Four Recent Robberies in the Heights: 84th Precinct Asks Residents to Take Precautions

By on July 1, 2016 3:43 pm in 84th Precinct, Brooklyn Heights, crime, News

This just in from Brooklyn Heights Association alerts:

Be Aware and Remain Safe!

The 84th Precinct notified the BHA today that four crimes have been committed in the Heights since the second week of June. Cell phones were taken in two incidents, a purse stolen in a third, and last night the victim resisted and was slashed. These crimes have occurred on Henry Street between Montague and Clark Streets and on Hicks Street near Love Lane, all between 7:30 PM and 11:15 PM. The police believe the same perpetrator – and in one incident, two persons – is involved and has been using the Clark Street station. The police are asking Heights residents to take reasonable precautions: refrain from using your cell phone at night on the street, be aware of your surroundings, and if possible, walk with others. Extra police details – both uniformed and plain clothed – have been assigned to streets in the north Heights and to the Clark Street station.

Exercise situational awareness!

Be safe everyone; that text can wait, whether you’re walking or driving.

 

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  • redlola

    how about you get over yourself and out of your feelings. ad hominem attacks,please. look at your own remarks. like i said before your insidious tendency to be snark and then act like the victim is tiring. as far as the denial — people have been coming to the promenade for years from everywhere. we have never had these issues. since these courts, there has been an uptick of specific incidents on thoroughfares leading to these courts. victims have described their assailants and even police now seem to concur. what more do you need? however, i would love the opportunity to test your theory by turning those courts into a japanese zen garden.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Oh, don’t worry about my feelings! I’m not hurt, but thank you. However, I am concerned about you. It seems you’re dealing with some anger issues…I suppose you take them out on me (and others) here because we tend to disagree about neighborhood affairs, but that seems rather abnormal for an adult, doesn’t it? My underlying point was that we’re neighbors, so if you’re having a problem I’ll be the first to step up and offer help. I’m sure many others here would offer in kind.

    By the way, there’s a huge difference between being snarky (not to overly-deconstruct, but my emphasis is on humor, which actually has the tendency to diffuse tension rather than create it) and launching ad hominem attacks against people. When you just pop in to remark on someone’s character, such as claiming that person is in denial, and then add nothing further to the discussion or to substantiate your claim, this is what I’d consider ad hominem, wouldn’t you? Again, I’m here to help. Maybe you need a friend? Someone to tell you they care about you? I care about you, redlola, even if we disagree about the park.

    And my assertion about statistical percentages of populations being likely to commit crime isn’t exactly a theory as much as the result of a logical process: crime–especially petty crime such as vandalism and public nuisance–is symptomatic of a cocktail of socioeconomic factors which are fairly constant within the population of our borough. When we create the right environment for crime to happen, namely, a slice of that population being channelled through a single neighborhood toward some attraction by way of three main thoroughfares, the amount of crime we’ll see will vary according to the change in the size of that slice of the population. Before the BBP there was only the promenade, with one or two main thoroughfares, to attract the bulk of the outside population, which might have drawn X number of visitors per week, and the crime brought by X was proportionate to X according to that cocktail of socioeconomic factors. Now there’s the promenade AND the BBP, so we have X + Y number of visitors, with an X + Y proportion of criminal activity coming outward from more thoroughfares.

    So you’re asking, would the BBP attract the same number of Brooklynites if the basketball courts were turned into Japanese Zen Gardens? The presumption here seems to be that the particular part of the population causing the crime would not be interested in a beautiful garden, even if it were open to the public for free (unlike, say, the Japanese Zen gardens in Portland, Oregon, or our own Botanical Gardens). Are you sure they wouldn’t come and hang out? Are you sure they wouldn’t just go where everyone else is going?

  • redlola

    Yup pretty sure the people stealing phones and slashing would not be coming to the zen gardens. Also please be to ask arch if he needs a friend when he calls ppl idiots outright. I think you need less free time on your hands. You pour way to much energy into this blog.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    When ad hominems aren’t directed at me, I believe it’s usually best to try to let them resolve between those directly involved. For the record, I do not condone Arch’s tone most of the time he’s involved in confrontations here–this latest one is really obnoxious, with a duel proposal. But I’ve called Arch and others on ad hominems in the past as well–in fact I’m pretty sure that’s why I have a good rapport with Concerned and Chase. Still working on you, my dear. :)

    “You pour way to [sic] much energy into this blog.”

    Thanks for that assessment, but I work from home part time (as opposed to being an attorney at a major firm). What’s your excuse?

  • Teresa

    What does this mean? Earlier you mentioned “fighting back.”

  • Teresa

    The police have made this recommendation city-wide (including here) for years.

  • Michael

    What if we employed a neighborhood watch? Working with the Police?

  • petercow

    To not use your phone when walking down the street?

    That’s awesome advice.

  • Teresa

    I guess here the official name is “civilian observation patrol,” making for the neat acronym. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/community_affairs/community_participation_programs.shtml

  • Michael

    Just an idea, better then having the bad behavior of a few impact everyone.

  • Brixtony

    Thanks everyone for reminding me how unpleasant many of my neighbors are. When do we start discussing the election? I can’t wait.

  • Teresa

    Totally agree

  • Teresa

    Yep. Particularly at night. People less aware of surroundings are targets, plus the display of the device makes it easy to take.

  • Concerned

    You’ve shown everyone who you truly are, Brixtony… (cue horror screaming in the background)

  • Brixtony

    For once, Donald, you’ve got something right.

  • Concerned

    LOL. Who is Donald?

  • Concerned

    I’ll totally be on a neighborhood watch, on the conditions that 1) I get a flashlight that I can shine in everyone’s face (not just suspected criminals, but babies, old people and any celebrity that I wasted money on their last performance), 2) we have a conch at meetings, and whoever has the conch gets to talk, 3) StudioBrooklyn and Redlola are my partners on the street so that if things get boring I can instigate a fight between the two, 4) Arch Stanton is on the watch and is required to say, at least once a day, “Just like a St. Anne’s teenager, you brought a knife to a gun fight” OR “Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya!” 5) When we report a crime, Teresa is required to snatch our flashlights away from us, shine the light in our face and scream: “Don’t you know that crime has happened here before!?! CARRY ON!!!”

  • Michael

    So when can you aside from 4am?

  • Michael

    Done

  • redlola

    I will probably be crucified for this comment and have statistical data demanded as validation, but being the daredevil that I am, will just go out on a limb and say it. It feels like (no concrete evidence other than instinct as well as real-life conversations with diverse members of this community), that there are two types of people who live in the heights and that may reflect on how we respond to community issues (and what plays out on these threads). There are people who have been here for a very long time and probably have seen the neighborhood through several transitions. They may live in what was a family home or in a rent stabilized apartment. Then there are those who bought into this neighborhood more recently (even 15 years or so would count for recent), who paid top market dollar specifically for the benefits that this distinguished this community – safety, schools, pleasant surroundings. They made an educated and strategic decision, despite having other options, to settle here because of this vision and the desire for a very specific type of environment — one that was not overrun with tourists and ppl in general, noisy, crime-ridden, etc. Utopian maybe. Clearly, it is impossible to escape all these urban issues, but for a while BK Heights came pretty close to just being a genuinely pleasant place to live. It never struck me as being outwardly posh (sure we know market rates are high but the feel of the residents is pretty down to earth) or exclusionary. As a person with a racially blended family, I did not feel that my husband, child or relatives would be treated in any negative way here and they haven’t been. Essentially, the only common denominator or importance seemed to be a level of respect for our neighbors and surroundings. I think those of us who bought into that Brooklyn Heights are most frustrated by what we perceive as changes we didn’t bargain for and have a harder time finding broad excuses for what is essentially unnecessary negative behavior. We are also not acquainted with the homeless of yore and are most likely to only know the homeless of today who seem very different from Bernie, Charlotte, etc. Despite being painted as racist, NIMBY, intolerant, etc., by some on this blog, I think we are mainly frustrated and perhaps unrealistic about preserving the environment that drew us to make a substantial investment in living here versus other areas.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I thought that acronym was derived from “constable on patrol” (or as the case may often be, “constable on parole” heh heh cop joke!)

  • StudioBrooklyn

    For the record, I don’t fight with redlola, I try to befriend her. Sort of like a non-romantic Pepe Le Pieu. Her resistance to this is where the humor comes from. See, THATS how you write comedy.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    “mutual respect for our neighbors”

    That goes for online, too.

    I have a great deal of respect for you and what you’ve just written, just so you know. I agree with 95% of it. Not sure what the 5% is I disagree with, but for such a high word count there’s bound to be something. ;)

  • redlola

    Lol, befriending kind of like in grade school when someone hit you on the head with a bookbag – non romantically of course…

  • redlola

    Will being on this watch be my first step to mayorhood which you keep nominating me for? I think once we catch perpetrators in the act, as punishment, we should make them read this blog every day for a year. Should be a deterrent to this neighborhood :).

  • Concerned

    LOL! Thanks for the comedy lesson.

  • Teresa

    Not crucified, just corrected. There are more than two types of people who live in this neighborhood. An example: people who moved here long before you did who also paid “top dollar” (in that market at that time)–they are neither the beneficiaries of family money nor of good real estate luck. Some of them no doubt moved here for the same reasons that you did. No doubt that there are plenty of other “types” that none of these three characterizations represent.

    Nor does how/why we moved here necessarily lead to the way we think about the changes in the neighborhood. And some of us still see Brooklyn Heights as a convenient, lovely, safe place to live, regardless of its imperfections (and what those would be would also likely be as variable as the people who live here) and the way that it’s changed, with those changes viewed as pluses or minuses, depending on one’s perspective.

  • redlola

    super impractical when we start classifying night as 7:30pm, but sure. Let’s do that and when they take the phone from our purse with our purse, we’ll just stop carrying that too cause anything that may have value is clearly an attractive nuisance and it is our job not to tempt these sweet innocent perpetrators with our ill-earned NIMBY rich possessions. #rogerthat #itsus #noreallyitsthem

  • Concerned

    REDLOLA………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….FOR MAYOR!!!!

  • Concerned

    Teresa, from your perspective, is Joralemon street better or worse than it was 10 years ago?

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