Six Nostrand Storefronts Busted in Drug Raid
Six storefront business on a ten-block stretch of Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights yesterday were busted for selling drugs yesterday in a raid by NYPD; most of the contraband was marijuana with a little cocaine thrown into the mix for good measure. It was an open drug bazaar on Nostrand Avenue, said Councilwoman Letitia James…
Six storefront business on a ten-block stretch of Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights yesterday were busted for selling drugs yesterday in a raid by NYPD; most of the contraband was marijuana with a little cocaine thrown into the mix for good measure. It was an open drug bazaar on Nostrand Avenue, said Councilwoman Letitia James The businesses involved included Chris Restaurant, Press Play CD King, D & Z Variety, though it’s believed that they were all operating independently. At lunch it turned into a veritable pot-luck event, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. You could go in and get drugs in the food itself or go to the back of the store and pick it up or even buy it over the counter. Eight individuals were arrested, though if last year’s drug bust on Putnam and Grand is any indication, the businesses will probably be back up and running in no time. Absurd.
Off-Menu Goods Attract the Police’s Attention [NY Times]
Eight Arrested In Crown Heights Drug Raid [NY1]
Eight Arrested In Nostrand Avenue Drug Raid [Nostrand Park]
Montrose — I’m not going to disagree with your about the impact of crime in Crown Heights. It’s a serious problem for economic development and everything else that makes a community thrive. However, this is also a MAJOR argument for bringing marijuana into the light! If you *regulate* and *tax* this drug, which in many ways is less harmful than alcohol, it becomes (1) no longer a crime, (2) no longer the purview of gangs and criminals, and (2) not the cause of petty criminals being hardened in jail.
This would also free up the police to pursue TRULY harmful drugs being traded on our streets and in our shops. Not to mention gangs themselves, domestic violence, property crime, etc etc etc.
There will always be a ‘criminal element’ — but wouldn’t it be nice to differentiate between something you may consider a nuisance and something that is OVERTLY harmful to the community!?
Yeah, I am sensing a really strange disconnect between all of the crime we have been reading about lately (and scared of) including shootings (8:30 pm drive by shooting, hitting an innocent passerby on Greene and Clinton Avenue two weeks ago) and the jokey tone here. Its all about drugs. 5 shootings in Ft. Greene alone in a 2 week period.
thye’re not criminals, they’re undocumented pharmacists
tybur, LOL, your social commentary in this case was spot on…far too many cops are way out of shape.
This will make their jobs more difficult in one new way. The move to get kids, creatins, thugs and hoodlums to “pull up their pants” will allow them faster flight from the police.
There was a video on the news of the Times Square “mayhem” the other day and some fat cop had a guy but the guys pants were down around his knees.
I remember a comment from police many years ago when this first started and it wa to the effect that “this will make it harder for these creatins to runaway.”
By tybur6 on April 7, 2010 10:20 AM
donatella, it was probably some horrible marijuana gang that stole your bike.
Yeah, probably.
wouldn’t possesion of marijuana be a state crime? how could a city decriminalize it?
quote:
Welcome to Brooklyn. Put your lighters up.
or WORSE, people who put their iphones up at shows. :-/ is there anything cheesier than that!?
*rob*
Welcome to Brooklyn. Put your lighters up.
***Bid half off peak comps***
No cocaine was seized yet it was put in the NYPD statements to sensationalize the story. Two pounds found between six to eight stores? If it were evenly distributed that’s roughly a quarter-pound of pot per store. Chances are it was one or two stores found with the gear and the rest were flat out empty.
Legalize it, tax it. These guys are already brash enough to setup a number of store fronts to sell weed. Might as well regulate the sales of it so you don’t get “Little Amsterdam” rows setup like this.