Traffic safety is an ongoing concern after a 14-year-old was hit by a reckless driver on Manhattan Avenue this week. The driver is currently being held on $2500 bail. Community members mobilized and met to discuss safer streets this past Wednesday.
Police are currently looking for two suspects who bought more than ten thousand dollars of luxury goods after stealing a Greenpoint woman’s credit card.
A Williamsburg man has pled guilty to running a heroin ring, and sold the drugs out of his apartment on Driggs Ave. According to Patch, “Twenty-three other people pleaded guilty in the same ring, where they sold heroin under the names, “Knockout,” “Takeover,” “Power Hour,” “Killing Time,” “Pure,” “Gucci,” and “Scorpion.” Continue reading →
Protesters in front of the 94th precinct today. Photo: Julia Moak
Greenpoint’s own 94th Precinct police station (100 Meserole Avenue) was the site today for an organized protest following Captain Peter Rose’s remarks to a DNA Info reporter last week that sparked not only local concern but also social media outrage andnationwideattention. His comments insinuated that the police may prioritize cases of “stranger rape” over cases where the perpetrator was known to the victim.
“It’s not a trend that we’re too worried about because out of 13 [sex attacks], only two were true stranger rapes,” Rose said in the DNA Info article. “If there’s a true stranger rape, a random guy picks up a stranger off the street, those are the troubling ones. That person has, like, no moral standards,” he said.
These comments come on the heels of a string of rape cases in Greenpoint last fall, in addition to reports of women being publicly groped, and police response to those events gave local residents enough concern to form a task force.
Captain Rose released a formal apology yesterday via Twitter stating, “Every rape, whether it is perpetrated by a stranger or someone known to them is fully investigated. We make no distinction in our response. My comments suggested otherwise and for that I apologize.” Despite the apology, the NOW protest planned for this afternoon in front of the precinct moved forward, with about 20-30 protesters in attendance and almost as many police personnel in front of the precinct keeping watch. Continue reading →
A 1924 mugshot from Australia. Credit NPR, NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice & Police Museum, Historic Houses Trust of NSW
Think that North Brooklyn was a safer place back in the good old days? Think again! In the second half of the 19th century, North Brooklyn had many notorious gangs and hard-core hoods. Here are some of the most infamous local gangs of yesteryear.
The Battle Row Gang – This gang, which had an almost two-decade-long life starting in 1870, was in the words of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle “composed of the scum of the Fourteenth Ward (Williamsburg).” known as “fighters and rowdies,” they lurked at “Crow” McGoldrick’s saloon on Union Avenue and North First Street. They became notorious in July of 1871 when gang member Henry Rogers killed Brooklyn Police officer Donoghue and was hanged for the murder. In June of that year, two factions of the gang fought with “pistols, knives, fists and slingshots. The battle raged,” furiously and unrestrained” for thirty minutes. One dying member, Patrick Cash, asked to name his assailants, replied “I’d die with the name of the fellow in my throat, before I’d give him away.” You can read more about these scumbags in the Daily Eagle archives here and here. Continue reading →
Filming this week on the corner of Nassau and Manhattan.
Thought you found a good deal on an apartment? According to this piece from Curbed, a new batch of apartments at 5 Blue Slip (part of the Greenpoint Landing project) will have options as low as $393 a month for low-income renters.
According to this story from DNAinfo, four shelter residents have had bad reactions to heroin they purchased near the intersection of Manhattan Avenue and Clay Street. According to one shelter manager, easy access to the drug on the northern end of Manhattan Avenue is causing serious problems in the area. Continue reading →
Around 3am the morning of Tuesday, November 1st, a man was shot in the leg on Manhattan Avenue near Clay Street. This part of Greenpoint has been a sore spot for many locals, due to problems caused by residents of the nearby homeless shelter.
Several weeks ago, disturbing news of a sexual assault that allegedly occurred on Sutton St. near McGolrick Park broke on social media and rattled the Greenpoint Community.
The assault allegedly occurred around 2am on September 13, two blocks east of McGolrick Park. According to a post that was shared extensively on Facebook, a 34 year-old woman was walking to a deli on Sutton between Driggs and Nassau when she was attacked and raped by a group of teenagers, suffering serious injuries including a knife wound to the neck.
The social media reports of the incident shook the traditionally peaceful area of Greenpoint surrounding McGolrick Park and prompted local activist Emily Gallagher and Park Church Pastor Amy Kienzle to organize the Greenpoint Task Force, a coalition with regular meetings for concerned community members.
The first of these meetings occurred Thursday, September 22 in the basement of the Park Church Co-op. It was attended by nearly 100 members of the community, as well as several representatives of the 94th Precinct, including Captain Stefan Komar, Community Affairs Specialist Norberto Rivera, and Special Operations Lieutenant Matthew Delaney.
Captain Komar answers questions at the first community meeting.
During the course of the meeting, citizens asked questions of the police regarding the alleged sexual assault. What they were told was frustrating, as Captain Komar recounted several inconsistencies and roadblocks in what had been reported to police. Continue reading →
Police have released images of two of the men wanted in connection with the Sept. 25 robbery spree.
Greenpoint has recently had a wave of robberies and a burglary that have disturbed neighborhood residents. Early in the morning on Sunday, Sept. 25, four separate robberies occurred within 90 minutes of each other.
The first robbery took place around 3:15am at the corner of Jackson Street and Meeker Avenue when four men approached a 26 year-old victim, attacked him, and took his backpack, iPhone, camera, and books.
The second incident took place around 4am at Jewel Street and Meserole Avenue when a 34-year old man was attacked by three men and robbed of his iPhone, $300 in cash, and wallet. The victim was struck in the face during the robbery and required stitches to close a laceration he received.
The third incident occurred shortly after at 4:30am at Leonard Street and Driggs Avenue when two men robbed a 33-year old man at knifepoint of his iPhone and credit cards. This victim was unharmed.
The final robbery took place at Meserole Avenue and Diamond Street and involved two men attacking a 32-year old man and stealing his phone and wallet.
Police have strong video and photo evidence in the robberies and are looking for a group of four men in connection with all of the incidents.
Firefighters responded to calls from multiple people who reported smelling gas near Franklin and Noble Wednesday night. After checking it out, firefighters determined that nothing was wrong.
After a string of recent robberies in Greenpoint, police are looking for four men. Images have been released of two of these men. Stay vigilant and be careful if walking late at night.
Ever wonder where McGuinness Boulevard got its name? It’s because of a man named Peter J. McGuinness, an influential character in the neighborhood’s history who, despite having never graduated high school, helped get such projects as the Meeker Avenue Bridge and McCarren Park Pool completed. Local historian and frequent Greenpointers writer Geoff Cobb has a new book coming out about him called King of Greenpoint, which is getting some attention!
After being forced out of their apartment of 23 years by nefarious landlords and forced to live in shelters and temporary housing for three years, a Greenpoint family has finally returned to their longtime home at 300 Nassau Avenue.
Ever wonder what an Airbnb nightmare looks like? Check out this story, on a Williamsburg family who rented out their duplex only to have $7k in damage occur.
Tired of feeling like your paycheck disappears faster than free pizza at Paulie Gee’s? Well, you may be on to something, according to this study from a real estate data company, which calls Brooklyn the most “unaffordable place to live in America”.
Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that North Brooklyn Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol originally introduced providing tax credits for brewers in New York City. Greenpoint Beer and Ale, Keg & Lantern, and Brooklyn Brewery all got shout outs from Lentol in the press release!
Community members meet with District 33 Participatory Budgeting Coordinator Benjamin Solotaire Tuesday night at the Greenpoint Library.
Participatory budgeting meetings have been happening all week, and there’s more to come. You can submit your ideas here or attend a meeting in person (click here for a schedule). Get a piece of that $1.5 mil!
In light of several assaults that allegedly occurred near McGolrick park recently, a community meeting was held Thursday night at the Park Church Co-Op (129 Russell St.) Concerned citizens asked questions of several attending officers of the 94th Precinct and then brainstormed ways to make the community safer. Greenpointers attended the meeting and we will have an update coming soon!
Last week, we received several messages from concerned community members about two assaults in Greenpoint. A possible rape that occurred just two blocks from McGolrick Park happened around 2:30AM on September 13th. The next day, a woman reported that she was knocked to the ground by a group of teenagers nearby around Driggs and Humboldt.
The meeting description reads: “A number of violent and harassing incidents have happened recently around our community. This is a meeting to discuss how to proceed in creating a safer neighborhood, sharing concerns and brainstorming impactful solutions. We will not solve this problem overnight, but solidarity will help us to move forward.”
According to Gothamist, the details of the incidents are still “thin and preliminary” and DNAInfo reported that no rape has been reported as of Monday according to Pete Rose of the 94th precinct. That said, we as Greenpoint residents are incredibly alarmed by these assaults.
“hello to my nyc community – I just ran into an old friend who had a beyond horrible thing happen to her a few days ago and I must spread the word. She was walking to the deli on Sutton street bt driggs and nassau, near mcgolrick park, and was attacked and raped by a group of teenagers who stabbed the side of her neck with a knife. She is beyond lucky to be alive. I haven’t heard anything or seen any signs around the neighborhood about this, so I am using facebook to spread the word. I know a lot of you live in that area, and you should be aware of this! Please be careful out there! And if anyone has any information that may be useful in this – if you have heard other stories like this in the past few months – anything! just let me know and I will pass it along to her so she can get it to the police.”
The NYPD has an interactive crime map of the city you can view here. Again, it bears repeating that if you or someone you know has been the victim of rape or sexual assault, you can call the Safe Horizon Rape and Sexual Assault hotline 24/7 at (212) 227-3000. If you have information related to the incident, reach out to the 94th Precinct Detective Squad at (718) 383-8495 or the main line at (718) 383-3879.
We will continue to update as we learn more. In the meantime, if you have any tips or other concerns, please comment or email us directly at [email protected] (Erik), [email protected] (Megan), and [email protected] (Julia).
