Muggings in Fort Greene
A tipster pointed out to us that the Carlton-Willoughby Block Association began passing out these flyers on Tuesday. The flyers warn that there have been three muggings in as many weeks in or around the Fort Greene area, and that residents should be more inconspicuous and careful when walking alone with iPods and mobile phones….
A tipster pointed out to us that the Carlton-Willoughby Block Association began passing out these flyers on Tuesday. The flyers warn that there have been three muggings in as many weeks in or around the Fort Greene area, and that residents should be more inconspicuous and careful when walking alone with iPods and mobile phones. Of the three muggings, fortunately no one has been seriously injured.
Many, many thanks BrooklynGreen and Montrose Morris
Bring payphones and Walkmans back. Or better yet, wait til you get home to talk on the phone or listen to music. Enjoy the trees in the park. These thugs won’t know what to think.
Took me a minute, but thanks, BrooklynGreene.
By the way, THANK you Rose de Mont Meurice for your great insights and comments!
Oh, one more thing on the armory – whether Tish is effective or ineffective, like Al Vann(ished), she is not the movement to prevent the armory from becoming the city’s male homeless intake center. She is a part of a large movement of homeowners, renters, businesspeople, clergy, religious groups, social service workers, homeless advocates, political representatives, union members, community activists and organizations, and the homeless themselves, who all feel that this move is unwise, unfair, and otherwise wrong. We are many, we are looking for fairness and better treatment by the city for the homeless and for ourselves, we are determined to fight, and we will win.
End of the day wrap-up for the stalwarts who bother going back to review the day’s discussions—
I have to say that I found it a little disgusting that a topic on recent muggings and a block association’s (or at least one concerned neighbor’s) response gave rise to Tish-bashing.
The effort was pretty pathetic. I assume most readers either skipped reading this blatant election cycle politicking or at least manages to read through the exaggeration and the only slightly veiled discrimination that seeped through. A little hair-raising how close to and over the edge of racist-sounding remarks people are willing to go.
And another thing. Who can take some of you seriously with user names like Ironballs and Big Jugs? Ugh!
Thank you to those who pointed out the issues with spaced out persons wearing earphones, texting, etc.
I can’t tell you how annoyed I can get when someone is completely oblivious to his/her surroundings, weaves back and forth on the sidewalk while you’re trying to walk (or, almost in line with you keeps sidling sideways into you completely unaware you’re there), or spinning on their heal to reverse direction and then slamming into you or barely missing you.
Like others who commented above, I’m perturbed by texting youth/cell phone talkers who stand in the subway staircase blocking flow…stop dead in their tracks while they still have a signal. Or, as mentioned above, walk up the stairs (slowing down others behind them while focused on their texting device) checking their messages the moment they get a signal…and yes, the kids who stop right at the top of the stairs coming out of the subway when they hit the sidewalk effectively blocking those behind them on the stairs.
The stop-at-top-of-stairs thing has been going on for years, especially in touristy areas where people come up the stairs and stare all agog at buildings or are simply disoriented. The new check-text-messages-coming-up-stairs is getting rampant. Very annoying to those of us who were shocked when the cassette tape, VHS, and CD came in.
The issue with muggings when it comes down to it: poverty, unemployment, profound lack of opportunities, needless incarceration and break-up of families, loose guns on the street, institutional racism. People who are stealing simply may not have many or any alternatives or they may not have any palpable knowledge on who to access any. Fix these problems and maybe we’d live in a fairer society without all the rough edges.
Look, why not go up to a group of kids who and give them enough money for pizza or a snack? The ol’ NYC “Kids, here (bill handed to kids). Go get yourself something to eat.†??? Why not??? Why not find channels through which you might teach and mentor as well? Do you possibly have time on your hands? Do you have skills and access to resources, things that are only a dream to people who may live 1 to 10 blocks from your home? Be creative! See how you can change your community!
That’s where the change will happen…not relying on one person, say, an elected official, to do it all on your behalf. It’s NOT all about paying your taxes and expecting others will provide you with all expected services and take care of “society’s illsâ€. It’s not exactly a simple payment-for-services scheme where you abrogate your responsible at the moment your payroll department deducts your “Federal, State, and Localâ€.
Big Jugs, you couldn’t be more wrong. And who are you to say that if she did get stimulus money and gave it to “some rinky dink local agency or daycare center” that her choice is not a worthy one? Daycare centers and local agencies are the part and parcel of the kinds of things a constituency hopes their representatives can deliver. She is a city councilmember, not Bill Gates or Santa Clause. It’s her job to help the constituent on the street without a voice or power amongst the more powerful. For that you need to be a bit combative. Quiet, sweet people don’t get squat in New York City.
Perhaps that is not what YOU would spend your money on, but you didn’t bother to run for office, or put yourself on the line to receive disparaging criticism by people like yourself who continue to insist that the intake center is just fine coming to Crown Heights, but won’t ever actually offer any good reason why, other than your say so. Yes, she shows up and opens her mouth. When she gets back to the office, she makes calls and gets stuff done. I think a perusal of her record shows that she is effective. There are 2 people running against her, they at least are out there, you complain constantly on a blog.
I have no connections to Leticia James, and don’t even live in her district. I am also very cynical about politicians. She is one of the few I feel is actually working to improve the lives of all of her constituents, not just the better off, or more influential. I couldn’t tell you who represents Bklyn Hts, parts of Park Slope, or Bushwick and Williamsburg. If they were out there half as much as Tish, they would be doing well.
I live in Letitia James’s district and can assure you all that she is just as lazy as Al Vann. Like many politicians, she’s fond of showing up to garner attention, but her sense of reality is seriously lacking and her list of genuine accomplishments short. If she were given stimulus money, she’d surely piss it away on some rinky dink local agency or daycare center that is at half occupancy. She’s all show and no substance and you can bet your life that any efforts on her part will do absolutely nothing to address the problem raised in this thread. Her biggest problem is that she has poor skills when it comes to building bridges with influential people. Her combative approach to any and everything ultimately alienates those who could help her get things done. That is why she has been a failure and why, for example, her advocacy will not be able to stop the intake center from being moved to the armory.
In my 44 years in this city, I’ve never been mugged. But I HAVE gotten a swirlie!