for Everyone, the Buffalo Local Action Committee, the Buffalo Crime Reduction Taskforce, the Martin Luther King Block Club and the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He and his family will soon be moving from Williamsville to Buffalo's East Side in order to move to the "front line" of Buffalo's violence centers.

"I want my work to be meaningful, and I need to move away from my extreme comfort to where people are suffering the most," he said.

However, he noted that he is grateful to the Village of Williamsville and the Town of Amherst for the time he has spent as a resident.

"I grew up in the Caribbean, and this has been like my own Caribbean village," he laughed. "It's been a symbol of peace and an example of how everyone should have the right to live."

While there are pockets of Amherst throughout the city, St. Jean noted that there are even bigger pockets of the contrasting lifestyles.

"Some people have used some unflattering words to describe our move," St. Jean said. "But it's taking action. We're adding rather than subtracting."

He also hopes that support will be substantial from the Amherst community at the fundraiser on Thursday as well as continually.

"I'm hoping for strong support from the people in Amherst because many of them grew up in Buffalo," he said. "I know their hearts bleed for the city, and we're all part of the community."

For more information on the documentary or St. Jean's work or production company, call 603-0992 or send an e-mail to lessonsfromhomicide@gmail.com.