Grand Avenue Hot Spot Not a Focus of Town Hall Meeting on Crime in Clinton Hill
The 88th Precinct does not have enough resources to fight crime in Clinton Hill, according to pols and police who spoke at a town hall meeting Wednesday convened by Public Advocate (and Clinton Hill resident) Letitia James. Specifically, it has only 112 officers and three or four squad cars to patrol the area at night. “The 88th…
The 88th Precinct does not have enough resources to fight crime in Clinton Hill, according to pols and police who spoke at a town hall meeting Wednesday convened by Public Advocate (and Clinton Hill resident) Letitia James. Specifically, it has only 112 officers and three or four squad cars to patrol the area at night.
“The 88th precinct is under-resourced,” a story in DNAinfo quoted James as saying at the meeting at Emmanuel Baptist Church, above. “I’ve discovered recently we only have three or four patrol cars to turn out at night. That’s unacceptable.”
Police respond to shooting at a dry cleaners on the corner of Grand Avenue and Clifton Place in 2014
Twelve of the 15 shootings so far this year — nearly double the number last year in the same period — occurred at the Ingersoll Houses and near Fulton Street, officials continued. No mention was made in the story of the drug dealing hot spot around Grand Avenue and Clifton Place, the site of the recent double shooting that prompted Wednesday’s meeting.
Residents have been complaining about — and Brownstoner has been writing about — drug dealing and violent crime along Grand Avenue for about a decade, at least.
88th Precinct Needs More Officers and Patrol Cars, Pols and Police Say [DNA]
Top photo by Rosa Goldensohn for DNAinfo
More reading:
A Reader Pens Open Letter to D.A. About Crime on Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill [Brownstoner]
Cleaners on Grand Avenue, Site of Shooting, Shuttered by Court Order [Brownstoner]
Gilbert Kelly, Longtime Grand Avenue Fixture, Shot Dead Last Night [Brownstoner]
Breaking! Drug Raid at 417 Grand Avenue, Officers Injured, Ambulances on Scene [Brownstoner]
Suspect Arrested in Last Month’s Grand Avenue Murder as Another Shooting Happens [Brownstoner]
Operation Grand Slam Nabs 11 in Clinton Hill [Brownstoner]
Turning up the Pressure on Grand and Putnam [Brownstoner]
Grand Avenue Coverage [Brownstoner]
Crime Coverage [Brownstoner]
YOU DON’T NEED CARS TO WALK
OK, so there are three to four squad cars available at night. How exactly does that relate to the open air drug market at Clifton and Grand that’s been entrenched for over four decades and operates 24/7 – including in broad daylight? Local residents reporting LP numbers aren’t looking for them with flashlights. Bottom line: the dealing and shooting continues because the perps know there is little to no risk – that when things come to a head periodically, the local pols call yet another “town hall” where they get their photo ops, and then life goes on as usual. Question is why – and “lack of resources” at the present time doesn’t address why the dealing at that location has been going on, unchecked by the police, for over a generation.
James is an idiot and Cumbo is a bigger idiot. I feel bad for the constituents that look up to these two. James’ solution to the problem was to hold, periodically, boxing matches to keep kids off the street and also for people to snitch on the criminals. Cumbo had no plan whatsoever. BP President Adams had an impressive speech. He had some excellent points but not sure how actionable any of his points were.
Overall, as expected, I didn’t feel there was any solid outcome from this meeting. As a start, Cumbo and James need to stop pushing policies that limit the ability of the police to enforce preventative measure to catch these criminals.