It's just ridiculous that people need to be living in such dangerous conditions in NY these days, such lawlessness that goes unpunished. The PD should be ratcheted up to crisis mode in these precincts with officers basically living in the precinct in barracks. Not business as usual. Maybe NY needs a separate dedicated law enforcement agency that takes over law enforcement in crisis areas and lives there, in barracks, and becomes a visible presence 24x7. Not an occupying army but a more hands-on elite police unit that is not there for "8 hours and 35 minutes" like one officer said. Part of the problem is these officers are white guys from Long Island Queens and SI and they are just not invested enough -- or capable enough. Need some out-of-the-box thinking. And I don't mean stop-and-frisk either, those Gestapo tactics. Seriously, South Bronx is like Disneyland compared to Falluja or Mosul, where the US did create some order, at some time (I think),so it is time to use some ingenuity here too.
5
Here is a novel idea. Move the residents of the public housing in these areas, to other areas of the city, area's with more cops. tear down the public housing, and build regular residential apartment building, make these new apartment building open to all New York citizens, make the rent cheap. The influx of working families will transform the neighborhood.
Within five years, this area, so close to manhattan, will be one of the most sought after neighborhoods in the city. the schools will be transformed by arenas who join the local school board, a varied voting block will change the elected officials.
If the crime follows the re-located residents into their new neighborhood-then it never was the neighborhood that was the problem in the first place.
Within five years, this area, so close to manhattan, will be one of the most sought after neighborhoods in the city. the schools will be transformed by arenas who join the local school board, a varied voting block will change the elected officials.
If the crime follows the re-located residents into their new neighborhood-then it never was the neighborhood that was the problem in the first place.
4
This idea didn't work in Chicago, and I strongly doubt it would work in New York.
9
Heres a radical suggestion
Offer all the crims an amnesty for turning themselves in and acknowledging their actions. Then give them a nice rent free apartment and a weekly income along with the choice for free education in any occupation they want to learn. They can go on receiving these benefits for a lifetime so long as they aren’t proven to have been involved in any more crime.
I’m sure people will be seriously outraged but it will no doubt prove cheaper than funding policing, justice system and prison detention system. You remove the incentive for committing crime if people have a home, income and hope to improve their lives.
Solve the causes, not the consequences.
Offer all the crims an amnesty for turning themselves in and acknowledging their actions. Then give them a nice rent free apartment and a weekly income along with the choice for free education in any occupation they want to learn. They can go on receiving these benefits for a lifetime so long as they aren’t proven to have been involved in any more crime.
I’m sure people will be seriously outraged but it will no doubt prove cheaper than funding policing, justice system and prison detention system. You remove the incentive for committing crime if people have a home, income and hope to improve their lives.
Solve the causes, not the consequences.
2
WOW! What a bunch of diverse comments to this article. I was a young NYPD patrolman in the early 1970"s assigned to the 25th Precinct in East Harlem. Working the midnight to 8 a.m.shift, the hours were awful but the action was great. Usually very late at night the only people on the streets were bad guys and cops. When the sun would come up and the broken bodies had been removed to the hospital or morgue I would see the projects along 1st Ave. begin to empty of men and women heading to the subway or a bus to begin their workday most likely as city workers or home care attendants or some other relatively low paying honorable profession. It would always remind me that the vast, vast majority of residents of the "two-five" (police lingo for 25th Pct.) were just trying to make ends meet and take care of their families. I went home at 8 a.m. to the upper West Side, they lived there 24/7. The 40 will get thru this, the city is thriving, and crime is WAY, WAY DOWN from my day. Shame on you who blame the victims, bet you would not last a day in their shoes.
15
Similar to determination made for Trump Towers and surrounding community, policing the Bronx will become effective when city decides it is politically expedient to do so - and not sooner!
7
I observe a similar inattentiveness on the part of the COD here in Chicago. Hundreds more murders last year while our taxes went up to pay for the pensions of an ineffective force, with most pulling down salaries far in excess if the citizenry they're paid to protect. It's both disgraceful and sad.
3
That's a very, very poor assessment of the skyrocketing murder rate in Chicago. That tax increase was primarily for CTU and CPS pensions, BTW.
6
Seems the neighborhood does not want the cops there.
9
Doctors advising to stay healthy, police working on crime prevention has fundamental problem. They are all rewarded by failure of their mission. Many law enforcement officers are paid twice their wage by over time. If the law enforcement system worked on preventing crime effectively with all the tools and technology they have there will be no over time.
It is easy to notice flaws with the police and detectives, since they deal with the offender and victim. The lawmakers could write better laws to prevent crime. They write laws that create provisions to write more laws to sustain their own job. It is not that they are scrupulously keeping such provisions or loopholes. That would be a natural tendency of the law making institution like any other institution to sustain itself.
While we debate invasion of privacy and danger of evidence from video footage for general population, some emergency measure in troubled areas to expand the use of video surveillance could reduce crime in places like South side of Chicago, Bronx and Oakland.
Appreciate this article. There will be a time when technology will tell us how many lives could have been saved by increasing use of technology.
It is easy to notice flaws with the police and detectives, since they deal with the offender and victim. The lawmakers could write better laws to prevent crime. They write laws that create provisions to write more laws to sustain their own job. It is not that they are scrupulously keeping such provisions or loopholes. That would be a natural tendency of the law making institution like any other institution to sustain itself.
While we debate invasion of privacy and danger of evidence from video footage for general population, some emergency measure in troubled areas to expand the use of video surveillance could reduce crime in places like South side of Chicago, Bronx and Oakland.
Appreciate this article. There will be a time when technology will tell us how many lives could have been saved by increasing use of technology.
1
There are video surveillance cameras all over Chicago. They haven't made a lick of difference, as no one is willing to make witness statements, let alone testify.
3
Police like to work in the safe neighborhoods of NYC and then they write a lot of traffic tickets, and give food vendors tickets. The South Bronx has had a major problem for decades when many inmates are released they return to the housing projects and the political leaders in the South Bronx are very weak. the city should hire an additional private security force for that neighborhood to help the police department out for they can not handle that area. Easy to reduce crime on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side. Not so easy in the South Bronx. More cameras are needed in all the housing projects, street corners, and deli's that are constantly robbed. Drug sales and prostitution are all over the South Bronx. after awhile maybe there is a possibility that someone on the police department makes money when crime is not solved or drug sales are not happening. Let's see if there is any significant change in 2017.
3
Areas like this exist in every large city, and are pretty much ignored except for shocking news coverage.
Maybe our government representatives should live where we choose to put them, and have their children attend local public schools. Good-bye gated community. Hello gunshots and used syringes outside your front door. I bet there would be emergency action to break up these hornet's nests, and it would start immediately.
For starters, we could put Donald Trump, who hates there mere idea of inhabiting the White House, in the South Bronx. With his expert guidance it will be Mayberry in no time.
Maybe our government representatives should live where we choose to put them, and have their children attend local public schools. Good-bye gated community. Hello gunshots and used syringes outside your front door. I bet there would be emergency action to break up these hornet's nests, and it would start immediately.
For starters, we could put Donald Trump, who hates there mere idea of inhabiting the White House, in the South Bronx. With his expert guidance it will be Mayberry in no time.
5
2 million people had a safe New Years in NYC last night thanks to the worlds greatest police force.Why don't you put that on the front page. Ten in my family were among those who safely enjoyed New Years last nite along with thousands of Europeans in the Big Apple. The Europeans came here because they knew they would be safe, thanks to the NYPD. God bless them and Thanks!
13
It is mind-boggling to read a piece like this that continually posits the problem is a lack of police and investigation, rather than the obscene, hellish murder rate. Increasingly, NYT reporting is a mixture of excuses and finger-pointing rather than any serious investigation of problems. I'm gonna guess the Bronx has many times the number of detectives per capita as my town does - the problem lies elsewhere.
9
[[And across the Bronx, investigative resources are squeezed. It has the highest violent-crime rate of the city’s five boroughs but the thinnest detective staffing. Nine of the 14 lowest-staffed precinct detective squads for violent crime in the city are there. The borough’s robbery squad is smaller than Manhattan’s, even though the Bronx has had 1,300 more cases this year. And its homicide squad has one detective for every four murders, compared with one detective for roughly every two murders in Upper Manhattan and more than one detective per murder in Lower Manhattan.]]
2
I thought police were the problem, not the solution. That has been the NYT's take on police the past several years. Maybe people should call a crack dealer for protection next time. Or maybe, just maybe, people should respect and support the police, and give them a kind word and a little support from time to time. That would help improve morale and law and order. And maybe a few more crimes would get solved and a few more criminals would be taken off the street so that more people will not be victimized in the future.
14
Sure, many commenters are correct that the dependency on public housing and the multiple generations raised in the same apartments are a serious problem.
But where do you think families will end up if they are evicted after a set number of years, or for the bad behavior of members? In the shelter system, costing the city and taxpayers even more than they did before.
You can "cure" failures of character only by draconian measures our society rightfully rejects. Alternatives to abysmally dysfunctional families do not exist. The foster care system is a brutally oxymoron. Who can safely run orphanages? The Catholic church, with its sterling record when priests have access to vulnerable children? An army of badly-paid and worse-trained "social workers?"
It's a very uncomfortable truth that societies, such as the Scandinavian welfare states many of us would love to see replicated here, have been able to function well because they were largely homogeneous cultures. They are dealing with their own problems now, trying to successfully integrate refugees and migrants from cultures with different values.
Perhaps aggressively marketed incentives not to have children, rather than a system by which children are your "job," will be the only humane way to reduce this problem. But human nature is not entirely curable.
But where do you think families will end up if they are evicted after a set number of years, or for the bad behavior of members? In the shelter system, costing the city and taxpayers even more than they did before.
You can "cure" failures of character only by draconian measures our society rightfully rejects. Alternatives to abysmally dysfunctional families do not exist. The foster care system is a brutally oxymoron. Who can safely run orphanages? The Catholic church, with its sterling record when priests have access to vulnerable children? An army of badly-paid and worse-trained "social workers?"
It's a very uncomfortable truth that societies, such as the Scandinavian welfare states many of us would love to see replicated here, have been able to function well because they were largely homogeneous cultures. They are dealing with their own problems now, trying to successfully integrate refugees and migrants from cultures with different values.
Perhaps aggressively marketed incentives not to have children, rather than a system by which children are your "job," will be the only humane way to reduce this problem. But human nature is not entirely curable.
12
@SCA
Your final paragraph is spot on. It makes far more sense to tie incentitives to not have children than it does to encourage irresponsible child bearing by subsidizing it...
Your final paragraph is spot on. It makes far more sense to tie incentitives to not have children than it does to encourage irresponsible child bearing by subsidizing it...
4
" societies, such as the Scandinavian welfare states many of us would love to see replicated here, have been able to function well because they were largely homogeneous cultures."
Scandinavia does not have a minority that constitutes 13% of the population but commits 50+% of all crimes but will have increasing problems in the future as more and more incompatible Muslim "refugees" are admitted.
Scandinavia does not have a minority that constitutes 13% of the population but commits 50+% of all crimes but will have increasing problems in the future as more and more incompatible Muslim "refugees" are admitted.
11
But isn't the shelter system public housing? Why should the city subsidize people in shelters it kicked out of public housing? You are not solving a problem you are relocating it. The whole idea is to change the mindset of government assistance for life. Some housing units have been in families for multiple generations. If you make it clear from day one that public housing is a hand up and not a hand out, and incentivize people to get job training, save money for home ownership and offer them additional services until there time to vacate surely this is better than this hopeless cycle you have now.
3
A priority should be getting dangerous criminals off of the streets, especially those involved in firearm trafficking, illegal firearm possession, and use of firearms in crimes. To break thru the logjam of information needed for investigations use a reward program. The rewards would need to be big enough for someone to start a new life if they wish, large enough that criminals would turn in others. Just to start the conversation say $250,000 for murderers, $150,000 for people using firearms in crimes, $100,000 for firearm trafficking, $50,000 for illegal possession of firearms, etc. A federal program could be developed, one that would match donations from foundations, corporations, wealthy individuals and fund drives. The program would also need to provide witness protection.
The program won't be effective by itself as once the violence is contained some structural improvements would be needed in the communities to prevent future logjams. At some point people in this country will need to look in the mirror and acknowledge the implicit bias that exists, one with little difference the political parties, and that it is one of the primary reasons that these dysfunctional communities exist.
The program won't be effective by itself as once the violence is contained some structural improvements would be needed in the communities to prevent future logjams. At some point people in this country will need to look in the mirror and acknowledge the implicit bias that exists, one with little difference the political parties, and that it is one of the primary reasons that these dysfunctional communities exist.
1
Why doesn't Michael Bloomberg fund a reward program? He is worth over $40 Billion and he could make a difference in the city where he lives, as opposed to making large contributions to anti-Second Amendment politicians in far away Oregon.
3
I think he should do both.
1
Same old story as in my small burg in Western NY:
Shots ring out. Bodies fall. Witnesses stand and scream. Cops ask questions. No one answers.
Next week retaliatory shots ring out. Victims survive. Cops ask questions. No one answers.
Next month retaliatory shots ring out. Bodies fall. Victims survive. Witnesses scream. Cops ask questions. No one answers.
Cops do their work and find two shooters without the help from the community. Cops bring the shooters to trial. Shooters are sentenced. Shooters get released only to shoot again.
You have never heard any of the stories from my community in your papers or news feeds. Wny? Cuz it won't sell papers. Its too common.
The ONE story from my community you heard was when a white cop shot a black armed robber during an arrest. Suddenly the community was in an uproar over the untimely death of that poor boy (32 years old) trying to turn his life around (shot after robbing two citizens....a mere 2 months after his release for a previous armed robbery).
I blame the national media for hiding the real problem with crime in our cities. If every homicide in NYC got the press that a single incident of a cop killing a suspect got folks might start to understand how difficult it is to be an officer.
Shots ring out. Bodies fall. Witnesses stand and scream. Cops ask questions. No one answers.
Next week retaliatory shots ring out. Victims survive. Cops ask questions. No one answers.
Next month retaliatory shots ring out. Bodies fall. Victims survive. Witnesses scream. Cops ask questions. No one answers.
Cops do their work and find two shooters without the help from the community. Cops bring the shooters to trial. Shooters are sentenced. Shooters get released only to shoot again.
You have never heard any of the stories from my community in your papers or news feeds. Wny? Cuz it won't sell papers. Its too common.
The ONE story from my community you heard was when a white cop shot a black armed robber during an arrest. Suddenly the community was in an uproar over the untimely death of that poor boy (32 years old) trying to turn his life around (shot after robbing two citizens....a mere 2 months after his release for a previous armed robbery).
I blame the national media for hiding the real problem with crime in our cities. If every homicide in NYC got the press that a single incident of a cop killing a suspect got folks might start to understand how difficult it is to be an officer.
37
Many people in these communities don't talk to the police because they don't trust them. This is why this issue of trust needs to be dealt with.
1
This article makes an error in presenting the problem as a battle between residents, drug dealers and the police. Communities in the Bronx are not composed of residents, drug dealers and the police.
The problems in the NYCHA-run housing developments are highlighted in this article. What is NYCHA doing about this and how about the resident boards that exist in NYCHA housing developments? Beyond the Public Housing Developments, what of community organizing that may be going on beyond the Housing Authority Apartments in the South Bronx? Are there youth programs and programs aimed at redirecting young adults who are not connected to school or jobs? What do local politicians and church leaders do about these issues?
Finally, an important sector that supports nonprofits to carry out these important activities is the philanthropic sector in New York City. One of the largest foundations focused on the City is the New York City Community Trust. Are they funding any nonprofits working to improve the lives of the residents highlighted in this article?
This article gives us, concerned New Yorkers, the impression that the police effort is losing in the battle to keep South Bronx residents safe. The police can’t do it by themselves and it is likely they are not working by themselves. Journalists can further help by presenting all the efforts intended to improve safety in the 40th precinct. In short, this is not the problem of the police to solve. It is our problem to fix.
The problems in the NYCHA-run housing developments are highlighted in this article. What is NYCHA doing about this and how about the resident boards that exist in NYCHA housing developments? Beyond the Public Housing Developments, what of community organizing that may be going on beyond the Housing Authority Apartments in the South Bronx? Are there youth programs and programs aimed at redirecting young adults who are not connected to school or jobs? What do local politicians and church leaders do about these issues?
Finally, an important sector that supports nonprofits to carry out these important activities is the philanthropic sector in New York City. One of the largest foundations focused on the City is the New York City Community Trust. Are they funding any nonprofits working to improve the lives of the residents highlighted in this article?
This article gives us, concerned New Yorkers, the impression that the police effort is losing in the battle to keep South Bronx residents safe. The police can’t do it by themselves and it is likely they are not working by themselves. Journalists can further help by presenting all the efforts intended to improve safety in the 40th precinct. In short, this is not the problem of the police to solve. It is our problem to fix.
4
Barrack Obama could reprise his career as a "community organizer in the Four-Oh and perhaps make a real contribution to society to atone for his dismal failure as president.
3
I'm hoping for that and for George W. Bush to join him. Perhaps he can atone for crashing our economy, the economic malaise that still persists to this day and destabilizing the Middle East which in turn coupled with crashed economy has poured over into Europe.
2
The ability to relate to the police and to trust them depends on a basic childhood establishment with a male figure that served/serves as a role model and source of support and protection. Unfortunately, in single parent homes, the male is absent sometimes due to incarceration, sometimes because of an unwillingness to support the child; often the mother or grandmother is the only figure of "authority" and not strong or omnipresent enough to do the job. Male figures, unfortunately, represent members of rival gangs. live in, often uncaring and/or abusive boyfriends. The policeman punishes in this crime ridden environment, but seldom can be rusted to support or reward rare good behavior. The ubiquitous presence of firearms adds to suspicion, fear and hostility by police and "citizens." Without a good family environment, schools are chaotic, learning is a matter of chance where life and limb are threatened..........in schools. Educational failure, trouble finding jobs, entering the drug trade and addiction, early childbearing, a very high HIV rate, which is not tested for/not recognized add to the mix. More police can "help to keep the lid on" and getting guns off the streets would lessen deaths and some crimes............but it's sort of complicated.
8
Do we still live in a reality based world. Crime has gone down since Stop and Frisk was disbanded but the proponents refuse to move on. Same old left liberal versus conservative right - never give an inch arguments that are tearing the country apart. Sadly, I think the only way to break this cycle of generational poverty and crime is to take away the lifetime guarantee for people in public housing. Public housing should be a privilege and not a right. Public housing has to become temporary and not a way of life. Tenants should be allowed to stay in public housing for only a set # of years and then be forced to vacate. They should be required to participate in job training and part of their rent should be set aside with a match incentive so at the end of the set period they can have a nest egg to move either into home ownership or relocate to another area. Those who refuse to help themselves should still be out the door.
6
Good point, the present NYC homeless crisis isn't severe enough. Throwing people out of perfectly good apartments will help a ton.
2
I'm thinking that perhaps public housing has seen its day. Perhaps it would be better to turn public housing into co-op type housing and sell each apartment as-is to the current resident for one months rent. The new owners would be incentivized to either improve their living conditions with the idea of owners pride. Those that are unwilling to improve could sell and move on, leaving the new buyers to improve conditions.
This plan would have many advantages: NYC and the federal government would save money, crime might go down in high crime areas, areas. On the other hand the NYCHA is a very large employer with an even larger trickle down budget. Many people would lose jobs and ancillary resources would lose out on the money spent on maintenance.
This plan would have many advantages: NYC and the federal government would save money, crime might go down in high crime areas, areas. On the other hand the NYCHA is a very large employer with an even larger trickle down budget. Many people would lose jobs and ancillary resources would lose out on the money spent on maintenance.
1
It doesn't help with the ghetto infused, 'so called music' style of rap and its promotion of thug life. This popular genre is everywhere and the glamorization of guns, gangs, drugs and misogyny is all the rage from coast to coast and beyond.
The institution of this urban lifestyle is grotesque and destructive. The symbolism and imagery is disturbing in it's violence, gross materialism and blatant sexual objectification of women. As is the music industry's greed of their executives. When white, college sorority girls sing along with it, it has hit mainstream America and not in a positive way.
The institution of this urban lifestyle is grotesque and destructive. The symbolism and imagery is disturbing in it's violence, gross materialism and blatant sexual objectification of women. As is the music industry's greed of their executives. When white, college sorority girls sing along with it, it has hit mainstream America and not in a positive way.
19
And it surely doesn't help when foul mouthed rappers are invited to the White House as friends and guests of the POTUS...
14
Hopefully that'll come to an end under Trump. Obama invited a foul mouth rapper that wore an ankle bracelet because he was under police monitoring. Great message.
4
there are too many police living in multi-million dollars homes in breezy point, next to the crime ridden rockaways in the Queens.
I wonder how they got there.
I wonder how they got there.
4
Please name a few and call you politicians with your facts.
2
I guess you are unfamiliar of the bond between ny politicians and the police union. the situation is simillar all over the world. it is even likely in your city,Liverpool.
Police in multi-million dollar homes? Surely, you jest! The NYPD is one of the poorest paying police departments in the country and people join only to make a difference in their city or to gain some big city experience that they can use to find a decent paying job in law enforcement elsewhere,
6
As soon as one of these villains attacks a police, the villain will suddenly become a charming young boy with a great heart, great family, and a great future. Any police action will be met by lawsuits, protests, and media persecution. Arrest somebody for selling drugs and being a safety threat? The current movement is to champion these fine young men.
Change comes from the top. If you want police to be motivated by things other than statistics useful for propoganda and political purposes then the residents had better start picking better public officials.
By the way, graffiti is not a tribute. It is just something that taxpayers must pay for. What a twisted bunch you have become.
Change comes from the top. If you want police to be motivated by things other than statistics useful for propoganda and political purposes then the residents had better start picking better public officials.
By the way, graffiti is not a tribute. It is just something that taxpayers must pay for. What a twisted bunch you have become.
21
One solution that would cost nothing is to take the money away from those selling drugs. The first step would be to make all drugs readily available for free. The results might mimic the end of prohibition in the 1930s. The war on drugs has been a complete failure.
4
Does anyone under the age of 55 remember or know about Levittown? I'll come back to that community. First the issue of public housing and a direct cause of crime is crowding people, mostly minorities, less educated and less employable people, into zip codes where there is no hope of escape. None. The towers of public housing are a nursery for crime, drugs and gangs. That is indisputable. Too, we have exported millions of jobs that left millions unemployed and underemployed. No one feeds a family working for Wal Mart or Target. Also there is a crisis in the black community of unwed mothers of very young ages who lack education and work skills. Drug dependence is unchecked. Access to decent education is denied. Police protection is minimum. Distrust is maximum.
Now to Levittown. The $5,000 cape cod homes with the most basic of amenities were a huge success. What the little cape cod offered was ownership and pride. They did not have air conditioning, garbage disposers, or a garage. It was just housing and it was warmly welcomed as an alternative to an 800 sq. ft. walk up apartment in the city. It also required a commute to work by train, bus or car.
The suburbs were created. So were the projects. We know which style of living is successful and beneficial. What we must do to end the cycle of crime and poverty in the projects is not more policing. To end the cycle we must take down the projects. We can build basic, small cape cod or other ranch homes. We must make an effort.
Now to Levittown. The $5,000 cape cod homes with the most basic of amenities were a huge success. What the little cape cod offered was ownership and pride. They did not have air conditioning, garbage disposers, or a garage. It was just housing and it was warmly welcomed as an alternative to an 800 sq. ft. walk up apartment in the city. It also required a commute to work by train, bus or car.
The suburbs were created. So were the projects. We know which style of living is successful and beneficial. What we must do to end the cycle of crime and poverty in the projects is not more policing. To end the cycle we must take down the projects. We can build basic, small cape cod or other ranch homes. We must make an effort.
13
No one can feed a family working at Wal-Mart because the multi-multi-billionaire heirs of Sam Walton want it that way.
They are the epitome of greed, but I bet they still show up, unashamed, for church on Sundays.
True Christians would give less away to the philanthropies of their choosing; they'd pay their employees more instead.
They are the epitome of greed, but I bet they still show up, unashamed, for church on Sundays.
True Christians would give less away to the philanthropies of their choosing; they'd pay their employees more instead.
4
Hightstown, New Jersey ... believe it or not a pre war (WW II) project
1
I remember Levittown.To anyone growing up in the South Bronx in the 40's and 50's as I did it seemed the perfect picture of suburban tranquility. However, you have failed to mention its most important feature....it was almost exclusively white and populated by traditional nuclear , working middle-class families. The blacks and latinos who today constitute the majority of the South Bronx are an entirely different demographic. Single mother families on welfare predominate and crime is rampant. Put these people into a 'Levittown' created just for them and nothing would change. It's a socio-cultural problem not specifically a housing problem.
11
This article describes an amazingly dysfunctional community. And, of course, the community, itself, does very little to "own" the dysfunction. It is the people of that community -- its sons and daughters -- that are slinging the drugs, committing the robberies and pulling the triggers. But the focus of the article is why police have not stopped the carnage. Why more money isn't being spent. This community robs and kills each other at a faster rate than other communities. Hence, it deserve disproportionately more police resources. In an article laced with data, there is no mention of the 40th precinct's contribution to city tax revenues.
At a time when our country needs so very badly to invest in our infrastructure, our educational system and our competitive place in the global economy, it is sad to watch public resources being wasted on this nonsense. And sadly some well-intentioned person will say that we have to spend money to address these problems or it will be even worse down the road. That would be true if the expenditures somehow made things better. Is there any evidence of that?
At a time when our country needs so very badly to invest in our infrastructure, our educational system and our competitive place in the global economy, it is sad to watch public resources being wasted on this nonsense. And sadly some well-intentioned person will say that we have to spend money to address these problems or it will be even worse down the road. That would be true if the expenditures somehow made things better. Is there any evidence of that?
22
What is wrong with this picture?
A big pow-wow to address the problem. Not a woman in sight. Just sayin'.
A big pow-wow to address the problem. Not a woman in sight. Just sayin'.
5
What's your point?
2
Excellent reporting
4
The "tale of two cities" persists, and there's zero probability that anything will change much - especially with what looks an open war on social and racial modernity about to be waged by all branches of our federal government. The future indeed looks grim.
1
If perps obeyed lawful commands like stop or let me see your hands or get on the ground there would be no more killings. Instead many have suicide by cop death wish for their families. $$$$
13
what are you talking about? none of the people written about in this series were killed by cops,
3
The Times has a lot of nerve writing about rampant crime on one day and vilifying the police the next. Stop and frisk and broken windows practices did save lives no matter what denials critics like to bring forth. It would help if the those effected wanted to expel those responsible.
23
I think you will find that it was the citizens of these communities that first asked the police to come up with a tactic to combat gang crime. That strategy was call Stop and Frisk and it worked. Until the Liberal establishment who have never had to live in these districts protested and now things are back to the way they used to be.
One more detail. Gang crime was on the wane in the Bronx until two cultural events took place. One was West Side Story in 1961 and the other was The Godfather in 1972.
One more detail. Gang crime was on the wane in the Bronx until two cultural events took place. One was West Side Story in 1961 and the other was The Godfather in 1972.
10
The main cultural event here is the New Leftist attack on realism, reason and individualism, an attack very influential in poor black communities. Opponents of man's independent mind, eg, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, were praised. Advocates of man's independent mind, eg, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Anne Wortham and Marva Collins were ignored or minimized.
7
The media,including The Times, focuses on police abuses as a major problem and ignores the epidemic of homicide in the U.S. including more than 750 homicides and 4500 shootings in Chicago alone in 2016.
In high crime communities,such as the 40th Precinct, there is inherent antagonism towards police because of the high number of felons and criminals.
When many citizens refuse to help the police and are openly hostile,pursuing criminals is too often hopeless.
While police abuses require fair investigation by the justice system, eliminating every one of them would leave the epidemic of violent crime untouched.
Anti-police rhetoric by politicians and the media is not the solution,but worsens the problem of crime.
In high crime communities,such as the 40th Precinct, there is inherent antagonism towards police because of the high number of felons and criminals.
When many citizens refuse to help the police and are openly hostile,pursuing criminals is too often hopeless.
While police abuses require fair investigation by the justice system, eliminating every one of them would leave the epidemic of violent crime untouched.
Anti-police rhetoric by politicians and the media is not the solution,but worsens the problem of crime.
24
My son is visiting New York.
One thing I told him.
'Avoid the Bronx..'
Stan Chun
Wellington
New Zealand 2 Jan. 2017
One thing I told him.
'Avoid the Bronx..'
Stan Chun
Wellington
New Zealand 2 Jan. 2017
6
The NYT and the other liberal media created this rift, by daily hyping and exaggeration of isolated shootings by police all over the country. Relying on snippets of videos which are incomplete and just show parts of the whole incident, and not all that led up to it, the NYT pre-empted a fair trail by judge and jury which would examine all the evidence and present exculpatory evidence for the defense. The NYT was and continues to be highly irresponsible in it' reporting of these situations.
24
The Bunker Hill housing project in Charlestown MA had some of the same problems. Serious gang violence, drug dealing, 'the code' that said you could not go to the police without consequence, lost jobs when the navy yard shut down, people having too many kids they had no way to support.
Differences: white, Irish Catholics whose families, for better or worse, stayed intact with priests, for better or worse, having some influence over culture and behavior, and no excuses for continuing to live with these problems. There was no blaming they system, no charges of oppression or racism. The police, again for better or worse, were often extended family. Anyone involved in gangs, drugs or violence had a community structure to help them change or they were on their own; no excuses. Saw the same in South Boston.
Communities change when enough people within that community want better, achieve better and push the rest to change.
Differences: white, Irish Catholics whose families, for better or worse, stayed intact with priests, for better or worse, having some influence over culture and behavior, and no excuses for continuing to live with these problems. There was no blaming they system, no charges of oppression or racism. The police, again for better or worse, were often extended family. Anyone involved in gangs, drugs or violence had a community structure to help them change or they were on their own; no excuses. Saw the same in South Boston.
Communities change when enough people within that community want better, achieve better and push the rest to change.
21
Another shameful law enforcement article by the NYT. The author names poor treatment by police as a reason for residents not offering information. The author does not name the much bigger reason for the lack of cooperation: potential retaliation by violent criminals. Another big reason: the NYT's amd rest of the media's one-sided, sensationalist, and often wilfully dishonest reporting in cases of real and/or perceived police misconduct.
True "broken windows" policing is the only strategy that has been proven, repeatedly, to lower violent crime rates. You can have warm and fuzzy policing and more crime, or you can have the type of policing that cut violent crime rates by 60% here in Baltimore (and then were abandoned thanks to sensationalist, one-sided media); but you can't have both.
True "broken windows" policing is the only strategy that has been proven, repeatedly, to lower violent crime rates. You can have warm and fuzzy policing and more crime, or you can have the type of policing that cut violent crime rates by 60% here in Baltimore (and then were abandoned thanks to sensationalist, one-sided media); but you can't have both.
36
You say that the author does not name the real reason for the lack of cooperation - retaliation. I suggest you read the story again. Your obvious bias has blinded you to the merits of the story.
4
please cite a study showing that broken windows lowers crime rates. to my knowledge, there is none. check out the nypd inspector general's report showing that serious crime declined along with broken windows enforcement, throwing major doubt on the theory.
2
@Mark, When I have a few minutes, I'll dig up more, but for starters:
http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/the-matrix/micro-places/micro-p...
I studied this topic extensively while a grad student at Hopkins. Study after study shows that increasing the number of arrests, including for lesser and non-violent crimes, results in less violent crime. Cops find and confiscate more guns, their presence is more strongly felt by violent criminals, and more criminals are taken off the street. Study after study shows that the public likes communjty policing (and even makes people feel more safe despite higher crime), but does nothing to reduce crime.
http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/the-matrix/micro-places/micro-p...
I studied this topic extensively while a grad student at Hopkins. Study after study shows that increasing the number of arrests, including for lesser and non-violent crimes, results in less violent crime. Cops find and confiscate more guns, their presence is more strongly felt by violent criminals, and more criminals are taken off the street. Study after study shows that the public likes communjty policing (and even makes people feel more safe despite higher crime), but does nothing to reduce crime.
4
The building should be required to hire off duty cops 24/7. Tenants should be charged with surcharges for this. They can pay, since they all illegally rent their low income subsidy apartments by the room out to these "young men" or allow finances or baby daddies ( with felony drug arrest who don't qualify for Section 8 or public housing live in the units).
Then can also install 24/7 monitored cameras to the police precinct or to Trump Tower ( for the 150 cops stationed down their while Donald is at Marlogo or at Jersey)
Then can also install 24/7 monitored cameras to the police precinct or to Trump Tower ( for the 150 cops stationed down their while Donald is at Marlogo or at Jersey)
8
...so much anger.
This is nothing. Just wait until automation puts 40% of the workforce out of work, perhaps 10% more than the "natural" rate by the end of the next ten years. And these are conservative estimates. Society is going to totally breakdown.
We could have republican democracy when America was a nation of poor farmers. People may have been poor but they were able to support themselves. What will things look like with permanent 40% unemployment? It won't be pretty.
We could have republican democracy when America was a nation of poor farmers. People may have been poor but they were able to support themselves. What will things look like with permanent 40% unemployment? It won't be pretty.
9
@S - the replacing of "live" workers by automation is coming sooner than ten years. I'd say it will happen in the next five years, just as the $15/hour minimum wage is mandated. The low-wage workers who have been demanding $15 as a living wage will be replaced by automatons, and those workers will go on welfare, because most do not have the education to do anything else.
9
>Just wait until automation puts 40% of the workforce out of work
From Luddites to anti-automation hysteria, the opponents of man's independent mind ignore or evade the new jobs continually created in that society of individual rights called capitalism. But the terror of man's independent mind is so great that the massive Octopus of govt economic controls is evaded. Get govt out of the way of man's independent mind!
From Luddites to anti-automation hysteria, the opponents of man's independent mind ignore or evade the new jobs continually created in that society of individual rights called capitalism. But the terror of man's independent mind is so great that the massive Octopus of govt economic controls is evaded. Get govt out of the way of man's independent mind!
2
McDonald's is already rolling out automated burger machines, so those who agitate for $15/hr. (more that a soldier makes for risking his life on a daily basis), will find themselves at zero dollars/hour in the very near future.
1
So you imagine that if drugs were legalized, the sellers of the previously illegal product would become fine upstanding citizens?
Sorry, but I sincerely doubt that. There are a million ways to be a dysfunctional leech on society.
I'm wondering why this article isn't asking why the landlord of the Betances Houses isn't fulfilling its duty to maintain safe clean premises. Maybe because if bad residents are evicted, they'll end up in the shelter system making even more headaches for the city.
While I agree that as a supposedly modern society, we're failing our citizens by any number of measurements, the bottom line is that stupidity cannot be vanquished by social welfare programs; bad choices must always be paid for by someone, and having children you can't afford to raise well, in a decent place, is likely to turn out badly.
Sorry, but I sincerely doubt that. There are a million ways to be a dysfunctional leech on society.
I'm wondering why this article isn't asking why the landlord of the Betances Houses isn't fulfilling its duty to maintain safe clean premises. Maybe because if bad residents are evicted, they'll end up in the shelter system making even more headaches for the city.
While I agree that as a supposedly modern society, we're failing our citizens by any number of measurements, the bottom line is that stupidity cannot be vanquished by social welfare programs; bad choices must always be paid for by someone, and having children you can't afford to raise well, in a decent place, is likely to turn out badly.
35
I recall just a few years ago all the insistence on muzzling police by either sharply curtailing the conditions under which “stop-and-frisk” could be employed or completely eliminating it. Somehow, it was seen as discriminatory. Apparently, police were stopping excessive numbers of blacks and Hispanics – in neighborhoods that were overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. A federal judge took it upon herself to do some social reengineering and rule the practice verboten because she thought that was her job. She was disciplined, not because New Yorkers thought she was wrong but because she stepped outside the line of acceptable judicial behavior enough to cause waves. Mayor de Blasio, on assuming office, chose not to appeal the ruling and the practice has been so curtailed (by over 95%) that it’s obviously no longer effective.
The problem isn’t too few detectives in the Bronx, it’s that the people want safe streets by their own rules; and, frankly, the rules are absurd. Police warned that violent crime would go up dramatically in NYC’s most violent neighborhoods with the loss of stop-and-frisk: nobody should be surprised that it has.
The solution isn’t to double the number of homicide detectives to try to bring sanity to the South Bronx – and assume that by doubling the number the outcomes will change. The solution is to free the police to use more aggressive methods of interdictive crime control in neighborhoods where violent crime has traditionally been entrenched.
The problem isn’t too few detectives in the Bronx, it’s that the people want safe streets by their own rules; and, frankly, the rules are absurd. Police warned that violent crime would go up dramatically in NYC’s most violent neighborhoods with the loss of stop-and-frisk: nobody should be surprised that it has.
The solution isn’t to double the number of homicide detectives to try to bring sanity to the South Bronx – and assume that by doubling the number the outcomes will change. The solution is to free the police to use more aggressive methods of interdictive crime control in neighborhoods where violent crime has traditionally been entrenched.
42
It's the schools, the cops, lack of jobs, mean Republicans....blame anything and everything except the people themselves. Meanwhile, rural communities that are equally poor and struggling do not have this level of violence.
The problem is the culture. Period. When the majority of children are raised by single mothers, positive male role models are virtually non-existent, gang behavior is glorified and little value is placed on education, THIS is what you get.
Police cannot be expected to fill every gap and solve every single problem in what is clearly a dysfunctional culture. At some point the people themselves have got to take responsibility.
The problem is the culture. Period. When the majority of children are raised by single mothers, positive male role models are virtually non-existent, gang behavior is glorified and little value is placed on education, THIS is what you get.
Police cannot be expected to fill every gap and solve every single problem in what is clearly a dysfunctional culture. At some point the people themselves have got to take responsibility.
11
AFM:
Where have YOU been living? Venus, beneath all that heavy atmosphere?
But that's the liberal approach, isn't it? Don't prevent murders, just gripe that there aren't enough detectives to solve them when they happen. So long as you don't stop a kid on the street and look for a gun.
As it happens, I've read a LOT of books, a few of them even by former cops. The South Bronx isn't going to get more detectives; so, other than creating a middle-class neighborhood out of it for the first time in living memory, how do YOU propose to get arms around the elevated murder rate there? Sing Kumbaya to them?
Where have YOU been living? Venus, beneath all that heavy atmosphere?
But that's the liberal approach, isn't it? Don't prevent murders, just gripe that there aren't enough detectives to solve them when they happen. So long as you don't stop a kid on the street and look for a gun.
As it happens, I've read a LOT of books, a few of them even by former cops. The South Bronx isn't going to get more detectives; so, other than creating a middle-class neighborhood out of it for the first time in living memory, how do YOU propose to get arms around the elevated murder rate there? Sing Kumbaya to them?
4
The Ferguson Effect means these minority communities get to have an experiment in self-policing. Sounds like it is off to a rocky start.
34
Read the article. Low income communities are hyper-policed for minor infractions and under-policed for serious crimes.
[[Its neighborhoods have historically been prime targets for aggressive tactics, like stop-and-frisk, that are designed to ward off disorder. But precinct detectives there have less time than anywhere else in the city to answer for the blood spilled in violent crimes.]]
[[Some people have stories of crime reports that were ignored, or 911 calls that went unanswered for hours. Others tell of a 911 call for help ending in the caller’s arrest, or of a minor charge leading to 12 hours in a fetid holding cell.]]
That's the actual "Ferguson effect"...police and citizens in adversarial roles so that when there is a shooting no one steps forward with information. But you believe what you want. Your sarcasm is very helpful.
[[Its neighborhoods have historically been prime targets for aggressive tactics, like stop-and-frisk, that are designed to ward off disorder. But precinct detectives there have less time than anywhere else in the city to answer for the blood spilled in violent crimes.]]
[[Some people have stories of crime reports that were ignored, or 911 calls that went unanswered for hours. Others tell of a 911 call for help ending in the caller’s arrest, or of a minor charge leading to 12 hours in a fetid holding cell.]]
That's the actual "Ferguson effect"...police and citizens in adversarial roles so that when there is a shooting no one steps forward with information. But you believe what you want. Your sarcasm is very helpful.
5
A number of people commenting have suggested that the criminal approach to drug addiction has not worked. The UK approach until the 1960s was a medical model, then the punitive approach crossed the Atlantic. The old one worked better.
Under the old approach once you were identified as an addict (opium, heroin, whatever) a maintenance dose was provided in the same way and through the same channels as for any other chronic medical condition (e.g. insulin). It was free to the user, and pharmaceutic grade pure.
As a result there was no market profit to be had by pushing drugs to people. If you succeeded they ceased to be profitable, so there was no return on your investment. When the changeover happened there were under 100 registered addicts in the UK. There are many more now.
Crime is about money, mostly. Unfortunately the US medical model is too, so it would be hard to deal with addiction on the old UK model. Drug treatment is expensive to the patients, so not available to the poor.
Change must come, but it really is hard to see how it can.
Under the old approach once you were identified as an addict (opium, heroin, whatever) a maintenance dose was provided in the same way and through the same channels as for any other chronic medical condition (e.g. insulin). It was free to the user, and pharmaceutic grade pure.
As a result there was no market profit to be had by pushing drugs to people. If you succeeded they ceased to be profitable, so there was no return on your investment. When the changeover happened there were under 100 registered addicts in the UK. There are many more now.
Crime is about money, mostly. Unfortunately the US medical model is too, so it would be hard to deal with addiction on the old UK model. Drug treatment is expensive to the patients, so not available to the poor.
Change must come, but it really is hard to see how it can.
14
What's your opinion on methadone clinics? They are available to the poor. But neighborhoods with methadone clinics tend to be high crime areas. What came first, the clinic or the drug-related crime?
3
To Irene, It was neither, it was Heroin that started the biggest problems.
The Methadone and the clinics followed, trying to alleviate the pressure, and crime
heroin was causing.
To some extent it has worked, but not nearly enough.
The Methadone and the clinics followed, trying to alleviate the pressure, and crime
heroin was causing.
To some extent it has worked, but not nearly enough.
3
If anyone is interested there is a photo of part of the problem in this story, one the new commander of the 40th Precinct, "Brian Hennessy." Officer Hennessey is probably a fine cop, but this precinct needs someone by the name of Jackson or Ortega, and with a complexion matching the people in the neighborhood, as a statement of sincere effort in building public confidence. That would be a beginning that I cannot imagine the command structure at NYPD missed. If they did, some senior commenders should resign.
11
David Keys, Hennessey replaced Carlos Valdez on June 21, 2016 as the new commander officer at the 40th Precinct. So there was a recent commander of Hispanic descent and a darker shade of skin at the helm of the 40th. Did it really matter that much? And is Hennessy's complexion really the problem? Maybe folks in Las Cruces, New Mexico know something we don't???
8
For what it's worth, the two previous commanders were Deputy Inspector Lorenzo Johnson and Deputy Inspector Carlos Valdez.
http://www.motthavenherald.com/2015/08/06/new-top-cop-takes-over-at-40th...
But how about we promote people based on merit rather than their skin color?
http://www.motthavenherald.com/2015/08/06/new-top-cop-takes-over-at-40th...
But how about we promote people based on merit rather than their skin color?
14
Good point, but Officer Jackson and Officer Ortega probably prefer to work in Manhattan, too, and might have a provable case of workplace discrimination if forced to work there based on last name or racial background.
14
When you look at the area around the police station on Google street view, there seem to be an awful lot of parked police cars for a couple of blocks in every direction.
6
Thus depriving drug dealers "public space".
2
Articles like these justify middle class Americans willing to pay a premium in order to avoid living amongst people where being a 30 yr old grandma is not only the norm, but is actually celebrated
65
On a Liberal site like the Times where the majority of comments reflect the delusions of the Left you are to be congratulated for shining a ray of light into the realities of urban minority culture. A culture most choose to get as far away from as possible.
24
It occurs to me that we know what poverty, crime and looks like and much of its causality. So we spend much treasure and social blaming to repair damage. Perhaps we should spend more time investigating what causes affluence, growth and good citizenship and invest in implementing results. If you feel you need to react by blaming a greedy 1% or govt/business conspiracy please grow a brain.
8
This is the other 1%.
2
Hopefully you're not implying that I'm a member of the mystical 1% cabal of robber barons that you believe rule international commerce. I'm not.
> Perhaps we should spend more time investigating what causes affluence, growth and good citizenship and invest in implementing results.
Leftists would sooner destroy civilization that recognize man's independent mind.
Leftists would sooner destroy civilization that recognize man's independent mind.
3
There are many cities suffering from some version of this news article. As the leading liberal intelligentsia in this country, how does someone like the very public and well-known DeBlasio acknowledge this situation? What are his specific fixes?
The police alone cannot be held solely responsible nor should the good members of this community be punished for gangs, drug pushers and constant gang murders and self-implosion....so what is the answer?
Empathy alone has gotten us nowhere in this country. Professional victimization of everyone, dripping from headlines, is desensitizing Americans who cannot solve every problem.
There is much GOOD WILL in the US but is being squandered by a sense of hopelessness.
Suggestions??
The police alone cannot be held solely responsible nor should the good members of this community be punished for gangs, drug pushers and constant gang murders and self-implosion....so what is the answer?
Empathy alone has gotten us nowhere in this country. Professional victimization of everyone, dripping from headlines, is desensitizing Americans who cannot solve every problem.
There is much GOOD WILL in the US but is being squandered by a sense of hopelessness.
Suggestions??
9
The 40th Precinct NYPD are scared of the Criminals prowling their district. Their hands-off policy keeps the police safe but intensifies crime on civilians. Why are these officers paid exorbitant salaries to hide in their precinct house?
8
Exorbitant?
4
That's one of the better truths written here... Thanks!
1
Because if they try to police and protect the community from the animals preying on it, they will get crucified in the press.
The get the call and arrive. No one will give them any information.
In the modern liberal age with the tribal community mentality cops in places like the South Bronx are relegated to a road crew simply removing bodies.
The get the call and arrive. No one will give them any information.
In the modern liberal age with the tribal community mentality cops in places like the South Bronx are relegated to a road crew simply removing bodies.
5
I remember riding my tricycle on Cypress Ave. I was 3 years old. The South Bronx was filled with young parents, veterans returned from Europe and the Pacific. Children were everywhere. We were all dirt poor. The 2 room apartment on the 2nd floor had a cheap linoleum floor, one bath and one closet. Me, my sister Ruth and mom and dad slept in the same bedroom. Climbing out on the fire escape in a summer rain was a treat. Opening the hydrant in steaming summers was great fun too. That was our swimming pool.
The Bronx has changed. I'm 69 now. Living on Cypress Ave. was one of the happiest times of my life. My mother too, she's now 94, will tell you the same. We had lots of friends, no money, and family nearby. That was it. Now i read about killings by gangs, drugs and desperate poverty. Police are stretched to their limit and residents too are on the brink of disaster. What happened from 1947 to 2016? Why are we at this point?
The reasons are clear to me. First of all gangs and drugs. Next is poverty. No jobs don't help. Lack of education. General despair and hopelessness. Abandonment by the City and the state. Racism and bigotry. Stagnant wages. Loss of industry and small mom and pop stores too. Cramming people into zip codes of poverty with no way out.
We can't bring back the 40s and 50s. Nor do we want to. But we must, must bring peace. Start by totally outlawing gangs and gang membership. Start by tearing down the projects and building really good housing. Start doing.
The Bronx has changed. I'm 69 now. Living on Cypress Ave. was one of the happiest times of my life. My mother too, she's now 94, will tell you the same. We had lots of friends, no money, and family nearby. That was it. Now i read about killings by gangs, drugs and desperate poverty. Police are stretched to their limit and residents too are on the brink of disaster. What happened from 1947 to 2016? Why are we at this point?
The reasons are clear to me. First of all gangs and drugs. Next is poverty. No jobs don't help. Lack of education. General despair and hopelessness. Abandonment by the City and the state. Racism and bigotry. Stagnant wages. Loss of industry and small mom and pop stores too. Cramming people into zip codes of poverty with no way out.
We can't bring back the 40s and 50s. Nor do we want to. But we must, must bring peace. Start by totally outlawing gangs and gang membership. Start by tearing down the projects and building really good housing. Start doing.
33
Please add unwanted pregnancies to your list. Children have children, the father disappears, the mother and her mother raise the children, and they are vulnerable to the fraternity of the gang. Were free birth control distributed in schools, the number of unwanted, unplanned pregnancies would decline and the cycle of poverty would be diminished.
But the Christian right is SO AFRAID of the nose under the tent of abortion, that the "baby" of birth control has been thrown out with the "bath" of pregnancy prevention. Our society will pay the price for this for generations.
But the Christian right is SO AFRAID of the nose under the tent of abortion, that the "baby" of birth control has been thrown out with the "bath" of pregnancy prevention. Our society will pay the price for this for generations.
13
The only problem with your analysis is that many of the pregnancies are NOT unwanted. It's becoming a coming of age requirement. I am aware of several where the father wanted marriage, but the mother did not want to be 'tied down'.
8
We still cannot admit that stupidity and guns are among the most lethal of circumstances.
13
Well, why don't you go and talk to them nicely? Some of the toughest gun laws in the Country are in NYC, bUt these folks don't seem to be obeying them.
15
Actually the guns come from states with lax gun laws, such as Virginia. So you raise a good point that we need more federal gun control. Of course that won't happen for at least four years.
2
Rodrigo Duterte's approach becomes appealing when the criminals run wild with impunity as they do in Mr. Fernandez's case. And the stupid gun laws do nothing to help poor crime victims like him and his family--but if he were to use a gun on the thugs, the cops would have to send HIM to prison.
26
What in the world stops these people from getting out of there? Are people this paralyzed? Are people this sad that they have no resources to save themselves? Move... Move far far away.. to another state. Pack up and get a van and move away and save yourself and your family. It doesnt matter your situation.. If you want it bad enough you will find a way.
28
All the victim-blaming comments here are making me sick. Try living in these areas yourselves. My Dad grew up in the South Bronx in extreme poverty. What's going on in the South Bronx is heartbreaking.
20
PS. And legalize drugs!
5
If these communities are tearing themselves apart, who are they victims of? I have been to poor housing estates in China and Hong Kond where you have a lot of petty crime and drug dealing but nothing like the level of violence depicted in this article. It is clearly a cultural dysfunction within the community itself. The people in the neighborhood are responsible for trashing their houses, joining gangs, having kids at 14 and not cooperating with law enforcement. I am all for legalization of drugs - as long as nobody asks me to support the addicts with my tax money. If you choose to kill yourself by consuming legal or illegal substances, it is your decision and you bear the consequences.
10
Mr. Fernandez’s complaints did not spur any arrests, but two men from the hallway were caught separately this year in shootings.
I'm sure that many of these unsolved murder cases were just duplicate cases of the same individual committing various murders against different victims. If you get away the first time your growing ego tells you that you aren't going to get caught. Then your crime spree escalates until that one day your luck runs out. But until then society pays.
I'm sure that many of these unsolved murder cases were just duplicate cases of the same individual committing various murders against different victims. If you get away the first time your growing ego tells you that you aren't going to get caught. Then your crime spree escalates until that one day your luck runs out. But until then society pays.
19
We agree. The NYPD is cowards. And they often say the wrong comment to citizens.
I'm pro police by the way, and I'm a law abiding citizen.
I'm pro police by the way, and I'm a law abiding citizen.
3
One of the scariest things I had to do, as an urban teacher, was to press charges against a violent boy who was in my class when I worked in NJ city smack outside of NYC. One day, he was angry at me so, he said, "I am going to put a bullet in your head!" I told the principal, who had just about had it with the family after the boy set fire to a girl's hair walking home from school a week earlier. Since it didn't happen on school property, the family pressed police charges. The boy's family, a gang family, harassed the girl's family, so those charges were dropped. I had to press charges. The school district handled the case and the boy was finally expelled. I am mentioning this story because my school had a lot of transfers from South Bronx. The families thought it was a safer city. Maybe it was. Most of the kids were lovely or at least, had big hearts and were compassionate types. But, there was a loud minority of troublemakers. There's something to be said about the failed Johnson administration's Great Society. We need to pick up the pieces and save the people who live in the utopian dream that turned into a dystopian reality. From my experience, working with kids and families who live in projects, most really want the best--most are caring and considerate people. There is a lack of opportunity for most and, many feel like the government did them in--there is distrust for the system because the system created the dystopia where they live.
29
I must add: I clearly remember one transfer from the South Bronx. He was 15 years old, sitting in my sixth grade class. I asked him how school was in the South Bronx. His response, "Fun! We got to throw chairs around all day!" I looked at him and said, "Well, we don't throw chairs around here. We work and learn." Our school had just gone through a restructuring process a year earlier (This was in the early 1990s). Our school had serious issues before the restructuring but was fully under control when this kid stepped into my room. He did well. He had to go back to the South Bronx at the end of the year because the district figured out that he wasn't living with his guardians. He came back to visit, proud that he showed a serious, studious side in his South Bronx school. They actually promoted him to high school that year. It can be fixed. But, given the stories I have seen, from the kids and families who have left, it sounds like a big quagmire in the South Bronx. Bring in churches, people that the locals can trust. Start there. If the residents can't trust the police, the police have to turn to a part of the community that the locals can trust.
2
A want of more effective law enforcement isn't the problem. The problem is poverty. People who know they have future because they grow up in situation where success is modeled, who in the overwhelming majority of cases don't carry guns as a matter of course and don't have children at age 14, aren't motivated to a life of violence because they have choices.
This much has been known since the 1960s, when well-meaning federal programs failed for various reasons. Obama had 8 years to make a personal impact on inner city poverty yet things only got worse. I expected more from the Democrats. I expect nothing from Trump.
This much has been known since the 1960s, when well-meaning federal programs failed for various reasons. Obama had 8 years to make a personal impact on inner city poverty yet things only got worse. I expected more from the Democrats. I expect nothing from Trump.
14
Interesting that the 3 most liberal cities in the country also have the worst crime rates after two terms of one of the most liberal administrations in American history. Change you can count on.
46
Wrong. I was born and raised in Manhattan and Brooklyn and lived there again in 2007-2009. I could walk through the Marcy St projects at 4 AM with no worry. I now live in rural Georgia where carjackings and home invasions make it the Wild West. For the first time in my life I now have a concealed weapons permit and carry a loaded pistol in my car for protection.
10
That statement is true, that total crime was down only .1%, but a look at the breakdown of the statistics seem to show that is a sloppy, simplistic application of the statistics.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-040...
Here is the Comp Stat report for the 40th PCT.
There was a spike in Grand Larceny (up a shocking 71%) and felony assault, up 19%, both over 2001 numbers, but murder is down 66% vs. 2001, rape is down 19.6%, and ALL other crime categories are down.
It is a much more complicated, less dire situation than the reporting leads on.
Please read skeptically.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-040...
Here is the Comp Stat report for the 40th PCT.
There was a spike in Grand Larceny (up a shocking 71%) and felony assault, up 19%, both over 2001 numbers, but murder is down 66% vs. 2001, rape is down 19.6%, and ALL other crime categories are down.
It is a much more complicated, less dire situation than the reporting leads on.
Please read skeptically.
3
marksv,
If you are counting New York in your "3 most liberal cities," you are dead wrong. 1st of all, New York's crime rate has gone down drastically over the last 8 years. Please get your facts straight.
If you are counting New York in your "3 most liberal cities," you are dead wrong. 1st of all, New York's crime rate has gone down drastically over the last 8 years. Please get your facts straight.
This question always haunts me: How do we dare take on other country's human rights abuses when we have the South Bronx?
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To serve and protect.
One cannot do that if the resources are not there. It s a simple numbers game. Deterrence of crime often comes just at the mere sight of blue. This has been so since the first officers on the beat long ago, and it is the same for modern times.
With the all the hoopla and fanfare of NYCity having the finest police force in the country, one can forget easily that all crimes are not done by terrorists, and furthermore not all crimes happen in Manhattan
Such a great city they named it twice. Does that include the Bronx as well ?
One cannot do that if the resources are not there. It s a simple numbers game. Deterrence of crime often comes just at the mere sight of blue. This has been so since the first officers on the beat long ago, and it is the same for modern times.
With the all the hoopla and fanfare of NYCity having the finest police force in the country, one can forget easily that all crimes are not done by terrorists, and furthermore not all crimes happen in Manhattan
Such a great city they named it twice. Does that include the Bronx as well ?
6
Everyone who reads this article should look at a list of the presidents recent pardons. In particular note the pardons for crimes involving large amounts of drugs and firearms.
I guess you view things differently if you and your family have a lifetime of Secret Service protection...........
I guess you view things differently if you and your family have a lifetime of Secret Service protection...........
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I believe that more than 150 NYPD officers are presently protecting the President Elect, who presents himself as a supremely rich fellow. Why not transfer them to the Bronx, and have the Army Reserve protect the president elect? Let the Federal Government protect DT.
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The problem is this....too many women having too many babies that they can't take care of and that often have no partner at home to help raise and discipline them. Add to that, teens running about at night and in the wee hours of the morning when they should be doing their homework and sleeping. The police are not their parents !
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What about the men who father those babies?
1
"women having too many babies "
Those babies have fathers; where did they go?
Those babies have fathers; where did they go?
1
You mean too many men having babies that they will not take care of.
1
Sure the cops could do better but it's human nature to go down to the path of least resistance. The culture & many people in that corner of NYC are apathetic & dangerous. You can only do so much in such an environment.
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Actually, the article tells how many of the cops are doing all they can; the problem is that the city terribly understaffs and under-resources the precinct. Have you been to "that corner" of NYC where so many are "apathetic and dangerous"? I teach there every day and find so many hardworking families like the Fernandez's who care very, very much about making their neighborhoods safe. It's not a simple charicature.
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@nycteacher: I lived on 161st/woodycrest in the Bronx for 7 years. Some of my neighbor's were like the Fernandez most were just resigned, kept their head down as the drug dealing, pit bulls roamed the halls. I did it too.
Sorry I'm not going to romanticize the hood because it interferes with the PC narrative. You could put poor Asians and whites into these buildings & while there'd be problems, it'd would be nothing like what is being described. Culture matters, stop making excuses. It helps no one.
Sorry I'm not going to romanticize the hood because it interferes with the PC narrative. You could put poor Asians and whites into these buildings & while there'd be problems, it'd would be nothing like what is being described. Culture matters, stop making excuses. It helps no one.
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A culture that values sports and hip hop music more than it does education in not very impressive.
1
The problem in these communities can't just be due to lack of police, ACS caseworkers, dirty streets, poorly performing schools, racism, etc. It all seems to stem from irresponsible people who either turn a blind eye (witness the peep hole camera that does not show any police response - did police not respond, now that would be newsworthy), or lack any moral compass. These problems simply don't exist in every community, but seem to occur where an enraged apathy has become the norm. Why is that is the question...
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