Notorious Crackhouse at 474 Greene Avenue Up In Flames

There's a few different factors at work here. One is that the police blotter shows numerous arrests at that location. Once an arrest is made and the courts get it, it's out of the cops hands. As GreneAveGuy points out, arrests have been made.
Another big part of the reason why it wouldn't happen in Park Slope is that there is no "stop snitching","If you see a cop, Warna Brother", "snitches get stitches" etc. For better or worse, some people seem on the fence about who they hate more, drug dealers or cops, so things like this go on.
The people in the neighborhood who want to see things like this stop in many cases are outnumbered by haters, apathetic individuals, or people who are afraid, so the status quo keeps on keeping on.

Posted by: Bond at November 15, 2008 6:10 PM

Actually Susan, I have to disagree. Most cops that I know, and I know quite a few, agree. Lazy, slacker cops go to good areas. The ones who want to really be cops gravitate towards the tougher areas, which tend to have less money. The cops in the tougher areas tend to really care, but it's not a profession that you wear your heart on your sleeve, so they mask it with a shell of cynicism. But as far as working harder, any cop will tell you that you work a lot more in the 75 than you do in the 19th.

Posted by: Bond at November 16, 2008 3:07 PM

Noodles is right. Uniform cops don't handle drug complaints ever since the Knapp commission, the city is too worried about the possibility of corruption. Ironically this leads to cases where people see nothing being done, so they assume that the local cops are being paid off.
That being said, if you are a big pain in the butt, something will get done. Narcotics has to answer out every complaint that comes their way and if they get enough of them, they will do what they have to do to close the location. I'm just curious as to how many people sit around and grouse about a location, yet have never actually filed a comlaint, waiting for someone else to do it. In the meantime, the situation just continues. Again, Park Slope was downright funky in the 70's and 80's, but a small core of people kicked and screamed and made sure that their complaints were heard and as a result saved their neighborhood instead of sitting by quietly and letting things collapse. Strength in numbers.
It's so easy to push the blame off on someone else, "oh the cops don't care", "the courts will just let them out anyway", "The cops are getting paid off", blah, blah, blah just a bunch of excuses. How many of the people complaining about things actually ever attempted to do anything about it? If you don't fight for your own neighborhood, how can you expect other people to?

Posted by: Bond at November 17, 2008 5:03 PM