New York Shitty Day Ender: Live From The 94th Precinct Community Council Meeting

That’s right, folks summer is over! Without further ado, here is the footage from this, the first 94th Precinct Community Council Meeting after summer break. Enjoy!

Part I: Introduction & Assemblyman Joe Lentol Speaks

• Moving forward, 94th Precinct Community Council Meetings will be conducted the second Tuesday of every month starting at 7:00 p.m. (Hear me, Aaron?)
• The chair of the Community Council announces that these meetings are being filmed (by me) and that anyone who wishes to discuss “personal business” can do so afterward.
• Assemblyman Joseph Lentol Speaks. He makes it explicit that he wants know about any concerns our community may have. He lauds D.I. Hurson for doing a good job. (I have to agree; whenever I have a question Hurson gets back to me— STAT!)

Part II: Roll Call; The Officers of the Months of July and August Are Announced by D.I. Hurson

• A recitation of minutes from the previous meeting.
• On July 21st, Officer Jeffrey Brtzinski pro-actively dissuaded an emotionally disturbed woman from jumping off the Pulaski Bridge. WOW.
• Another officer is lauded for exemplary service in August. Regrettably, I did not catch his name. No worries Phyllis knows who he is— as you will soon learn!

Part III: Crime trends are explored, as is the “homeless” situation at McCarren Park and club enforcement (including a really disturbing incident at Club Europa), etc.

• The 94th Precinct is (apparently) in evacuation Zone “A”.
• The only 94th Precinct incident related to Irene was a police car getting hit by drunk driver— during the hurricane!
• The 94th is still down by 13% over last year in terms of crime. Greenpoint is amongst the lowest in the city!
• Chronic problems:

1. Car break-ins.
2. Robberies; stealing phones.
3. McCarren Park’s Chronic Public Inebriates: to this end D.I. Hurson has allocated an officer to patrol McCarren Park, they are ticketing for open containers and the 94th is locking down Abate Playground at night. Rami Metal also advised us that the Greenpoint homeless “task force” had a meeting on just this “problem” this morning.

• Nightclubs: M.A.R.C.H.ing on: Club Europa, The Place, Stone’s Tavern, Spritzenhaus and Coco 66 (among others) have all been cited for various and sundry violations via the NYPD, FDNY, DOB, SLA and other state/municipal entities.

• At Club Europa (which is a bottle’s toss from the 94th Precinct) fight erupted inside at bar and found its way onto the street. In the ensuing melee two police officers were assaulted, a stabbing came to pass and gun shots were fired on Manhattan Avenue. This came to pass 9/18/2011. Yikes!

The robbery at 93 Nassau Avenue is noted.

And last, but not least: The “concerts”

• Per D. I. Hurson all of Open Space Alliance’s concerts have gone well. Save of course, Widespread Panic.
• Vendors selling “laughing gas” were found and three canisters were confiscated. These were taken away by the Fire Department as apparently this is the protocol.
• Per D. I. Hurson this is a “Manhattan” problem. (I— or more accurately my neighbors/readers residing in the 90th Precinct— will probably beg to differ.)
• I was later told by Officer Adamo that most of the men he caught using nitrous were in their 40s. One was even in his 50s. Ew.

Part IV: The Question & Answer Session Is Opened by D.I. Hurson.

• A citizen gives a litany of crimes which have come to pass along Nassau Avenue.
• D.I. Hurson responds.
• Despite no less than two caveats that footage at this meeting is being filmed she tells me to stop. So be it. I am not in the mood to argue.

Part V: D. I. Hurson Responds; A Resident of Franklin Street Speaks

• A drunk driving incident on Franklin Street (at Kent Street and Franklin Street, to be precise) is recounted. Here’s what I received via my inbox about this incident:

Dear Franklin St. Neighbor Whose SUV Totaled My Car:

I wanted to write and let you know what happened the night of July 18, the night that your car ran at full throttle through a stop sign at the corner of Kent St. and Franklin St. and hit my car, completely wrecking it in the process. I wanted to let you know that my boyfriend was largely unhurt, despite both airbags deploying, the windshield cracking and the front of the car crumpling like it was made of tissue paper. I wanted to let you know that I wasn’t in the car that night, sitting in the passenger seat, because I had too much work to do and couldn’t make it out in time to go to the baseball game.

I wanted to let you know that there was no one else in the car, that it was just my boyfriend – just, as though he alone wouldn’t matter. I know you think he doesn’t matter, because you fled the scene and didn’t stop to find out who was in the car or how many people were in the car or how injured they were or weren’t.  You just ran.

I wanted to let you know that through some miracle, he had the presence of mind to steer away from your silver SUV running through the intersection so that the collision wasn’t head on. Maybe that was what saved him; we’ll never know for sure, because your vehicle was driving very, very fast, while he was traveling under the speed limit.

I want to let you know all of those things, because you didn’t stop to find out. After you ran the stop sign plowed into a parked car (which then plowed into the one in front of it), you got out of the car and took off down the street.  Witnesses said that you were drunk, that you  tried to get into a building down the block — which, coincidentally happened to be the registered address for the vehicle — and then they said that you then ran around the block and hailed a cab.

I would tell you of the kindness of the people on the corner at Mrs. Kim’s that night, the couple who stayed for at least an hour if not longer, so they could be witnesses and give the police their statements. I would tell you about someone at Mrs. Kim’s coming out and giving my boyfriend a glass of water. I would tell you of the shared outrage of everyone who saw what happened, everyone who stood there and looked at the car and asked if my boyfriend was okay, amazed that he wasn’t hurt worse than he was.

Of course I was there, at the scene of the accident, because we are neighbors. We live on the same street.  I was there because my boyfriend was four blocks from home – four blocks! – and that when he called, I was just a little bit annoyed because I was working and that he was calling me from the bodega making sure I didn’t want anything.  Instead, his first words were, “I just want you to know that I’m okay,” and I could tell from his voice that he hadn’t been in a fender bender, but that it had been a bad accident, that my car – my first and only new car – was likely damaged beyond repair.

I want to tell you that my car, despite being 12 years old, was in almost perfect condition. I had done everything you were supposed to do to that car, every piece of maintenance, because I wasn’t living in New York and I was by myself and I had to have a reliable vehicle. That car drove cross-country three times. It had driven to Chicago and Washington, DC, and Detroit, and Boston, and Philadelphia so many times it could probably drive itself. It had carried dozens of my friends to concerts and trips to Ikea and Target. Dumb stuff, mundane stuff, but things that made our lives easier.

I want to tell you that now, because I don’t have a car, I can’t go visit my father, who’s in Connecticut in a place where you have to have a car. I’d love to go see him after work or on the weekend, but getting up there involves a train ride and now an expensive cab ride. That I’m worried about going to see him because my mother passed away in May. Sure, I had insurance, and so did you, but the car was 12 years old. I know, I’m lucky, I didn’t need the car for work or school, but that car saved us when we were poor, when we were broker than broke. We used it; we needed it; and now we don’t have it, because you blew through a stop sign while drunk.

I want to let you know all of this, because you don’t know, because you have yet to call your insurance company to file a claim for the accident, so there is no way that you could know about the damage you caused, about the havoc you wreaked. That the owner of the tow yard that had to hold my car for three weeks – three weeks! – because you wouldn’t return the calls from your insurance company – told us that at first a lawyer called to see if the car was there, and then that you showed up and wanted to pay cash for everything.  Of course, this is all hearsay; I’m just repeating things that other people have told me.

So, now you know. We’re sad and we’re upset. We’re also spitting angry because despite what the officers who responded to the accident told us — that you would be arrested for leaving the scene of an accident — because no one was killed or injured worse, it isn’t a felony, and the 94th Precinct can’t be bothered.  It’s too bad that you are just going to get away with it.  Since you are a resident of Greenpoint who also works in the area, I’m sure you would agree that this sends an unfortunate message to people who want to break the law in our zip code, that it tells them that they can get away with crimes with impunity.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know.

• Illegal street vendors are discussed.

Part VI: Phyllis!

(speechless)

• The Public Safely Committee Meeting of Community Board 1 will come to pass at:
  September 27, 2011 starting at 6:30 p.m.
  CB1 Main Office
  435 Graham Avenue
  Brooklyn, New York 11211
• A complaint about film crews behaving badly (from none other than the awesome woman is caretaker of Jerzy Popieluszko Square). Not only did the crew in question park vehicles on streets outside the scope of their permits, but they apparently left a lot of litter as well.

Part VII: Q & A Continued

• Enforcement of traffic laws regarding bicyclists is brought to the table.
• The disappearance of fire hydrant caps is noted; it is posited that these are being sold for scrap metal.

Part VIII: Rami Metal (Community Liaison for Councilman Steve Levin’s Office) Speaks

• Scrap-metal legislation/great oversight of scrap metal dealers is posited by Mr. Metal.
• Crusties and gutter-punks have been noticed on the subway by a citizen. Mr. Metal observes that this is a “seasonal” problem.
• Graffiti continues to plague Greenpoint. One person who goes by the moniker “BS” is especially prolific.

Part IX: The Meeting Quickly Disbands.

That’s all folks!