From the NY Times:
The thief who snatched a taupe, buckle-covered bag from a young woman with a glossy black ponytail and designer sunglasses on Thursday afternoon in Queens might have thought it would be an easy crime.
His well-dressed mark was strolling in Jackson Heights, on a bare and blighted pedestrian plaza near 37th Road, off Broadway, around 1:55 p.m. It seemed he could make a getaway through the thin crowd.
Within 10 minutes, the police had roped off the area. On the trash-strewn plaza, which had been cleared of people, behind a barricade of yellow caution tape, a bullet hole and the shooter’s navy baseball cap remained.
The plaza on which the shooting took place has been rife with controversy since the road was blocked off to create it late last year. It is the same area where a State Supreme Court justice, Thomas D. Raffaele, 69, said a police officer struck him after an unruly crowd surrounded the officer as he arrested a local vagrant. The episode is being investigated by the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.
Bystanders on Thursday were quick to blame the plaza, saying the reduced traffic had decimated businesses, with tables perpetually staked out by vagrants.
“The quality of the neighborhood has gone tremendously down,” said Agha Saleh, who owns the Internet cafe next to the shop that was struck. Last week, he said, a man stripped naked and ran into a nearby store. “Robberies, guns, drugs — so many things are happening every single day.”
25 comments:
Let's be fair. These same problems would likely exist whether there was a plaza there or not.
"Let's be fair. These same problems would likely exist whether there was a plaza there or not"
Yea, megalomaniac, power-hungry, im above the law, have less brains than a starfish cops will karate chop you in the throat and push you regardless of you who are. And like always, they will lie about it.
Oh yea, guns and drugs also.
Put the Plaza someplace away from the subway station so you don't have homeless and trouble
makers hanging out
"Robberies, guns, drugs - so many things happening every single day"
Check out these photos I shot last Sunday in the heart of this Sodom and Gomorrah - 75th Street between 37th Avenue & 37th Road:
"They were dancing [?] in the street.
"I give it a ten (diez) Dick (Riccardo), it's got a good (bueno)beat and you can dance (baillar) to it"
"Happy Father's Day, Pop. I want to thank you for raising me to be an outstanding member of Queens society."
I don't like the plaza at all, but I happen to agree with the first poster. This isn't necessarily a direct result of the plaza, it is more of a reflection of the kind of lowlife scum that has been packing in to Western Queens for the last 10-20 years.
A few weeks ago I was at Pronto, that store on the corner of 74th St/Broadway and there was this drunk mexican outside the store walking in circles mumbling to himself.
A guy in line in front of me in the store wanted to go outside and punch him..
Ironically there was a NYPD mobile command center a block away on 73rd St/Roosevelt....but not a cop in sight....
Let's cut another 5,000 cops from the NYPD!
there was this drunk mexican
That's redundant!
re : G the A....get the name of the P.O.S. on her knees.
it is perfect for a seat on the NYC City Council. it will fit right in with the rest of the sodomites.
I always see cops by Pronto dealing with those bums. There used to be a whole group of bums that hung around there on a daily basis. The old group seems to have died off, but the cops were always dealing with them, sending them away, locking them up or sending them to the hospital. Now it looks like the next group of regular denizens are starting to hang around.
George, looks like you had a "good time".
Latinos are a lot of fun.
Stop bitching - they either vote Democratic or even better for the local talent in office, don't vote at all.
These folks don't waste a pols time with stupid quality of life issues and live in basements and accept below scale wages.
A win-win for anyone in political office.
This is a one-sided post that has completely ignored the bravery of two christian missionaries and the firefighter who bravely tackled the thief immediately after his attempt to rob the lady.
As much as our neighborhoods are increasingly getting unsafe we still have ordinary heroes that quietly blast a wake-up call unto every citizen reminding us that it takes each of us to make all of us.
Two Christian missionaries who are not from anywhere around here. Why they were there in the first place is an interesting question.
Two Christian missionaries who are not from anywhere around here. Why they were there in the first place is an interesting question.
Anonymous said...
Two Christian missionaries who are not from anywhere around here. Why they were there in the first place is an interesting question.
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And the fireman was most likely some....how do people here refer to cops? Oh yes..."suburban punk". So does this mean that people from outside the city care more about the neighborhoods?
Suburban punk cops all grew up in the city and then around the time they became teens, their parents packed up and moved out to LI. Where do said individuals currently reside?
You know I have to laugh at all this business with Judge Raffaele getting slugged in the throat by the cop.
Thomas Raffaele is a cog in the Democratic machine. So also is his wife Ellen Raffaele who worked as an aide for Councilman then State Senator John Sabini.
Raffaele's boss Judge Jeremy Weinstein, another Dem machine cog, expresses amazement that such a mild-mannered guy like Raffaele got karate-chopped in the neck.
What happened at this Jackson Heights sewer and toilet crossroads?
Raffaele, after relocating his parents to Houston, innocently walks down the street, sees a cop trying to subdue some piece of human garbage. Raffaele donned his Dudley-Do-Right hat and makes a 911 call. The cop lunges forward and literally "hands Raffaele his head". Raffaele reels back and is flabbergasted that this, of all things, could happen to him, of all people.
He thinks to himself:
I am a Democratic liberal. What is going on here? My political party promotes helping the poor and unfortunate, the undocumented, the people living 10 to an apartment in a basement, the overcrowding of the area schools, the warehousing of the sick in the hospital's corridors. The promotion of prostitution. Thje elimination of finger-printing food stamp recipients. I am a Democratic liberal. I have a heart. I think with my heart and not with my head. Why did the policeman hurt me? I am such a nice man.
Tom, didja ever think of moving with the folks to red-state Texas?
Forget it "George". The cop assaulted somebody without just cause.
Add this one to the millions of dollars the City will shell out to settle lawsuits against our "finest".
Wait till these liberal douches get stop/quesion/frisk ended.Add that to the relaxed weed laws and it leads to chaos. More people buying = more dealers = turf wars.Were those shots i heard, buffy?
Forget it "George". The cop assaulted somebody without just cause.
Add this one to the millions of dollars the City will shell out to settle lawsuits against our "finest".
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There was no assault, The guy insisted on going to the hospital,, and they found nothing wrong with him, not even a mark. I agree that the city will still pay out, regardless.
There doesn't have to be a mark for there to have been an assault.
There doesn't have to be a mark for there to have been an assault.
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According to the Penal Law there has to be at least a physical injurl for the offense to be categorized as an assault.
If a cop saw a perp elbow someone in the throat, he would arrest him on the spot, not wait for an injury report.
Makes you long for the "good old days" when "The Magic Touch" gay bar was still open, and they were running underage Latino hustlers.
There were shootings then too.
This is the butt hole of the
whole area.
Yuppies had better stay north of 37th Avenue within the J.H. historic district.
Remember...
Jackson Heights-Elmhurst used to be the cocaine capitol of NYC.
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