Pier 2 Evacuated…Again

By on May 11, 2016 10:19 pm in brooklyn bridge park, crime, News

Your correspondent went to the Promenade to view an especially glorious sunset when a BHB reader pointed out to him that people were streaming along the path in Brooklyn Bridge Park below, headed to the Joralemon Street exit. Pier 2 had been shut down again. A police boat was nestled next to the pier (photo). We don’t yet know what precipitated this, but when we know more, we’ll give you an update.

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  • Concerned

    WOW!!! This is unbelievable! To just think of the money and man power that has to go into this… And then when the courts get cleared because there’s trouble, the way out of the park for those causing trouble is through our beautiful neighborhood…
    Really, something needs to be done about this. NOW!!!

  • A Neighbor

    Funny, I think of the kids who were playing basketball and the folks enjoying the park. Whose evenings were ruined — and who may be too scared to come back. Not ‘our beautiful neighborhood’.

  • Concerned

    I don’t really care who you “think” of. It’s bad for everyone. Just because I mentioned the neighborhood doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking of others, as well. How petty of you. I hope you feel like a hero.

  • HereToStay

    Well not a surprise – we all knew this would be a mess; the courts there have become a gathering spot for troublemakers because their are too many of them — kids come off the A train in DROVES to walk down to the park. If they would have just built one or two courts it would have been fine…

  • ToddCastilow

    I totally agree. I did a little research last night. Central Park has a total of 4 basketball courts. Prospect Park has 0, and Brooklyn Bridge Park has 5. This was a flaw that anyone designing a park should have foreseen.

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    Any update as to what happened?

  • DIBS

    Someone needs to get a grip.

  • Concerned

    Whatever. I’m sick of people implying I’m a bad guy or a racist because I want a safe park and a safe neighborhood. What reason did “A Neighbor” reply to my post in such a way? Do I have to put EVERY person I’m concerned about in each post? Give me a break…

  • e

    It’s called the “Brooklyn Heights Blog” . . . . I’m not sure it’s fair to castigate someone for expressing concern about neighborhood safety issues in light of repeated POLICE EVACUATIONS. I agree that A Neighbor’s comment was ill-advised / unnecessary —

  • Rick

    I just came from the park (3pm, Thursday).

    There are a number of police cars sitting with lights on and policemen standing on guard. Not just at Pier 2, but all around the park.

    And Pier 5 is also closed.Very aggravating, because I was taking a disabled person down to sit at the end of Pier 5, but they wouldn’t let us in.

    I asked some police officers why the piers were closed, and they said that groups of kids had been fighting.

    They had no idea how long the closures would continue, their orders were just to keep them closed.

  • A Tree

    That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever read. The basketball courts are super popular with the kids and obviously fill a need, so we should we remove them because a few kids want to cause trouble and ruin it for everyone?

    The histrionics in this attitude is ridiculous.

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    I am writing a letter to Senator Squadron today. I encourage everyone to do the same.

  • Concerned

    Great idea CH!!! I’m sending an e-mail today, as well.

    squadron@nysenate.gov

  • Concerned

    Tree, you say: “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever read.” And then you have the gall to say: “The histrionics in this attitude is ridiculous.” You’re either a really funny person, or really lost. LOL!
    Honestly though, I am sick of fighting with people who don’t like the idea of less courts. Can you tell me what, if any, solution you have to this problem? Thank you.

  • gc

    Close the basketball courts at 2PM. If that doesn’t work keep moving the time back until it does work.

  • CHatter

    I hate to admit it, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that the basketball courts are correlated with bad behavior. I’m emotionally sympathetic to the view that the great majority of perfectly well-behaved players shouldn’t lose a treasured resource because of the actions of a few ill-behaved ones; however when those few are genuinely dangerous (and occasionally more than few), then that is exactly what happens. The resource is compromised and it goes away as a natural, and utterly rational, consequence.

    Perhaps they would make good tennis courts.

  • TeddyNYC

    Something has to been done about this. Unless someone has another effective solution to this continuing problem, closing the basketball courts may be the only answer. On Mother’s Day, I visited the park with my mom and we walked from pier 1 to pier 6. It was crowded like you would expect on a nice Sunday afternoon. When we got to pier 2, we saw two police vans and a bunch of cops watching the courts. When we got to pier 5, we saw 4 police cars and someone getting arrested. I’ve heard more than once on my iPhone radio scanner app police being dispatched to BBP. Not the most pleasant place to take a stroll at times, but it is what it is.

  • TeddyNYC

    On mother’s day, I saw a lot of police activity at Pier 2 and someone getting arrested on Pier 5. It’s a shame what has happened to BBP, including the bouncing bridge fiasco.

  • Fred

    Shyt was stupid i was balling then see someone get hit with a stick then someone went to their bags and pull out a gun

  • Teresa

    I am troubled by this attitude as well. Crime happens daily on the subway, and no one suggests closing down the system. Of course kids come “in droves” to the courts–why wouldn’t they? They are a terrific community resource.

  • Buford Pusser

    Cause we all know them folk don’t like to get up too early, huh?

  • Buford Pusser

    That sounds like the white solution.

  • Jorale-man

    I saw a parade of kids walking up Joralemon Street on Wednesday night flanked by 3 or 4 police cars (driving the wrong way) and making a loud commotion. I don’t know if it was connected to the courts incident but they were making quite a ruckus.

    You’d think the BBP designers would have seen this coming just a bit. But like almost everything else in that park, it’s a product of poor planning and improper of public oversight. I guess if they turn it into a police state all summer that will at least prevent things from getting too out of hand.

  • Concerned

    LOL! Here we go with the race card… So what is the solution? Should concerned community members just let these hoods take over the park that ALL of Brooklyn likes to bring their families to? It’s been two days in a row that the Pier has been shut down. And now they’re shutting down the entire park because Pier 2 is such a danger to the community. What should we do?

  • Concerned

    It’s been two days in a row that the Pier has been shut down. And now they’re shutting down the entire park because Pier 2 is such a danger to the community. The park is being closed for EVERYONE and all you want to do is say “crime happens everywhere”…
    Do you have any solutions?

  • A Tree

    The solution is already in place: have a limited police presence to deter fighting.If any breaks out, evacuate the pier.

  • Concerned

    WOW! Do you realize that the ENTIRE park had to be shut down yesterday? Possibly because a gun was involved. We know there was a shooting there last year. Do you want me to post all the innocent bystanders that get killed by gun violence every year? Or how about the distance with which a bullet from a hand gun can kill. I guarantee it stretches past pier two and onto the jogging track and more.
    Also, what about the ingress and egress of the park and neighborhood? The cops that sit at pier 2 weren’t able to handle the brawls that stretched out past pier two and into the park, as evidenced by some posters on this blog who had to see a young man beat senseless.
    Why would law abiding people go near there if there is a real and known danger of brawls and gun violence? What parent would want to feel the guilt of sending their kid down there, with known violence, to see their child come back seriously harmed?
    Also, according to one poster on this blog, one of their children who is a strong athlete was “not allowed” to play basketball on those courts. For what reason? Because he wasn’t part of the groups who played there, whatever that means. What that tells me is that there is an element that has laid claim to this courts and it is causing this trouble.
    I could go on and on…

  • Teresa

    I don’t know what the right thing to do is. But I am troubled by the ongoing en masse characterization of “basketball players” as “hoods” and “thugs,” and the demeaning way habitues of the Park are denigrated as “not from the neighborhood.” We are talking about a minority of Park users, yet the people who come here to use Pier 2 are regularly talked about here in thinly veiled coded language, and the response to a few people acting badly is to try to prevent ALL the basketball players from using a remarkable resource. I find that troublesome and distressing, and an over-reaction, akin to the idea that because a small percentage of Muslims are terrorists, none of them should be permitted in the country. In both cases, the actions of few are being used as justification for poor treatment of the many.

  • Concerned

    I haven’t seen ANYONE say that all basketball players are thugs. I am NOT Trump or faux news and I don’t support either with any thread of my being. That is not the argument. The argument is that there are too many teens, many disenfranchised, that are gathering there without any supervision. Malls in america have dealt with the same thing and have had to implement measures to deter such large groups (both black and white and every other color of teenager). Moreover, no one is saying “get rid of all the courts”, we’re just saying lessen the courts to one or two. This would lessen the large crowds that gather and bring trouble with them.

  • CHatter

    Only insofar as tennis players often wear white apparel, sheriff. I hope you’re not suggesting that non-white people do not enjoy, or are unskilled at, tennis. Because I’m confident you’ll find that’s untrue.

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