Grand & Putnam Gets Lip Service, Maybe More
There was a big turnout–over a 100 people, we’d guess–at last night’s Town Hall meeting to discuss the problems of drug dealing, gambling and violence at the corner of Putnam and Grand in Clinton Hill. Tish James and Captain Cosgrove of the 88th spoke for the first 45 minutes or so about recent crime stats…
There was a big turnout–over a 100 people, we’d guess–at last night’s Town Hall meeting to discuss the problems of drug dealing, gambling and violence at the corner of Putnam and Grand in Clinton Hill. Tish James and Captain Cosgrove of the 88th spoke for the first 45 minutes or so about recent crime stats and the historical efforts to combat the entrenched lawlessness in this particular hotspot. (What do you know! There just happened to be a squad car, shown below, parked on the corner before and during the meeting.) In particular, Cosgrove expressed frustration at the inability to purge 435 Grand Avenue despite numerous raids and busts; he also admitted his frustration at how quickly those arrested reappear on the corner. Numerous people stood and told their own stories–mostly of being intimidated by thugs and of being treated rudely by police.
Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes showed up about half-way through the evening and promised to pay special attention to the corner, pointing to the mass arrests in the Red Hook Houses as proof of his resolve. When we got our chance we made two comments: (1) we told Cosgrove that, regardless of the degree to which it has basis in truth, his precinct has a massive p.r. problem with the community that needs to be addressed and (2) we put on the table the idea of installing a surveillance camera, something which several of us in the neighborhood formulated as a top priority a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that there may be a way to fund this privately, though it’s unclear what it would cost (possibly as little as $18,000). A show of hands revealed that more than 90% of the room was in favor of a camera. Hynes said he had no problem with surveillance cameras but cautioned the audience not to look at them as a panacea.
The message that all three speakers kept hammering home was that the residents have to stay vigilant in reporting crimes and working closely with law enforcement. It’s hard to argue with such advice, but many of the people in the audience who’ve lived in the neighborhood for a while have endured years of feeling helpless and ignored by the police; they are also aware of the potential repercussions of taking too high a profile stance against the drug dealers. It seems like there’s a lot of momentum among residents now and we hope the efforts to clean up the nabe and hold the public officials’ feet to the fire will not recede along with the memories of the recent shootings.
One suggestion that came up in conversation after the meeting was to bring in the Nation of Islam as private security. This has never occurred to us, but supposedly they did a fantastic job cleaning up Coney Island (who knew?). Does anyone know anything about how that would work?
DA Hynes Hits Town Hall Meeting [Brooklyn Record]
T – sounds like your cousin has a fairly thin skin and should be looking for another line of work if he just became an officer and one incident already has him apathetic and changing how he does his job. Some people get involved in policing for the pension that’s too bad…no one said it was easy, this is a rough city and its a rough profession.
Am disturbed but not shocked by your dealings with the precinct.
They may be sincere asking to you’ll be eyes and ears for mugger and the car thief and burglar but perhaps not for dealers.
Certainly possible graft part of it and also perceived as partly victimless crime that is very difficult and timeconsuming and expensive to arrest and convict.
And drug dealing doesn’t show up as a crime stat.
Years ago, my block association tried to cooperate gamely with the 88th’s standard line, and be its “eyes and ears.” We called our community liasion officer with detailed descriptions, license plates, MOs, etc., of all the drug activity on the block. We put up hidden cameras, volunteered inside observation posts, etc., etc. The 88th never took us up on those offers, nor did they make the slightest effort to address the situation. And every time we contacted the 88th, the information we’d provided, and our names as its sources, were on the street in about two hours. We were threatened. One of our members was chased by a bunch of the dealers in a car, threatening her with death. So we went to the Chief of the NYPD in NYC. He kicked it back downstairs to the 88th, and we were informed by its then-captain that if we thought it was bad on our block then, just wait and see what would happen if we ever went over his head again. Naturally, nothing was done about the drug situation on our block. We figured our only other resort was the media, but after our 15 minutes of media attention, we would still have been left to deal with the 88th, and at that point, we’d be dead. Who wants to be the next Maria Hernandez? “Eyes and ears”? We’re not body parts for the 88th. Our taxes pay their salaries, and we’ve gotten nothing in return. They know where the perps live, and could certainly do something about it if they wished. When offered the assistance they publicly seek, they betray it to the street. In election years, they’ll yes us to death. Nothing changes. Under the circumstances, can anyone be blamed for assuming the 88th is corrupt?
support local nonprofits that work with youth groups. The less children who grow up to be crack addicts, the fewer drug dealers you see on the corner.
It’s a Wrap, very good points all around, especially regarding calling the police and getting good descriptions to them.
My only beef – while I know that most of the street crime in CH is perpetrated by youngish black men, sad to say, I’m disturbed by the automatic assumption that the perp is the “generic black male”. Let’s all keep our street smarts active, and realize that street crime (all crime, while we are at it) can be and is, perpetrated by males and females of every persuasion. Even in Clinton Hill.
I just moved to CH, and have been following the story Grand-Putnam story for a little while now. For CH residents out there, do you feel safe walking around the neighborhood at night? How about compared to a few years ago?
Oops. My above post refers to putnam-denizen, not itsawrap.
ItsAWrap–
You make many excellent points, but I don’t believe the “selfish and righteous” undercurrent at the meeting was limited to 30-something white males–there was indignation and frustration by people of all colors and ages, new residents and old.
I’ved lived in the neighborhood for nine years and the hard part is that MANY MANY folks have worked on this crime problem over the years (and well before I came along) and gotten completely discouraged due to lack of police results and/or real or perceived threats from the drug contingent.
If this situation is to finally change, it definitely requires sustained community activism that doesn’t peter out…and as others have said, more reporting of incidents, even the small ones where the perp will not get likely be caught.
Old journalism saying from the pre-blog era:
“News” is whatever happens near the editor’s house.