Video of 65 Year Old Man Assaulted on Joralemon Street July 6

By on July 19, 2016 9:19 am in Brooklyn Heights, crime, News

(To see video, click on “Read full story” and follow the link. Also see update for an interview with the victim.) Several news media have obtained a surveillance video of a 65 year old man receiving a “sucker punch” as he walked along Joralemon Street on the evening of July 6. The victim’s eyeglasses were broken and he was treated at a hospital for an eye laceration. See the video here.

Update: Mary Frost’s Eagle story includes an interview with the victim, Joralemon Street resident Richard Carey.

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  • HereToStay

    Lol troll.

  • Concerned

    Ok chump, I’ll bite. 1) the scumbag who came from crown heights and shot his ex girlfriend in the head as she left Fornino is someone bringing crime that hasn’t ever existed in Brooklyn Heights and now happened here. How is that racist? It’s simple truth that ultra left wing weenies like you can’t handle. 2) in regards to the courts, the police have had to shut down all of pier two and other parts of the park HOW MANY TIMES!?! All stemming from people on the basketball courts. 3) a thug is a thug. Do you really believe that if the piece of garbage who sucker punched that 65 year old was white, we wouldn’t be calling him a thug!?! If so, you’re dumber than you appear to be in print. 4) most people like the park, we just don’t like being the collateral damage.

  • TeddyNYC

    What do you propose to prevent this and other incidents from occurring in the future?

  • Greg

    Did you really have to go there?

    As I expressed earlier, I’m very open to the idea that the park has impacted incidents in Joralemon. I haven’t decided personally because I don’t live on Joralemon (even though I cross it every day) so I don’t have the same first-hand experience as actual residents.

    I read your reply to my other comment with enthusiastic interest and an open mind. But when I see followup comments where you’re just lashing out and calling people dumb, I can’t possibly trust your perspective any more because you’re losing any semblance of objectivity.

    I can tell you’re sincere and mean well. I really want to respect your opinion. Please allow me to do so by not browbeating. There’s meaningful content to communicate here without slinging mud at each other.

  • Greg

    That’s what I’m curious about. I particularly remember a history of incidents around Clinton, where I spend most of my time.

  • Concerned

    You’re 100% correct, Greg. I wasn’t referring to you. I read your comments and understand you’re a reasonable and open minded person.
    The people (and especially one special person) who I’m referring to, know who they are. Please accept my apology for the mix up. Thanks.

  • Concerned

    To follow up, I was mainly referring to “Teresa”, who has the temerity to up vote “meschwar’s” comment calling us racist. Teresa, you’re a real piece of work. You should show up to a neighborhood meeting and tell all the people (older men, women, children) who have been sucker punched, threatened, assaulted, shot at, etc… that they’re racist and that the park is a blessing and because you haven’t been beaten to a pulp that we’re all whiners. You are something else and you have shown your true colors with your up vote calling us racists.

  • ColumbiaHeightster

    I encourage anyone who is interested to do the same. They are our elected public officials. We put them in office to represent our interests. If our interest is public safety, let’s be heard. It’s clear that different people have different opinions, particularly on this issue, but the louder we make ourselves heard, the more seriously our voices will be taken. One could argue that we all have a civic duty to do so (though I’m certainly not offended by anyone disagreeing with that). My emails to both of them are in their inboxes. Please consider doing the same.

  • Peter A

    Inventors of the Knockout Game Lives Matter

  • Peter A

    I haven’t seen the video yet but I’m sure the knockout game perpetrator was a Hassidic Jew

  • Mary Kim

    I just read Mary Frost’s article in the Eagle. The quotes from the victim, Richard Carey, are so selfless, reasoned, and compassionate, even after he was so brutally attacked. He sounds like a wonderful man and I hope that he’s fully healed, mentally and physically, soon. I would love for us, as neighbors, to be able to do something for him.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I don’t feel my upvote is sufficient. Everyone, please read the article and pay careful attention to Carey’s quotes. The guy deserves a great deal of respect on top of the compassion he’s gotten and the anger this incident has elicited.

  • Concerned

    I agree 100%. What a great guy.

    “In the past five years, as traffic and the number of people increased, you get the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said. “Certainly it’s less peaceful; arguably it’s less safe. Prior to this you had groups marauding up Joralemon Street and behaving badly — jumping on cars, knocking on doors.
    “I hate to say it, but there’s an escalation in the level of random violence. It’s not cool.” He added, “I feel it’s less safe. I don’t want to judge any teen as a possible threat.”

    A call to action without being bitter and without lashing out, despite the unprovoked violence against him.

  • John

    Another victim of “walking while white.”

  • Concerned

    Get outta here with that BS. You think that thug only hits white guys? That’s a joke! A piece of garbage like that strikes out at whatever is in front of him that is an easy target. Unfortunately, because our neighborhood is not accustomed to such violence, we can be easier targets. Now, the question is: are we going to have to now become on edge and “hard” and paranoid to protect ourselves and change the entire dynamic of the neighborhood? Or will we be able to solve these problems and keep the integrity of the neighborhood where we all feel safe raising our children?

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I wasn’t going to respond to that comment (now deleted) but just wanted to thank you for saying “Get outta here with that BS”, 100% agree.

    I hope that outside readers [journalists] can make the distinction between rightly concerned residents (regardless of what solutions to and acknowledgements of the park-related problems we agree upon or not) and people who turn up on our neighborhood blog to stir up anger and fear by making unwarranted and counterproductive mention of race.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    With respect, Concerned, I think you should tone down your remarks against Teresa. You don’t share the same views about a few important current news items, but it seems like you’re putting a lot of words in her mouth, some of them potentially damaging. I would tell you this even if we agreed completely on park-related issues, because as I’ve said and as you’ve demonstrated many times, you’re better than to instigate this kind of mudslinging.

  • Concerned

    You know, I was with you on this until I saw her up vote of meschwar calling us racist. If you notice, I didn’t mention her name in my first post. The reason for that is because I wanted to keep her out of this until she actually made a comment, herself. You know I’m reasonable and that I’m not trying to pick a fight with anyone. But to see her up vote meschwar’s post is really a slap in the face to everyone in the neighborhood, so I clarified my comment. I take zero joy in calling her out, but man, that is some serious BS for her to up vote meschwar’s post.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Do upvotes imply 100% agreement with every implicit idea? I regularly upvote comments, including yours, that I just feel are good-natured or include good ideas.

    But I don’t want to presume to speak for Teresa’s motivations for hitting that little arrow. Meschwar went on to clarify that s/he felt certain commenters on the blog had, in the past, exhibited racist attitudes. No commenters were identified in this charge, but at least Meschwar presented his/her reasoning. Just because you don’t agree with that reasoning doesn’t mean it’s wrong (or worse) for someone to be sensitive to the smell of racism in commentary, especially on this topic, even if they’re picking up a false scent.

  • Concerned

    I could agree with you in theory, but how much more clear do you have to get when you call us “racist a$$holes”? Think about it for a second. How much more insulting can you get? To call me or others a racist is so wrong.
    If Teresa want to say that she doesn’t agree with that part of meschwar’s comment, she can clarify. Until then, I’m not giving her the benefit of the doubt in her up vote. Is that unreasonable of me?

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I do think it’s a bit unreasonable of you to lash out at her for giving a comment an upvote.

    Nobody called you a racist, and for all you know, the people who were being called racists actually are racists (overtly or otherwise). There’s no way of knowing, since no one was named.

    So I think you’re making one assumption on top of another, which to me does not constitute sufficient reasoning to lash out at someone who, as far as I know, has never so much as written a single word to imply that she thinks you’re a racist.

    I think you could start by asking Meschwar to clarify who s/he thinks are making racist remarks.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    ….aaaand it’s after midnight! I’ve got to get some sleep! Take care. :)

  • Concerned

    It’s somehow becoming nationwide news that Brooklyn Heights is racist!!!!! WHY!?! Because we are trying to stand up to crime that is sucker punching 65 year olds!!! SB, you need to wake up and understand that the narrative being put on our neighborhood can be VERY detrimental. You act like an up vote is nothing, but writing something in a post and upvoting are the only two ways to express yourself on this board.
    In regards to who is calling who racist, meschwar’s post was plural. It was calling those in the neighborhood racist a$$holes. Is that everyone, of course not. Is it more than the one racist a$$hole who used to post on this blog? Yes. It was referring to the neighborhood and I think we should stand up to it.

  • John

    The knockout game targets white people. Don’t kid yourself otherwise.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Look, we could go through every discussion on here having to do with the park and outrage over crime and rank each comment on a scale of 1 to 10 for how racist it sounds. I guarantee you there would be variation among those numbers. I think the impression people are getting (via journalists) comes in part from some of these comments (and in part from the wealthy, white reputation of the neighborhood, however inaccurate or incomplete). You and others have made efforts to distinguish your concerns from those stemming from race, but not everyone has been so careful. And from one or two commenters, the racism has been overt.

  • redlola

    agree. the game is to intimidate the “rich white crackers” of brooklyn heights cause we’re easy prey and somehow we owe somebody. i have had an incident on clark where a bunch of girls with a ball got into my face. i diffused it by telling them i was an ADA and they had exactly 60 seconds to cross the street and keep it moving. For some reason, they didn’t call my bluff. My family is biracial. I don’t care what color the troublemakers are. I just don’t want them around. I am all for the parks, but I refuse to act like we owe it to anybody to suck up violence and theft. I love to see people enjoying the park. All this other stuff is extra and unnecessary and those people who create the problems need to understand that there are consequences. #nocoddling

  • StudioBrooklyn

    “Thug” is not a racist term in and of itself. (Concerned and redlola, please take note.) However, it has become associated with many famous racially-charged lines of rhetoric. This is no fault of anyone on the blog, but it’s something we should be responsive to.

    In this context, I think it would be a little bit like saying “I hate it when kids from other neighborhoods leave their fried chicken bones and watermelon rinds on our sidewalks” and then getting all indignant because people in other parts of the world think you’re racist, even though you made no mention of race and simply object to littering, regardless of who is doing it. In PR terms, it’s an impossible battle to win unless you’re very careful with your words from the beginning.

    So, “thug” isn’t a racist term, but it’s a loaded one. As more and more people from outside the neighborhood begin to take notice of what’s happening here, we probably need to be more careful about writing things that could be misconstrued as reflecting racist attitudes (unless, of course, you don’t mind your words being interpreted as racist). The English language blesses us with many different ways of describing things and expressing ourselves clearly. Media culture tends to try to chip away at those expressions–the internet is stuffed to the seams with people whose whole lives seem to revolve around going around and finding racism in things other people say and do–so unfortunately the labor of unbreakable writing falls on us.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    Please see my last comment to KXrVii1, about the use of the term “thug”. I don’t think it’s fair for people like you and redlola (to throw out two examples) to be labeled racists (even though you’re knuckleheads who regularly bust my chops!), but in terms of the way the media reads the internet and draws conclusions, fairness is not really a thing that exists. We have to start writing more clearly, and stop pretending we’re unaware of, or don’t care about, the associations certain terms have with racism. Your indignation at meschwar’s comment shows you clearly do care, a lot.

  • CHASESGILBERT

    Teresa’s attitude in this regard is perpetually offensive.

  • Concerned

    Respectfully, SB, I understand that many find that the term is loaded. What term isn’t loaded these days? These perpetrators are criminals who have zero disregard for others. Either I can say the phrase “criminals who have zero disregard for others” every time I describe them, or I can call them thugs. I think I’m going to stick with the latter.

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