After years of headlines touting historic declines in crime, the latest numbers in Brooklyn's Crown Heights and Prospect Heights neighborhoods paint a much less rosy picture.
In the 77th Precinct, where I live, there were 15 murders last year - way down from 1989, when 70 people were murdered, but still an unacceptable 66% increase from 1998. In the neighboring 71st, which covers lower Crown Heights, there have been 18 murders this year, an eye-popping 157% increase from last year.
Bullets keep flying in my backyard
Exactly two weeks after the Daily News published my concerns about raising my son in a rough neighborhood – Crown Heights – where crime is on the rise, the front-page story was about one of my neighbors, Police Officer Wiener Philippe, getting robbed and shot on St. Johns Place by a thieving lowlife who remained at large as of yesterday afternoon. The NYPD’s command staff must now match Philippe’s bravery with concerted action.
After years of headlines touting historic declines in crime, the latest numbers in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights and Prospect Heights neighborhoods paint a much less rosy picture.
In the 77th Precinct, where I live, there were 15 murders last year – way down from 1989, when 70 people were murdered, but still an unacceptable 66% increase from 1998. In the neighboring 71st, which covers lower Crown Heights, there have been 18 murders this year, an eye-popping 157% increase from last year.
These numbers, while alarming, do not capture the reality of life in a neighborhood where gun violence threatens to spin out of control.
Reality is tragedies like that of Benny Lyde, a senior at Long Island University, who remains paralyzed and comatose after being shot on Lincoln Place in September.
Or 35-year-old Kirk Probossing, who was fatally gunned down outside a barbershop on Empire Blvd. in June.
Or Linell Plair, a 29-year-old aspiring rapper and father of four, who was shot to death at a pre-Father’s Day cookout at Ebbets Field housing complex.
Among the most heart-wrenching was the killing of Hyacinth Cespedes, a 54-year-old grandmother who got around in a wheelchair after being shot during a robbery two decades ago – only to die in August of this year when a bullet struck her during the crossfire of a Crown Heights gunfight.
Even the nonfatal violence is horrifying. Raphaelina Smith, a 12-year-old walking home from Public School 12 with her 8-year-old brother, took a bullet in the spine when a gunfight broke out on Sterling Place last spring. Schoolchildren are now all too aware of the inability of grownups to protect them.
Every time shots go off and blood is spilled in Crown Heights, many middle-class families – including my wife and me – ask, once again, if it’s time to give in, give up and move out.
But I’m inspired by the many neighbors who have written to me, prepared to take a stand against gun violence in our midst.
In future columns, I hope to share good news about joint actions that good people can take to turn the situation around.
Our fight has just begun.
BB
The first step against such and other problems in our community (71st precinct) is to attend the police council meetings. These meetings held once a month on the third Thursday of the month are a forum to bring any grievances to the attention of the police. Unfortunately this is a very underutilized resource. The police is there ready to listen and no one is talking. Before we reinvent the wheel, let us use the tools we already have.
meeting...
Though we hear all the time how important this meeting is the fact remains that most people dont have the time top attend these meetings. but why do i have to go to meetings to bring to their attention whats going on here in ch?? shouldnt they be trying to lower the crime here without our active participation? what do we pay taxes for? besides the fact that th car brake ins have begun again this week. may we have hear only good news.
annonymous
The problem of crime in CH is not a new problem. It has just gotten worse since the cops in the area ( especially in the 71st precint) don’t want to belive that it’s so bad. I was here in yeshivah for 2 years and heard enough stories of ppl getting robbed or mugged on the streets that were either not reported or the police made it difficult for them to report it. A couple years ago the precint won an award for having the least crime, when in fact they were covering up the "petty" crimes to show good stats. When u let the petty stuff get out of control, things go from bad to worse. It is our job to report everything that happens and make sure the cops know and respond to them.
mike bloomberg
not bad, crownheights.info got the community councils attention… that information should come to good use… :-)