Senator Checks In On Clinton Hill Drug Trade
We just received a copy of Senator Velmanette Montgomery’s letter to 88th Precint head John Cosgrove about the migration of the drug activity from Grand Avenue to Cambridge following the barricading of Grand this summer: September 28, 2006 Deputy Inspector John Cosgrove 88th Precinct 298 Classon Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205 Re: Illegal Drug Activity, Fulton…
We just received a copy of Senator Velmanette Montgomery’s letter to 88th Precint head John Cosgrove about the migration of the drug activity from Grand Avenue to Cambridge following the barricading of Grand this summer:
September 28, 2006
Deputy Inspector John Cosgrove
88th Precinct
298 Classon Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
Re: Illegal Drug Activity, Fulton Street, Washington/Classon Avenues
Dear Deputy Inspector John Cosgrove:
I am writing to you on behalf of my constituents who reside in and around the above area in my district. The complaints are about the selling of drugs and loitering.
I am requesting that something be done about the illegal drug selling in the above area, and the loitering in front of 134 and 132 Cambridge Place by people who are not residents of that block.
I would like to know what is being done about this problem and after the closing of Grand Avenue the investigation has not ventured in surrounding areas (sic). The illegal drug activity has moved to other places such as Downing Street and Cambridge Place. I am awaiting a response to this situation.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Senator Velmanette Montgomery
18th Senate District
Granted this was written a couple of months ago, but as far as we can tell, the drug dealing has resumed on Grand Avenue again as well. Is it still happening on Cambridge and Downing too? Update: For Cosgrove’s response, continue reading below.
Turning Up The Pressure on Grand and Putnam [Brownstoner]
Here’s what Cosgrove had to say in response:
October 25th, 2006
In regards to: Drug Activity v/o Downing St & Cambridge Pl.
Dear Hon. Senator Velmanette Montgomery,
Thank you for taking the time to bring this consituent matter to my attention. I am very concerned about the collateral effects of our initiative in the vicinity of Downing Street and Cambridge Place.
I have researched the specific locations you complained of; buildings 132 & 134 Cambridge Place. For the period of July 1st through October 14th, 2006 there were a total of three (3) 911 calls for service at 132 Cambridge Place. Of these two were for domestic matters. At 134 Cambridge Place there were zero calls for service.
It troubles me that our constituents feel their quality of life has been adversely impacted by our summer initiative at the intersection of Putnam and Grand Avenues. I would encourage them to utilize the “911” and “311” systems top report the violations they are observing. This way the New York City Police Department can do something aboutthe violations in “real time”.
I will continue to monitor this matter for future discussion.
Sincerely,
Deputy Inspector John Cosgrove
Commanding Officer, 88th Precinct
“Perhaps the most effective way to make this happen is to push the crime outside the city boundaries, out where the poor and the black people live.”
Outside the city boundaries? Bronxville? Short Hills? Greenwich, maybe?
You may want to invest in an NYC map.
I tried as hard as I could not to get in the middle of this one but… WOW.
If someone can have a cavalier attitude about someone being shot & Killed by NYs finest, then that is disturbing to say the least.
Not to make this a black/white thing, but had it been 3 young white kids exiting Scores and getting into their BMW, I doubt there would have been 50 bullets pumped into their car. Ballin’ at 11:17 AM asks how bad can it be if only 3 calls to 911 have been made….
Well, if calling 911 has garnered no results in the past, maybe that influences the behavior of not calling. That said, it doesn’t justify no action at all.
The drug trade is going to exist as long as prohibition is in effect. But it’s either going to occur inside the Brownstone a la Brooklyn Heights, or outside the Brownstone on the corner of Putnam & Grand a la Clinton Hills or bed-stuy or what ever location you’re calling it today.
So the point is to make it difficult for it to exist on our corners. And if we need NYs finest to help in that effort, then they had very well better lend us that help!
Wages/job opportunities, etc… has nothing to do with the drug trade. This is an institutionalized culture that will not do anything other then sell.
If you haven’t watched before, please get into the habit of watching the Wire on HBO. By far one of the best TV shows I’ve ever watched. “The Wire details a genocide in poor black communities that in some ways is much sadder than anything in Alex Haley’s epic Roots.”
Now in regards to Slander and Libel.
Libel is published. Slander is spoken… Didn’t you guys watch Spiderman 1?? 🙂
Opps, i fired my gun 51 times, stopping only briefly enough to reload. My bad…
And the best folks can say is mistakes happen…. That a bunch bullshiiiiiiiiit!!!
Anon 3:33, where do you live that you’re scared to walk around?
“It is actually possible for crime in a city to decrease overall–as it has in NYC–and citizens’ involvement is just one way it can happen.”
True. Perhaps the most effective way to make this happen is to push the crime outside the city boundaries, out where the poor and the black people live.
I hope not Bob, otherwise Doctors would end up in Jail a bunch.
The area is getting worse and i have been scared walking in the nightime.
Anon 1:24 PM wrote
“Now I dont know about your job, but where I work if I make a mistake I dont get prosecuted and sent to jail”
But people probably don’t die when you make mistakes. If they did you SHOULD be prosecuted–I suppose for negligent homicide rather than murder, but prosecuted nevertheless.
Is the Lefferts Hotel back to offering its classic line of goods? I was thinking of buying my father-in-law a night with a courtesan and figured that the Lefferts offers good holiday deals.