Crime on the rise?

David Goldsmith

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MCR

Active member
Everywhere is wonky right now. I kid you not, we received reports of early morning (like 4am) gun fire from our neighborhood associations in both Washington, DC and Columbus, OH in the past week. Neither neighborhood (Forest Hills in DC and The Short North in Columbus) is known for gunplay.

No gunplay in our NY neighborhood (Beekman Place), but reports of muggings close by.
 

MCR

Active member
Everywhere is wonky right now. I kid you not, we received reports of early morning (like 4am) gun fire from our neighborhood associations in both Washington, DC and Columbus, OH in the past week. Neither neighborhood (Forest Hills in DC and The Short North in Columbus) is known for gunplay.

No gunplay in our NY neighborhood (Beekman Place), but reports of muggings close by.
Gun homicide in our NW DC neighborhood last night (gas station on 4900 block of Conn Avenue - just across and down the street from the now infamous Comet Pizza). Unheard of and coming on the heels of another shooting last week just down the street. Really strange.
 

John Walkup

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Interesting - MCR, in your opinion, do you feel NYC is unsafe compared to DC with its 'murder capital' reputation? Would you walk around Beekman at night? I get the sense that the violence is targeted (intra-group) vs opportunistic. I live on the UES and the garage in our building was held up at gunpoint while a car was stolen, but despite that, I haven't felt unsafe walking around during the day or at night..... of course from a market perspective I suppose the fact we're even having this discussion means safety is no longer a given.
 

MCR

Active member
Interesting - MCR, in your opinion, do you feel NYC is unsafe compared to DC with its 'murder capital' reputation? Would you walk around Beekman at night? I get the sense that the violence is targeted (intra-group) vs opportunistic. I live on the UES and the garage in our building was held up at gunpoint while a car was stolen, but despite that, I haven't felt unsafe walking around during the day or at night..... of course from a market perspective I suppose the fact we're even having this discussion means safety is no longer a given.
The incidents in our DC neighborhood do appear to be intra-group. What is interesting is that the group has never had a presence in the ultra sleepy area before - why now? Regarding Beekman Place, I was last up there for a short stretch in May but did not feel at all unsafe. I speak with three people in our building somewhat regularly who have been there throughout - two out of the three feel perfectly safe in the neighborhood; one does not. All three are women, so I am not sure what to think.
 

MCR

Active member
The incidents in our DC neighborhood do appear to be intra-group. What is interesting is that the group has never had a presence in the ultra sleepy area before - why now? Regarding Beekman Place, I was last up there for a short stretch in May but did not feel at all unsafe. I speak with three people in our building somewhat regularly who have been there throughout - two out of the three feel perfectly safe in the neighborhood; one does not. All three are women, so I am not sure what to think.
So the above was a long answer; the short answer is really “No, I do not feel like NY is unsafe relative to DC.”
 

MCR

Active member
For anyone doesn't have access to WaPo through the link, this excerpt is chilling:

"Police are trying to determine whether the same people involved in the fatal shooting of a man early Monday at a gas station in upper Northwest Washington also shot and wounded a 75-year-old Uber driver hours earlier and a mile south in Tenleytown. A police report said Nwogu suffered blunt trauma to the back of his head and a single gunshot wound to the middle of his back. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

. . .

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said she and her constituents are worried that the crimes were random.

“Shootings, murders are not the normal fare in Upper Northwest,” Cheh said, adding that the two incidents “look like random street crimes. That’s the worst, because you really can’t protect yourself. It could happen to anybody.”

The shootings come two weeks after a man was fatally shot Sept. 24 in nearby Friendship Heights in what police described as a robbery involving marijuana."
 

MCR

Active member
@David - That map would certainly make me think twice before venturing into that central hot spot. Do you think what you are noticing is worse in NYC than other urban areas or do you view this increase in crime as a nationwide urban phenomenon that is going to continue and perpetuate a demographic shift away from cities in general? I always come back to the fact that humans beings have gravitated to density since the beginning of time, with all that entails, such that what we are currently experiencing in urban America is a mere flesh wound that will heal in relatively short order.
 

John Walkup

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
I tend to agree. We did a Talking Manhattan with Jason Haber last month and he essentially argued the same thing: the long term trend is toward increasing urbanization. Of course, as Keynes famously said: “Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”, so the big question for buyers/sellers/renters/owners etc is how long will the anti-urban pandemic reaction last?
 

David Goldsmith

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I don't know what's going on in other cities, but I know a lot about what's going on in NYC. For example Sunrise Mart Soho telling their Japanese customers "you don't want to be in this neighborhood after dark" last week. https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2020100700708/

Did you see them burning a pile of masks in Borough Park today? Or the recent report on NYPD Human Rights Violations during FTP protests (or just the fact there have been "FTP" protests?)
The unrest in NYC doesn't appear to be abating.

Every report I'm seeing has said only about 10% of Manhattan office workers have returned to the office. That is why I think you are seeing that very dark central area. The absence of workers creates a void which is being filled. But even look at the rate in Central/West Village - it's NAPS. East Village seems to be being saved a little by extremely busy restaurants and the street activity surrounding them. But to the South in LES I see Senior Citizen groups recommend not leaving the house after dark.

All this gets worse if we have a "Second Wave" which it certainly seems NYC is at the beginning stages of. And the major chains (Walgreens, CVS) all seem to run out of flu vaccine yesterday.
 
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David Goldsmith

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‘He had blood all over his mouth’: Dad of two shot dead in the East Village

A father of two was fatally shot in the East Village early Sunday, leaving a trail of blood down the block before he collapsed near a CitiBike station, police and witnesses said.
Tyrell Williams, 26, was hanging out with two friends on the corner of E. 13th St. and Avenue A around 1:20 a.m. when three men walked up — and a gunman fired four rounds, sources said.

Williams was struck once in the chest. Medics rushed him to Mount Sinai Beth Israel, but he could not be saved.
A shoe is pictured on the corner of E. 13th St. and Avenue A after a shooting there hours earlier.

A shoe is pictured on the corner of E. 13th St. and Avenue A after a shooting there hours earlier. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Cristopher Pastor, who was eating dinner nearby when he heard a loud sound, said he rushed over to the scene and found a pool of blood outside Borrachito, a taqueria on Avenue A.

“He had blood all over his mouth. His eyes were open, not breathing,” Pastor, 23, said. “You could tell that he was deceased.”

“EMS started to give CPR. They checked for pulse. He had no pulse,” said Pastor.

The victim’s white Nike sneaker was still lying on the corner as detectives tried to put together a description of the gunman.
A man was fatally shot an East Village restaurant early Sunday, leaving a trail of blood down block before he collapsed near a CitiBike stand, police and witnesses said.

A man was fatally shot an East Village restaurant early Sunday, leaving a trail of blood down block before he collapsed near a CitiBike stand, police and witnesses said. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Williams' mother, who said said she was driving into the city from her home in Syracuse, told the Daily News that her son grew up in Brooklyn, but moved to the East Village after she left for upstate.

“It’s hard right now. It’s very difficult for me right now. That’s my only son,” heartbroken mom Lashonda Williams, 45, told The News.
“I just want people to remember the kind heart that he had. Everybody loved him. He was very loyal. His loyalty was amazing. He cared about everybody,” Williams said. “He really didn’t deserve this.”

Police sources said the shooting may have been gang-related and Williams, who lived less than a mile away from the violent confrontation, allegedly belonged to a local group called the YG Bloods.

He was wanted for questioning in a shooting two years ago, sources said.

Police cordon off the spot outside an East Village restaurant where a man was fatally shot Sunday.

Police cordon off the spot outside an East Village restaurant where a man was fatally shot Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Williams’ mother said she didn’t know if anyone might have been targeting him.

“As far as I know, everybody had nothing but love for him,” she said.She said he had a 7-year-old daughter, and a 2-year-old son.
“I’m still trying to process all of this. My son was my only son, my first-born child. I’m still in shock and total disbelief," she said. “My son was the life of the party, always looking out for people and loyal to all his loved ones.”

A group of Williams' friends gathered outside his apartment building to remember him Sunday afternoon.
“He was a good father. He was trying to stay away from games,” the victim’s cousin said, with tears in his eyes. “He was my cousin. I grew up with him. We were close.”

There were no immediate arrests in the Sunday slaying.
 

David Goldsmith

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Stealing Soho: Luxury retailers terrorized by shoplifting mobs
Bands of shoplifters are terrorizing Soho’s high-end boutiques, lifting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of designer merchandise, and in some cases, threatening security guards to keep quiet — or be labeled racist, The Post has learned.
The disturbing pattern began in late May during the riots that rocked the city in the wake of the George Floyd police custody death. High-end Celine was looted of $1.5 million in merchandise then, and the blatant thievery continues “every week” in ritzy stores such as Prada, Moncler, Dior and Balenciaga, one plugged-in local said.
“This is happening every week. Walk around Soho on Wooster Street and Greene Street, Mercer Street. … You have huge bouncers out there trying to deter hit-and-run activity,” the source, a restaurateur, said.

But in some cases, the thieves are given carte blanche to steal.

“If they [store personnel] stop them and say anything in the store before they’ve left the building then it often gets turned into a racial accusation,” the source said.
“The brands … tell their employees to walk away,” the insider added. “They don’t want to be the next Instagram video claiming they are a racist brand.”
Soho store managers, especially those employed by national retailers, remain tightlipped for fear of ‘R-word’ reprisal, bad publicity or tarnishing their brand, the source said.

NYPD Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, told The Post that investigators are aware that “mobs of young, transient groups” have “bulldozed through aisles grabbing as much as their arms can hold.”
A law enforcement source confirmed that “dozens of larcenies have occurred in recent months in high-end establishments in the neighborhood.” The source said the victimized stores include Adidas, Fendi and Burberry.
The suspects create a stir and grab as much merchandise as they can, confident they’re not going to face resistance or consequences, the same source said, adding “it’s a lucrative business.”
Police officers at the Moncler store in SoHo.Helayne Seidman
In the latest incident, thieves twice plundered Moncler on Prince Street — which sells down jackets for nearly $2,000 — on Thursday, Oct. 1, according to the sources.

In the first incident, two individuals grabbed nearly two dozen down jackets, the businessperson told The Post. A few hours later, at 6 p.m., thieves snatched “more than $50,000” in merchandise and sped off in a white Jaguar and a black Audi, the law enforcement source said.
The local restaurateur claimed “16 to 20 people” were involved in the second incident and the heist included a lookout.
Moncler was also hit Sept. 25, the law enforcement source said. A store spokesman declined comment.
On Sept. 30, three males entered French label Celine on Wooster Street at about 12:50 p.m. and took “more than $37,000 worth of merchandise” and fled in a dark Audi with New Jersey plates, the law enforcement source said, adding those individuals are part of a group now wanted for 12 high-end crimes — seven in lower Manhattan and five within the confines of the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side.
Some fed-up shops are now helping cops by giving descriptions and providing store surveillance video.

Sofiya Bukriy, a manager at the Louis Vuitton store in SoHo.Helayne Seidman
Sofiya Bukriy, 29, a manager at Louis Vuitton on Greene Street, said they keep the exit door locked to short circuit “young kids, who are grabbing and running.”
On Oct. 2 the NYPD arrested a Manhattan man apparently addicted to Prada. Ronald Howard, 34, was charged with three counts of grand larceny for allegedly lifting nearly $12,000 worth of Prada merchandise from the Broadway boutique in three different thefts between Aug. 24 and Sept. 12, the law enforcement source said.
Howard was back on the street after being issued a desk-appearance ticket, a law enforcement source said.
Citywide, grand larcenies have fallen 7 percent to 3,639 cases through Sept. 30, compared with 3,903 in the same period a year earlier, police said.
“The NYPD works to prevent theft of all kinds, including commercial burglaries and grand larcenies, by conferring with city businesses to promote physical protections and other best business practices,” NYPD spokesman Al Baker told The Post. “In the precincts, our Neighborhood Coordination Officers are personal points of contact with the community who can help when merchants are experiencing issues with crime and quality-of-life offenses. Additionally, detectives in precincts across the city work closely with our citywide Grand Larceny Division investigators on individual cases.”
 

David Goldsmith

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Everything you could hope for in a "luxury" condo building.

Marshalls LES Robbed by Man Brandishing a Needle
The two-year-old Marshalls on the Lower East Side was robbed by a syringe-wielding man last week, cops said.
The man, thought to be in his mid-20s, entered the store at 197 East Houston last Thursday night (October 10) shortly after 10:00pm.
The perp was reportedly caught shoplifting, then confronted by the store manager. That’s when he brandished a needle, making off with some $400 worth of merchandise, including New Balance sneakers, four pairs of True Religion jeans, and a Lacoste sweater.
Police are looking for the suspect, described as a mid-20s white or Hispanic male wearing purple mask, gray hoodie, and dark jeans.
It’s worth noting that this department store is located in the luxury condo building developed by Ben Shaoul, and completed two years ago.
 

David Goldsmith

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Man Shot in Neck on NYC Subway Platform: Police
Published October 18, 2020 • Updated on October 19, 2020 at 5:00 am
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NBC Universal, Inc.
The NYPD says a man was shot in the neck while standing on the platform of a subway station in Manhattan, police said Sunday evening. NBC New York’s Ida Siegal reports.
The NYPD says a man was shot in the neck while standing on the platform of a subway station in Manhattan, police said Sunday evening.
The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. and delayed trains surrounding the Chelsea station at 14th Street and 7th Avenue. Despite his injuries, police said the victim walked to Lenox Health and told doctors what happened to him.
The victim has since been transported to Bellevue Hospital where he's listed in stable condition, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
 

David Goldsmith

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Ten people shot, one bystander killed, as bullets fly across New York City overnight
Ten people were shot, with one killed by a stray bullet, in another violence-ridden night across the city, police said.
The all-too-familiar cracks of gunfire started Friday evening and lasted until 3 a.m. on Saturday. When the smoke cleared, one man was dead in Brooklyn from a bullet meant for someone else.

Nine others across the city, except on Staten Island, were hospitalized with minor gunshot wounds, police said.
Police are seen here in front of NYCHA's, CHELSEA HOUSES, located at 425 West 25 street , Manhattan, NYC, where an unidentified male was shot. The assault occurred at approximately 11:15PM. The victim was transported, by ambulance, to a local hospital on Friday, October 23, 2020.

Police are seen here in front of NYCHA's, CHELSEA HOUSES, located at 425 West 25 street , Manhattan, NYC, where an unidentified male was shot. The assault occurred at approximately 11:15PM. The victim was transported, by ambulance, to a local hospital on Friday, October 23, 2020. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News)
The early-morning carnage comes as cops struggle to tamp down a massive 96% rise in shootings this year.

The bloodshed began about 7 p.m. on Friday outside NYCHA’s Wyckoff Gardens on Bond St. in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, where a 28-year-old man was shot in the ankle. Medics took him to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist with a minor injury.

Less than 15 minutes later, two Bronx teens, ages 15 and 18, were shot as they stood outside an E. Gun Hill Road building. The younger teen was hit in the left leg and back, while the older teen suffered a gunshot wound to his forearm. Both were taken to Jacobi Medical Center as two suspects ran off.

Gunfire erupted again about 11:15 p.m. — this time on W. 25th St. in Chelsea — where a 24-year-old man was shot in the foot and a 16-year-old boy was shot in the right arm and leg. The two victims said they didn’t know who fired the gun and just heard shots before falling in pain, sources said.
Half an hour later in Brooklyn, a 34-year-old man was shot in the right wrist as he sat in the passenger side of a car idling on Kings Highway near Clarendon Road in East Flatbush. The gunman was arguing with the victim and ran off after the shooting. The driver rushed the wounded man to Downstate Medical Center.

Just as Friday turned into Saturday, a 32-year-old man was shot in the right leg on Beach 56th Place in Far Rockaway, Queens, cops said. The gunman, a man in his 30s wearing a gray sweatshirt and gray pants, ran off after the 12:20 a.m. shooting. The victim was taken to Jamaica Hospital.
About 40 minutes later and 25 miles away, a 41-year-old man was shot in both legs by a 20-year-old rival on Lexington Ave. near E. 112th St. in East Harlem. He was taken to Harlem Hospital, cops said.
 

David Goldsmith

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Manhattan buildings for super rich hire armed guards for possible Election Day unrest

New York’s ultra rich are quietly preparing for civil unrest on Election Day — by hiring armed guards to stand watch over their luxury Manhattan buildings.
At the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, where the penthouse is going for $62.5 million, managers are deploying off duty cops with “submachine guns” to stand watch, while other wealthy city enclaves are also beefing up protection for residents.
“Everybody is worried about security,” an insider told the Post. “Every top building is adding security. It’s out of control. We hope it won’t be needed, but we will be ready.”

The building is working with the NYPD and Homeland Security, the insider said.

“There will be officers with submachine guns,” the source said. “We’ve always had immense security, but there will be more. We’ll have extra patrols. The entire building can be shut down with one button.”
Many buildings are hiring off duty cops instead of private security companies because they fear a repeat of Denver, where a private guard shot and killed a protestor, said one real estate insider.
Added another luxury building board member said high-end residents have been warned to take precautions by the NYPD.
“The NYPD is advising buildings to get the extra security,” the source said. “They’ve never done this before.”
Other top buildings, such as 220 Central Park South, which is home to hedge funder Ken Griffin’s $238 million condo ,say they are already well guarded but will take extra precautions, like keeping entrances locked at night, and only open to residents.

Other billionaire buildings, like 432 Park Ave., are discussing what extra measures to take this week, a resident board member told the Post.
“Everybody is doing it, adding elevated security to make sure that buildings are safe,” said one real estate insider.

Even “B” level buildings like Manhattan House, at 200 E. 66th St., on the Upper East Side are hiring extra security.
In a letter that went out to residents this week, the building management wrote they have plans in place for an extended period of time “to anticipate and mitigate the possibility of civil unrest and violence following the upcoming presidential election.”
The measures include hiring off duty police to protect against “violence” and “property damage.”
One person who received the letter told the Post: “I was sick to my stomach when I read that.”

Security will begin on Election Day but the extra security measures are expected to continue in the days and even weeks that follow, a source said.
“We hope the precautions won’t be needed but we will be ready,” the letter stated.
Greenwich Lane, a luxury residential complex where rock royal Jon Bon Jovi lives in a $19 million unit, will also be taking extra precautions.
Greenwich Lane already had extra guards for a brief time in October, after a food delivery worker was held up at gunpoint outside the building.
“We’re warned not to leave anything in our cars. People are hungry, unemployed and desperate,” a resident said.
It’s even worse in Florida, where one New Yorker, who owns a luxury condo in Naples, said her building has hired two ex-marine “snipers” to stand on guard, with guns, on the roof, on Election Day and after.
She is one of many New York residents who plan on being out of Manhattan on Election Day.
“It’s a really sad state of affairs,” she said.
 
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