Enough With the Marauding Teenagers!
A couple of months ago as we were walking East on Greene Avenue between Waverly and Washington we noticed in our peripheral vision someone approaching fast from behind. When we spun around, it was a teenage boy, probably about 15 years old, who had crept up and was hovering inches from the back of our…
A couple of months ago as we were walking East on Greene Avenue between Waverly and Washington we noticed in our peripheral vision someone approaching fast from behind. When we spun around, it was a teenage boy, probably about 15 years old, who had crept up and was hovering inches from the back of our head mocking us provocatively to the clear delight of his jeering friends. Ever risk-averse, we quickly walked out into the middle of the street and starting dialing on our cell phone. With a few shouts, the pack continued down the block. We jogged back to a police car we had noticed parked back on Vanderbilt, told the cops what had happened and went home. The next day we heard that a woman had been mugged half an hour later a few blocks from there by a bunch of teenagers. We’ve heard of several similar instances in the area in recent weeks. And it’s not just Clinton Hill. A post on Brooklynian describes how a trio of teenage girls (19, 17 and 12) mugged five different people in Prospect Heights on Saturday night (and how only one of them decided to press charges) and an email we received yesterday told of a violent mugging of a twenty-something male by a group of boys at around 8:15 Monday night at Dekalb and South Oxford Street in Fort Greene (above). What can the community do to combat this activity? Obviously greater police presence would help, but given the paltry resources the NYPD devotes to this part of town, it’s going to take a lot of vigilance on the part of residents in terms of reporting even small incidents of harassment and pressing charges. And everyone should be aware that a lot of these muggings are happening during daylight hours, often between the end of school and dinner time, so it’s a good idea to minimize iPod and cell phone usage during those times. Please use this comment thread to document other similar incidents that you know about in recent months as well as to suggest ways to address the problem.
Thank you 5:18.
Damn I’m gald I’m not in your familiy.
What about the surviving and learning respect part?
Is that not an option for your cousin?
Honestly– who are these idiots who think this is about jobs? No kid wants a job. They want money, but no kid wants a job. The macroeconomic slowdown that has cut employment rolls mostly in manufacturing, financial services and construction has absolutely nothing to do with why some punk kids are robbing people.
I realize that throws off your class warfare meta-narrative, but sometimes a punk kid is just a punk kid.
Send the kids to Iraq. I think this is a legit solution. Gangs and dumbass kids should be sent to fight wars. If they survive they’ll learn some respect. If they die… well, problem solved.
I say this as my dumbass cousin is in the US Navy. If he dies… well, that’s a shame. But truth be told it was the military or jail for the kid. Better he dies a man than goes to jail!
this is very sad and i feel for anyone who is mugged. definitly learn some self-defense or carry a baseball bat around. these teenage pussies need to be destroyed. walk tall and never show fear. body language is everything. i have never been bothered by these pussies or anyone else but if i was you would hear me blocks away. i sometimes wish you good, kind, hardworking people in the neighborhood were psychotic like me when it’s time to throw down. when i am walking around and see someone shady you better believe my hands are closed tight. i am not trying to act like a tough guy at all but it’s either you are them. we live in a evil world.
Why does Rev Al get a bad rap? At least he helps in raising awareness to issues that others don’t care about. We have very few leaders in our community that are consistent and are at the front lines helping us recover from the crap that we been through.
I was in high school during the Bensonhurst march and seeing and hearing those Italianos, young and old rally against him with all that hate was scary.
In the 60’s before white flight your parents in Brownstone Brooklyn were bashing MLK. Cut Al some slack or be quite the majority of black people I know admire his guts.
“Freakonomics” 4:51
Actually Giuliani had very little to do with the decrease in crime. He took office just after the crack epidemic peaked and the number of police was increased substantially (intitially by Dinkins, by the way, mostly with federal funds from the Clinton administration). Then the police started using Jack Maple’s compstat program to identify problem crime areas. Also, check the FBI statistics for that period. Crime in almost every large city decreased just as much as it did in NYC during that time period.
4:34 – that’s laugh out loud funny.