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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.


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  1. Kimbo Slice is a bitch who should have lost to that tomato can on cbs a few weeks back

    George St. Pierre and Anderson Silva
    now those are some tough dudes and

    don’t sleep on Roger Huerta or BJ penn

    KImbo is all hype with no real skills

  2. 10:37 here responding to 1:52PM

    Welcome to Brooklyn means exactly what it sounds like…exactly what it meant in the opening of welcome back kotter, exactly what it meant in ‘the warriors’ exactly what ‘down these mean streets’ chronicles and before all that exactly what Jacob Riis chronicled and Hugo and Balzac before him, urbanity forces a confrontation between haves and have nots.

    we, the idealized brownstoner reader, have somehow said – I am living in the city because I want to – that MEANS dealing with the city. yes that means having to deal with alternate side of the street parking, subways, the poor and the ultra rich.

    and what doesn’t happen in 80% of brooklyn? did you not see the Marine Park puncher last week? what about the orthodox jew who accosted the black kid in crown heights a couple of weeks ago?

    I am also sure that the media gives us full accounts of everyday crime in: Parkville, Canarsie, E. NY, Brownsville, E. Flatbush, Bensonhurst, Bushwick, Lefferts Gardens, Bed Stuy, Cypress Hills, I hear COney Island is GREAT @ 0200

    To say this is getting better is also fooloish, pull up your local pct.ts Stat sheet. Some crimes in my ‘hood have goon up 700% in 1 year (from 2 incidents to 9, but still…)

  3. I guess you Idiot’s who are skeptical will just move to New Jersey (Bankrupt) or Florida foreclosure and just watch the birds fly bye and eat at the Cheesecake factory. Don’t get fooled folks Big money is coming to a house near you and it’s called Abu Dubai they are buying NYC , the whole thing. Better get what you can get here now because there ain’t much left to buy. Unless of course you are ready for some boring life in Westchester or Idaho.

  4. 3:32 – yeah just like that douchebag Republican Gulianni’s failed policies led to the biggest crime rate reduction not just in this city’s history, but bigger than any city in American ever witnessed.

  5. Hey hey, ha ha say what say what
    Ha ha bust it yo
    Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner
    Sometimes I feel like my only friend
    Is the city I live in, is beautiful Brooklyn
    Long as I live here believe I’m on fire hey
    Cuz it’s the B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
    L-Y-N is the place where I stay
    The B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
    Best in the world and all USA
    It’s the B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
    L-Y-N is the place where I stay
    The B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
    Place where I rest is on my born day
    Bust it, sometimes I sit back and just reflect
    Watch the world go by and my thought connect
    I think about the time past and the time to come
    Reminesce on Bed-Stuy when I was pride and young
    I used to try and come, to the neighborhood function
    Throw on my Izod, say a little something
    When I was just a youngin, before the days of thuggin
    How me and Charlie Chims (aiyyo what?) I’m only buggin
    Fast forward, Nine-Now I gotta team my seed
    I must proceed at God’s speed to perform my deed
    Livin the now space and time, round the nine to five
    For as long as I’m alive, paw I got to strive
    I ain’t sittin roadside, that ain’t harder to plan
    I’m out here for my fam doin all that I can
    I love my city, sweet and gritty in land to outskirts
    Nickname Bucktown cuz we grown to outburst
    Philosophy redefine us, touch mines I touch back
    Walk the streets like a sweet and get beat like drum tracks
    Catch no shakes over jakes (boomp-boomp!) we bust back
    Bring the marty to your face wit no place to run back
    I’m from the slums that created the bass that thump back
    This ain’t a game clown, play ya James Brown and jump back
    What you want, Jack? Young cats stash they jums at
    Draw they guns back, momma screams where she sons at
    Tryin to hunt that, recurring dream of high stakes
    The fourth largest, first hardest, Brooklyn is the place
    Settled by the Dutch many years ago,
    Three million strong, and here we go

    *part two*

    [Mos Def]
    GOOD MORNINNNNNNNNNGG VIETNAM!!!
    Ha (back up back up back up back up back up)*repeated in background*
    Yo sometimes I sit back, reflect on the place that I live at
    Unlike any place I ever been at
    The home of big gats, deep dish hammer rim caps
    Have a mishap, push ya wig back
    Where you go to get the fresh trim at
    Four on the jake got the Timb rack
    Blue collars metro carding it
    Thugs mobbin it, form partnership
    Increase armorment, street pharmacist
    Deep consequence, when you seek sleek ornaments
    You get caught, rode the white horse and can’t get off
    Big dogs that trick off just get sent off
    They shoebox stash is all they seeds gotta live off
    It’s real yo but still yo, it’s love here
    And it’s felt by anybody that come here
    Out of towners take the train, plane and bus here
    Must be something that they really want here
    One year as a resident, deeper sentiment
    Shoutout “Go Brooklyn!”, they representin it
    Sittin on they front stoop sippin Guinesses
    Usin native dialect in they sentences
    >From the treeline blocks to the tenaments
    To the Mom & Pop local shop menaces
    Travel all around the world in great distances
    And ain’t a place that I know that bear resemblance
    That’s why we it The Planet
    Not a borough or a prov, it’s our style that’s uncalm
    >From ?sun? to the ? to the Lafayette Gardens
    White ?coff guawinas? in they army jacket linings
    Yo this goes out to my cats in Coney Isle
    Friday night out in front The Himalaya goin wild
    This goes out to Crown Heights and Smurv Village
    The nighties, and all my ?yarda trenny? Brown’s Village
    Parkside tennants caught, thirties, forties, and the fifties
    The cats out in Starite City gettin busy
    To the Hook, to the East, to the Stuy
    Bushwick and Kanarcy, Farraget, Fullgreen, and Marcy
    My Flatbush posse, generals of armies
    When it’s time to form, just call me
    And let this song be, playin loud in Long B
    If you love Bucktown STRONGLY!
    RAISE IT UP!

    *part three*

    [Mos Def]
    Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at
    Live sway and the sharp balance of the battle axe
    Irons is brandished at, thugs draw they hammer back
    It’s where you find the News 2 crew cameras at
    It’s where my fam is at, summertime jame is at
    They play Big and get you open like a sandal back
    Hotter than candle wax, hustlin you can’t relax
    The crack babies tryin to find where they mama’s at
    It’s off the handle black, wit big police scandals that
    Turn into actions screenplays sold to Miramax
    The type of place where they check your appearance at
    And cats who know where all the hot ‘lo gear is at
    The stompin grounds, where you find a pound, smoke is that
    Be blazin charm that have your wave cap floatin back
    The doorstep where the disposessed posted at
    Dope fiends out at Franklin Ave sellin zovarax
    You big ballin better keep your money folded back
    Cuz once the young guns notice that it’s over, black
    Brooklyn keep on takin it, worldwide we known for that
    Flossy cats get it snatched like the local tax
    The place I sharpen up my baritone vocals at
    Where one of the greatest MC’s was a local cat

  6. If it wasnt for the selfish dhouchebag republicans demanding tax cuts our infrastructure and services like the police force, and social outreach programs wouldnt be stretched thin. Less of these crimes would be happening.

    But when faced with the results of their failed policies, what do asshat republicans do? Blame everyone else. They never take blame for their own failures. They always blame the gays, the illegals, the democrats, the boogeyman

    Pussies.

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