Another Shooting on Grand and Putnam
[nggallery id=”21402″ template=galleryview] This is getting really old. In what seems to be an annual occurrence, there was another shooting on the corner of Grand and Putnam last night. The 88th Precinct won’t confirm a thing, but according to several people standing around on the corner this morning, a car drove by last night at…
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This is getting really old. In what seems to be an annual occurrence, there was another shooting on the corner of Grand and Putnam last night. The 88th Precinct won’t confirm a thing, but according to several people standing around on the corner this morning, a car drove by last night at around 10:30 and sprayed an empty parked car with bullets, and in the process hit a female “innocent bystander” in the leg. She was reportedly not killed but, as the photos show, she lost some blood; as you can also see, a number of bullet holes are visible in the side of the building. As most people in the neighborhood are aware, this corner has been a hotbed of illegal activity for years. Two summers ago, after a young man was murdered for saying something insulting about another man’s girlfriend, the block was put on lock-down for the summer, which did temporarily push the drug activity a block or two away—not exactly an ideal solution for the people who lived on those blocks. In the community meetings that always follow, the police act sympathetic and talk about how difficult it is to put drug dealers away, but at a certain point it all rings hollow. If this were happening on the Upper East Side, you can be sure it would have been shut down long ago.
Turning Up The Pressure on Grand and Putnam [Brownstoner]
Murder on Putnam: Will The Cops Show Up Now? [Brownstoner]
Most of the people in the neighborhood – of all races – are against this type of violence. That’s usually the way it is. However, the bad guys with guns are not afraid to target people who talk. Also, as 11:44 observed, most NYPD officers are not eager to address crime in areas they characterize as “the ghetto.” So, many residents here – in the interest of self-preservation – don’t call the police when these things happen. The police routinely add to the problem with their attitudes toward the community, and their penchant to disproportionately target even non-criminal people of color (and thus, the majority of this community’s residents) for “stop-and-frisk” and other methods of harrassment. The result is that even honest residents are not inclined to aid or even speak to NYPD officers. As in almost any community, the thugs and gangsters here are a small minority. Most of the neighborhood is filled with honest, hard-working people. But htey have learned it’s not worth it to speak to cops OR to confront thugs. And so they keep quiet. Mr. Brownstoner, if you are so incensed by what occurred at Grand and Putnam the other day,YOU should go down to the police precinct and complain, or send our post to the local precinct commander. Perhaps the cops will listen to a person like yourself, and put one of their giant, noisy command towers on that corner, and the gangsters will go somewhere else to shoot at each other.
“The place of the most vile racism on this planet.”
Never been to South Africa then, The What?
Your post just showed how TRULY ignorant you really are.
All you arm chair warriors need to stop blogging, get off your assess and do something.
The weather is nice. Why don’t the residents of the block get some flashlights and bright colored vest and patrol the neighborhood themselves.
I betcha if the white homeowners in the area spent more time on this corner, illicit activity would go down a lot.
Instead, you walk the other walk and complain about it on the internets when you get home.
To follow up to 12:19…Some in these newer fringe neighborhoods think that all they need is an American Apparel or a Strabucks or a Choice Market to open and all of the sudden their neighborhood is perfect.
That’s not the case. You can’t cover up MAJOR societal issues with new retail and a wine bar.
Go out there and get involved in the core problems of what is afflicting this neighborhood.
No amount of new stores are going to solve these problems that exist. They are simply smoke and mirrors.
“Why in the world would the longtime residents of the neighborhood be in favor of the police doing nothing while people get shot? That’s a ridiculous thing to say. Just because some longtime residents may have given up on the police long ago (and for good reason given the lack of action), why should newer arrivals not try to draw attention to the problems and bring a new level of accountability? Stick to economics, The What.”
I don’t know what planet you live on but I live in AMERICA! The place of the most vile racism on this planet. Example Obama is the best candidate we have but, people will not vote for him because he’s BLACK! All that crap you saying Brownstoner is all good in a perfect world but at the end of the day RACISM rules America. Cops shoot a unarmed man 50 times and I didn’t see white people being enraged about it! I didn’t see you post that on here! My opinion is you knew the passion when you posted this garbage on this blog!!
Brownstoner you are very disingenuous! You only care about the value of your house and the Gentrification of urban neighborhoods!
The What (Yeah Riiiiight)
Someday this war is gonna end….
Clearly The What’s comments are largely ridiculous and reflect the fact that he is a raving lunatic–and a borderline illiterate one at that.
However, I do believe that he is right on one point. All the bodies that are dropping in CH are black. The moment a white person who is minding his/her own business is inadvertently shot, you better believe it will be front page news and that is when the cops will make it a priority to lean on the criminal element in the neighborhood.
I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that. I hope that the community-based efforts will turn things around because everyone remains unsafe in the interim.
When Park Slope was a wild a dangerous place, houses were cheap. Prices in CH are not cheap by any means. Even at 500K a falling down POS in BS is not cheap to anyone else anywhere else in anyplace in the USA.
You are so pathetic, What. If you had any pride in your neighborhood, you would condemn this kind of violence, not encourage it. You are obviously a very sick person.
I hope the rest of the community here on this site ignores his rants. Don’t give him the attention he so craves.
Bye, What. I was interesting reading while it lasted.
People from the community need to get more involved here like they did in Park Slope 30 years ago.
Seems very few credit Park Slope for being an extremely devoted (almost radically so) neighborhood of gentifiers who worked to improve crime, improve the schools (ps. 321 is a testament to that), fight for landmark status, and improve the general quality of life in the neighborhood.
That neighborhood was not handed anything. They worked for it. In fact, at the time, many of those people who moved there were living in a red-lined neighborhood which the city barely even cared to acknowledge. Now look at it.
Seems the new people spending 2 million to move into these new fringe areas want everyone else to take care of their problems. That’s not the way it works, and there IS a reason why places like Park Slope continue to be such a great place to live…it’s because the residents there care about their neighborhood very deeply. Some would say too deeply, but that is neither here nor there…
All the work has paid off. So whatever you think about Park Slope, I would recommend you take a look at the community spirit that drives that neighborhood and learn a little something and take to your own neighborhood and spread the gift of involement to make this world a better place.