The 104 and the battle against real traffic violence

 

QNS

 

The NYPD 104th Precinct has towed 463 vehicles this year and expects to surpass that soon, according to Commanding Officer Captain Karam Chowdhury. Last year, they towed 553 vehicles, leaving them just 90 cars shy of last year’s total, making this year even more productive.

The NYPD’s 104th Precinct has towed 463 vehicles so far this year and expects to surpass last year’s total within the next few months, according to Commanding Officer Captain Karam Chowdhury.

Last year, the 104th Precinct, which serves Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale and Middle Village, towed 553 vehicles in total, Chowdhury shared exclusively with QNS.

Now just 90 vehicles shy of last year’s total, the precinct is on track to surpass that number, marking an even more productive year.

Notably, between Sunday, July 14, and Wednesday, Aug. 14, the precinct towed exactly 90 vehicles, Chowdhury noted.

Ongoing efforts to address residents’ quality-of-life concerns regarding illegally parked and derelict vehicles are what Chowdhury says keep the existing issues at bay.

“We want to make sure that people can park their vehicles instead of derelict vehicles or unregistered vehicles parking in the street,” Chowdhury said. “We just make sure that we do as much as we can to elevate [resident’s] parking issues. Especially in this neighborhood.”

Residents and elected officials’ attempts to have the 104 thwart the problem with derelict vehicles and illegally parked cars have also led to e-scooter confiscations.

As a whole, the precinct is up 110% in summonses directly co-related to e-scooters, Chowdhury added.

One example, shared early on Wednesday, Aug. 14, shows the precinct taking to social media to share at least six confiscations of more e-scooters in the area. Additional posts throughout the year also show officers with confiscated e-scooters, loading them into a larger truck to be hauled away.

Chowdhury, who took over command of the 104th Precinct towards the end of January this year, continues to grapple with the logistics of tackling 311 parking complaints with a limited amount of resources.

Regardless of the challenges and the thousands of 311 complaints overall, the CO says the issues will continue to be addressed.

“We take complaints, we try to gather information and try to see where our most complaints coming from,” Chowdhury said, “Then we target those locations, making sure that these cars are no longer in the street if it’s derelict, or not registered.”

 

104th Precenct: Be aware of your surroundings...

 

QNS

Deputy Inspector Kevin Coleman, the commanding officer of the 104th Precinct, encouraged the public to remain vigilant as felony assaults and car thefts are on the rise within the precinct’s coverage area spanning Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village.

During the final 104th Precinct Community Council meeting before the summer break, membership and attendees met inside Martin Luther School, on 60-02 Maspeth Ave. in Maspeth on Tuesday, June 20

As the meeting progressed, the deputy inspector noted an increase in felony assaults (25%) and grand larceny auto incidents (36%) recorded over a 28-day period. The precinct saw five more assaults and seven more grand larceny auto crimes when compared to the same time period as last year. 

NYPD crime stats in June also reveal an increase in both categories between the beginning of the year and June 18, 2023. 

Coleman says the precinct is “headed in the right direction” when it comes to addressing these crime increases, but he also stressed that residents should not engage or interfere with criminal activity. 

“Whenever this happens — and it does happen — that person that goes to engage the perpetrator either gets assaulted, punched or something else happens and obviously it’s not worth risking it,” said Coleman. “If someone’s stealing something and you try and stop them, more than likely they’re not going to listen to you or stop. They’re going to fight back with you and so we want to avoid that.” 

Coleman said there were two incidents where catalytic converter thefts almost turned deadly as one victim was held at gunpoint after confronting the group of thieves. Another resident was punched after approaching the attacker for being illegally parked at a fire hydrant, Coleman said.

Another example of retaliation by perpetrators was regarding a Facebook post showing a group of teenagers who were testing car door handles along 60th Lane and 59th Avenue, in Maspeth. The teens allegedly vandalized cars along the neighborhood after a resident yelled at the trio, all captured on a Ring camera. 

Police also told residents to first file a police report instead of going to social media platforms. Lieutenant George Hellmer, special operations lieutenant for the 104th Precinct, said many incidents go unreported but make their way on social media. 

“We need somebody to come and make that police report. When we do get the police reports, we follow up on every single one of them. So it’s important that 911 is called and a report is generated because we can know all these things, but we can’t charge the person unless we have a complainant saying ‘that’s my property, they’re not allowed to have it,’” said Hellmer, in response to package thefts concerns.

NYPD claims they didn't see protesters stealing flags while pursuing them in Maspeth

#Protesters burn #Americanflags yanked from people’s porches before #officers swooped in. #burnflag #Queens #protest #NYPD pic.twitter.com/3wUev2LgEh

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) October 7, 2020

QNS

Captain Louron Hall, the NYPD’s 104th Precinct new commanding officer, told QNS officers didn’t stop last Tuesday’s protesters from taking flags off of Maspeth residents’ homes — which resulted in them burning them — because they didn’t witness it as it was happening.

“We were instructed to allow people to exercise their first amendment rights, but also to make sure no violence or vandalism took place,” Captain Hall said.

The protest was scheduled to take place from Brooklyn to Maspeth, and had about 100 individuals marching against police unions and QAnon on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Before the protest began, Captain Hall said the 104th Precinct received information that it would begin at the 108th Precinct and head toward the 104th.

That evening, the Jefferson L train station stop was being skipped while police barricaded the exits and entrances. Before the protest took off, an altercation between maskless police officers and a protester inside of his pickup truck took place, which culminated in the driver getting a summons for leaving their car door slightly open.

Throughout the march toward Maspeth, where protesters claimed President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association Ed Mullins either lived or had property, several police cars as well as police on bikes trailed them.

Captain Hall said that because police officers trailed behind the protesters, they didn’t witness when some of them began to take the U.S. flags from residents’ homes.

“I will tell you this, if officers would have seen the actual taking of the flags, they would have intervened in the way they did when they set them on fire,” Captain Hall said. “The mere burning of the flags, regardless how poor it looks, is their first amendment right. [But] officers took issue with it because of the danger it poses to everyone.”

Before protesters could light a large fire, police on bikes swooped in, causing the protest to disband.

What the hell is going on at the NYPD? This new police captain is as befuddled as Baghdad Bob describing what happened at this botched protest. Seems like Commissioner Shea's gaslighter spin control methods describing these protests have trickled down or are policy now.

An abandoned car in Middle Village is running out of room for garbage

Queens Chronicle

 
Sitting in Middle Village on 62nd Street between Metropolitan Avenue and 62nd Road is a car that’s been in better shape. The inside’s filled with boxes, bags and old food. The driver side mirror is broken off, hanging by two wires. There was an old, broken TV sitting on the hood.

The gray Saturn has been left there for more than 60 days. And city agencies aren’t stepping up to remove it, according to an area resident who prefers to remain unidentified.

His visit to the Chronicle was prompted by an Oct. 24 article about an abandoned SUV on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park that the city removed after multiple inquiries from the newspaper about it. That vehicle had sat there for more than three months.

Over in Middle Village, a Department of Sanitation employee tagged the gold Saturn for towing on the morning of Aug. 30. The matter was referred to the 104th Precinct.