Post Reports Two Women Joggers Attacked in Brooklyn Bridge Park

By on October 2, 2015 1:36 pm in brooklyn bridge park, crime

Today’s New York Post reports that, on this past Monday evening at about 8:20 and 8:30 p.m. two women jogging in Brooklyn Bridge Park, one of whom gave the location as “near Pier 2″, were attacked by what may have been the same group of teenagers. One was punched in the head after saying she had no cash; the other, whose wrist was grabbed, was able to pull away and escape. She complained of being unable to find security personnel.

The Post contacted “[a] security-enforcement officer” who said “there are fewer guards stationed around the park in the fall.” The story quotes local residents saying more security is needed.

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  • RJG

    Safety tips from the New York Road Runners:

    http://www.nyrr.org/runner-safety

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Thanks for sharing, in advance of the imminent wave of calls for a police state to descend upon BBP.

  • http://www.shootlikeagirlphotography.com/ lauren

    My thoughts go out to the two women who were attacked.

  • TeddyNYC

    We don’t need a police state to descend upon BBP, only the attention by the NYPD that it should have, given its popularity. Either that or runners/walkers will have to avoid it after dark which would be a shame.

  • Concerned

    SB, your preemptive hyperbole and polarization of the argument for more security is annoying. For the most part, the people posting about more security have not requested a “police state”. The BBP is a massive place that is very crowded at times. It would be nice to see more of a presence of uniformed police. The NYRR runner safety guidelines are helpful. Nevertheless, there is no reason there can’t be more of a security presence in such a successful park. Also, many people aren’t “runners”, they’re families, parents with children, etc… they aren’t as mobile as a runner and are more susceptible to harassment and attack because they are less mobile. I have had two very close calls in BBP where it could have quickly gotten ugly and I probably would have ended up under the heels of some seriously aggressive teens. It’s no fun.
    The worst thing about these events are the psychological effects it has on a community. Many of us want to protect our families and avoid as much conflict as we can (I know, it’s such a sin that I want to live in NYC but don’t want to subject my family to ravenous hoards of juvenile delinquents…I should move back to Iowa…), so we’ll stay away from the park and we lose a lot of enjoyment. Having an extra couple of police would help us feel safe. I’m sorry we want to feel safe, especially when there’s so much money being poured into the park and all we ask for is a couple of extra cops… No, you’re right, I should move back to Iowa.

  • Willow Street Watch

    This is EXACTLY what many thoughtful people in the Heights REPEATEDLY warned of 20 years ago when the BHA and the casino “elite” rolled over and signed off on this dangerous idea. MANY people rose at public meetings to question the idea of conducting THOUSANDS of people from many of the city’s highest violent crime areas around and THROUGH the Heights.

    No one listened.

    So now you’re getting violent crimes..what did you expect; hoards of darlings who gestated during the drug wars of the 70’s and 80’s. Minimal police protection, an city administration which reveres David Dinkins,
    and a virtual guarantee that victims are unarmed.

    There are a number of quick and effective stops to this. But everyone will need to develop the courage to rise to confront the forces which caused/ allow these outrages. You will also have to develope an immunity to the R word….or live with these kinds of, and much worse, incidents.

  • fultonferryres

    If you were one of the ones who sounded the alarm, it is no wonder that nobody listened. Talk about overreacting…

  • StudioBrooklyn

    You’re projecting an awful lot onto two words, which were really targeted at a section of this blog’s population more prone to overreaction than you might represent. Unless of course you’re seriously thinking of moving back to Iowa. ;)

  • Jorale-man

    What I wonder is where these delinquent teens are coming from. The park is a long ways away from neighborhoods where antisocial behavior tends to take root. You’d think there would be closer basketball courts than BBP.

  • Willow Street Watch

    Personal attacks…and snide remarks are not contributive to understanding, or dealing with the reality of what BBP has
    in considerable measure, developed into.

    But the nature of your remarks aside, what exactly do you see as being unwarrented in my remarks?

  • fugazee

    The security situation at the park and in the neighborhood is deterioriating, which seems to be an acceptable collateral consequence to many. I’m sure you’d feel differently if you were the one assaulted while out for a run in what used to be a safe neighborhood.

  • Willow Street Watch

    That of course is simply untrue. The park is a ten minute walk from the Farragut projects, within easy access from the Red Hook projects and
    very reasonable access from scores of other neighborhoods which like the two projects mentioned, represent some of the worst drug and violence conditions in the nation. Anyone who does not recognize the history/reality of what some of the neighborhoods surrounding the Heights are, is simply not dealing with reality. Nor are they likely to recognize any objective reality of reasonable measures to protect our community of what the park increasingly has brought near.

  • Concerned

    Respectfully, I think the words “police state” project an awful lot by themselves. The two words probably project a more vivid picture than any of the other actual pictures you have posted on this blog…especially the sideways ones. :)

  • peterbrooklyn

    It’s nearly all about Pier Two – the basketball courts and traffic to and from the basketball courts. We need more police presence along the entire length of the park, but especially at and nearby the basketball courts.

  • Slyone

    I am not an apologist for any of this behavior. It’s wrong, should be punished, we need to find ways to stop it — all of that. But for heavens sake, my experience of urban basketball courts simply has not been everything people are attributing to these courts. My son learned to shoot regulation height hoops at the courts on Tillary Street (McLaughlin Park) several years ago, back when he was 5. I’m no expert, but people say those are serious courts and kids (very big kids) come to play from all over the city there. The players there were incredibly generous with making space for my very young son when he was learning, were gentle if they asked him to move to make space for others. It was all around a respectful and orderly place — at least in our limited experience, during the day, when people were there from all over the city to play basketball.

  • minotaur

    Increased traffic predictably suggests increase in violence and crime. Security should be increased to meet that demand.

    The park isn’t just for residents of the Heights or Cobble Hill, and the increase in this behavior is a predictable trade off for having a park that caters to a broad demographic.

    The basketball courts were a bad idea from the start. They probably should have been located near the southern perimeter of the park if at all, and not near the center. That way security would have an easier time controlling the area. Putting it near the center requires more security.

    Runners and others should be more vigilant as well. It’s easy to be fooled into thinking BBP is an oasis free from regular NYC crime.

  • minotaur

    What’s the R word? Robbery, Rape, Republican, Racketeering, Raid, Ransom, Reasonable Defense, Reform, Restriction, Rent, Risk….

    What R word are you speaking of that implies more crime?

  • Greg

    The park used to be decaying industrial piers that no one in their right mind wanted to spend any time near.

    It is clearly a safer space than before.

  • Greg

    That two incidents of petty crime invalidate the enormous cultural asset of a major beautiful park in our backyard.

    By your logic Central Park and Prospect Park also shouldn’t exist.

    I’m very sorry for the experience these women had. The answer is not to systematically disassemble anything good we have simply because there’s risk living in a city.

  • fultonferryres

    Unwarranted? Let’s start with comparing De Blasio to Dinkins, followed quickly by alluding to the fact that we’d all be better off packing heat while enjoying the Park, oh, but those damn liberals that want to take away your 2nd amendment rights! But first and foremost is the overreaction to isolated incidents. BBP has TWO reported crimes in the “seven major”category (murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto) in the first half of 2015, plus the shooting incident in April. This week, two joggers were reportedly accosted,

    but that does not automatically justify your warnings about “much worse incidents.” And by the way, all summer long there was a heavy police presence at Pier 5/Picnic Peninsula every night. Perhaps the precinct needs to spread their resources out better throughout the park, plus not reduce the numbers until we are closer to winter, as opposed to fall.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Hey those sideways photos look great once you drink as heavily as the phone they were taken with!

  • http://www.shootlikeagirlphotography.com/ lauren

    It is important to remember that crimes can happen anywhere at any time of day. It is easy to have a false sense of security by believing that avoiding certain areas at night will prevent one from being a victim of an attack.

  • StoptheChop

    What’s really unfortunate is the apparently continuing NYPD-BBP buck passing about appropriate responsibilities/duties. Both the community and park visitors deserve better. Why is there such a lackadaisical approach to security?

  • Willow Street Watch

    This sounds like a PR post from the BBPC or one of myriad of we’re-all-better-for-this-wonderful-new-park types. It’s interesting you mention something before the word crime. That’s exactly right in fact, this is the latest REPORTED crime.

    Want to guess what the actual number of serious disorders in the Heights so far this year as a result of the visitors to the park?
    I personally have witnessed dozens of harrasement, instructive and threatening behaviors along Joralemon and elsewhere in the Heights perpetrated by park visitors. As a block watcher I and associates have had to call 911 at least a dozen times.

    The park has simply become a new, at very serious, security in the Heights. As if we needed more security problems.

    The first concern should be freedom from fear and the safety of everyone in the Heights and the thousands of more reasonable visitors, many international, here in the heights.
    ,

  • Willow Street Watch

    It’s really difficult to reply to that degree of a twisted wrong premise mixed with rain pubble deep thinking.

    This assumes I am not addressing some PR agent of the BBPC….

  • Willow Street Watch

    The “R” word is, as anyone active in public advocacy well knows, is racism….unless someone is going to bell the cat and brave the. R word we can’t have any or very little public debate on public safety

    From the late 1960’s to now, anytime the established Media/NGO driven “public figures” want tho end or greatly end debate they just truck out the racism term and everyone goes to ground and keeps quiet. The very reasonable reaction to the effect of the park was weeks old when various well placed figures began tamping down vocal opposition with the threat of the R word.

  • Willow Street Watch

    A “predictable trade off” Really? I see, we should live with increased violent crime and general disorders because we have to accept the BBPC and their Hobson’s choice for the Heights?

    Really? Well kiddo, there another solution and if the types who think they’re going to cause another 70’s scene here in the Heights; keep it up,, you’ll see what going to happen……

    The Heights is NOT your or anybody’s punching bag. It doesn’t matter what the BHA or this administration or the well financed structure of BBP supporters think. We are NOT going to tolerate a (further) escalation of crime or disruptive/abusive behavior by what the park has attracted.

  • Jorale-man

    Good points. It will be interesting to see how the people in Pierhouse deal with the courts given that they’re paying millions to live there. Perhaps the condo board will have its own security force.

  • Willow Street Watch

    Well, Want to know what that park was like BEFORE Giulliani cracked down on that park? It was a gang and drug hell hole!
    They’re polite now? Guess why that is? Because the NYPD served notice that the general nonsense would stop and the DEA flooded the area with undercovers. PRIOR to that you couldn’t walk past the courts, especially if you were white, without having trash thrown at you, threats, obscene comments to women and/or weapons displayed. People who don’t know the (grim) history of this area can’t understand why people with more depth of experience and thus better judgment, hit the panic button when they see what is starting at the BBP. Weve seen this movie before, and we know the outcome..

  • Joan Goldberg

    The R word is racism and its use in the context of this discussion about safety is libelous. BBPC touts posting anonymously to discredit community concern are cowardly and disgraceful. The Heights experienced much gang-related violence in the past, and school children in daylight knew which streets to avoid. We live in a violent society and it is important to understand and respond with consideration and intelligence to what we are now experiencing. Violence related to the waterfront during the past year has been under reported.

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