Riverside Weekly Actions | September 9, 2026
A woman was shot in Times Square and a wedding celebration in Iran was bombed by the US military… what do these incidences have in common?
On August 31, a 32-year-old woman was killed and a 68-year-old man wounded in a stabbing in Times Square. Police then fatally shot the woman accused of the attack, 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros, a mother with a history of mental health struggles, after a four-minute standoff.
The very next day, a wedding celebration in Kohestak, Iran, was torn apart by U.S. airstrikes, killing two children and three women and injuring 68 others.
Different places. Different circumstances. Yet both tragedies force us to confront the same question: What happens when our response to human suffering is more policing and militarization instead of care?
We have to tell the truth: overpolicing does not create safety, and militarization does not create peace. When mental health crises are met with armed police, people in crisis can become casualties. When international conflict is answered with bombs, civilians pay the price. And when billions are poured into policing and weapons while our communities face housing insecurity, food insecurity, inadequate healthcare, and a mental health crisis, our budgets become a statement of whose lives we value.
This is where the work of Jesus Justice is required of us.
Jesus consistently stood with those pushed to the margins. He fed people. He healed people. He challenged systems that valued power over people. He called us toward liberation, restoration, and abundant life.
So as Christians, we cannot simply mourn the consequences of these systems. We must challenge the systems themselves.
We cannot pray for peace while funding the machinery of violence.
Jesus Justice demands that we redirect our resources toward what makes communities whole: mental healthcare instead of criminalization; housing and food instead of punishment; diplomacy instead of endless war; and care instead of coercion.
Peace is not the presence of armed force. Peace is the presence of justice.
Here are ways you can participate in meaningful peace building:
Demand Congress Investigate Strikes on Iranian Wedding, Minab School
Urge your Member of Congress to speak out about this tragedy and demand an independent investigation of the strike on Kohestak as a war crime and a finalization of the report on the tragedy at Minab here: Demand Congress Investigate Strikes on Iranian Wedding, Minab School – NIAC
Join Christians for a Free Palestine and others to send a Letter to Congress to demand:
-No Weapons to the State of Israel
-No ICE in our communities Here is a template from Not My Tax Dollars: August 2026 NDAA Letter.pdf
AND
Call your members of Congress: Stop fueling forever wars and end all forms of U.S. complicity in Israel’s massive violence
Instructions and script can be found here: Call Congress: Stop the deadly U.S.-Israel military integration
I want to share something personal with you. I’m one of the 1 in 5 people in our city who has experienced a mental health issue, and I know I’m not alone in this congregation. Today, half of our young people are experiencing anxiety, depression, or other mental health struggles. This touches all of us.
Our scriptures speak to this too. In Mark 5, Jesus encounters a man in deep crisis, isolated, living among the tombs, crying out and harming himself, restrained again and again by his community with chains. Rather than fearing or further restraining him, Jesus approaches him with compassion, restores his dignity, and returns him to his community whole. It’s a powerful reminder that those in the depths of crisis deserve care and restoration, not isolation or restraint.
Yet when someone today reaches a moment of crisis and their pain goes untreated, the response they receive is too often policing and criminalization rather than treatment and care. New York City is facing a mental health crisis, and it demands a more compassionate response than the one we’ve built.
That is why, on October 4th at 1:30 pm, Riverside will hold a Mental Health Listening Circle, a space for us to come together, share our concerns, deepen our understanding, and shape how our congregation responds.
What we share on October 4th will carry us forward to October 11th, when we’ll join communities across the city for a Mayoral Accountability Action to hold the Mayor accountable to his commitments on mental health access, affordable housing, community safety, and green jobs.
Riverside has committed to bringing 50 people to represent our congregation at this rally, and I’m asking you to be one of them. Buses are being arranged, but you must reserve your seat by October 7th.
Please visit our calendar page to reserve your spot on the bus for October 11th, or reach out to msj@trcnyc.org with any questions.