The man depicted in the drawing above is wanted for mugging a 53-year-old man who was walking in the Ramble around 79th street in Central Park on July 30 at around 10 p.m. He approached the victim and asked him for money because he was hungry, police said. Gothamist reported:
The victim apparently answered no and walked away, but police say, “The suspect then came up behind him and put him in a choke hold until he passed out. The victim woke up 20 to 30 minutes later and his wallet and backpack, containing glasses, keys, gift cards, jewelry and an undetermined amount of cash, were gone.”
The perpetrator is about 35 years old, 5’8″ and 160 pounds.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit tips anonymously by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting 274637(CRIMES), then entering TIP577.
Walking through the Ramble at 10 PM?
LOL
Anyone who lives in the UWS knows that looking for love in the Ramble leads to such outcomes. And that is Day or Night!
Stay out ofmthe park after dark, what an idiot. It’s just too dangerous to be in Central or Riverside after dark.
I walked in Riverside Park last night and enjoyed the company of plenty of strollers (couples and other social people). I enjoy it.
You’ve got to be out of your mind to be in the ramble after dark. Or suicidally horny.
The victim’s wife must be livid about this.
While all of us agree it was unwise to be walking in the ramble after dark, this is yet another story in a long line of disturbing stories regarding violent homeless encounters lately. What about the tourist who was assaulted in front of his midtown hotel at 7:30 am? Should he not have been in front of his hotel during daylight hours? I’m seeing too many stories like this lately. I know a lot of people on here like to defend DeBlasio, but the fact is the buck stops with him. He will take the blame for the deterioration in the city under his watch.
I usually agree with you Lisa, but your premise is incorrect on this one. You’re comparing apples and oranges. 10 O’clock at night in an area of Central Park known for sexual encounters vs. 7:30 am in front of a midtown hotel is an unfair comparison. I am not a fan of our current Mayor (never was since his days in Koch/Dinkin’s circus); however, as residents of our incredible and exciting city , , , we do bear some responsibility for our well being. Strolling in an area known for trouble was not a wise move, especially when crime is increasing in areas & times that use to be considered safe – midtown, broad daylight, etc.
I agree the buck stops with him on overall crime rates, but we do bear some responsibility as well – to not be an easy victim.
I don’t think we’re necessarily in disagreement. I think we all agree it was stupid to be in the ramble at 10pm. But my comment was that overall, we’re hearing much more of these stories in general – whether in ill advised places or not, there are just more of them.
I am 110% in agreement with you. Reminds me of the mid-70’s!
The spike in violent crime all comes down to 2 issues: Criminals are emboldened due to the dissolution of stop and frisk, and cops are less aggressive due perceived lack of support within the current administration.
JR, well put. I agree.
The police have nobody to blame but themselves and Ray Kelly. What they were doing with S&F was 100 times more illegal than any homeless person on the street. They are responsible for this, not the mayor. These problems stretch back way before your scapegoat ran for office.
Mark, please explain how the police and Ray Kelly are to blame for this crime. I am not a fan of S&F, but I’m disturbed when discourse doesn’t follow logic.
Please also explain how you defend a criminal who steals and seriously chokes a victim in CP with the excuse of purported homelessness. Is that the usual practice of the homeless?
Also, was the attacker really a homeless? If so, he was an unusually fit one.
The criminal is the one responsible. Not the mayor or the cops or the victim. If the park is so unsafe after dark the NYPD should take appropriate action. Stop blaming victims. The perpmis responsible. Period.
How would you suggest keeping 800 acres of the park safe from this type of thing without costing the city millions of dollars/year?
There is something to be said about using common sense and frankly walking around the ramble in the dark is just not the smartest thing to do.
While I do not believe that anyone deserves to be a victim of a violent crime, you greatly increase your chance of doing so by putting yourself in harms way. The victim could have avoided this by using the slightest shred of common sense.
Those who say that CP should be safe are absolutely right, it should be… But it’s not, never really way, and it will most likely never be.
well, i guess you could make that argument if there was a “spike” in violent crime. Which there is not.
Some people choose to cite a -5.9% overall decrease in crime, but there’s something to be said about the types of crimes that are being committed at greater rates than last year.
10.9% increase in murder
6% increase in rape
19.2% increase in misc sex crimes
https://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml
poor Sam does everything in his power to spread hysteria, but he is behind on the facts. the increase in rape and “misc sex crime” numbers is actually due to a better job policing… there has been far more comprehensive reporting of these crimes. this NY times article gives the story.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/nyregion/in-grim-rape-statistics-signs-of-progress.html
Oh, it’s an article from the New York Times. In that case, it must be true (cough)
Sam seems to think that his preconceived notions about things amount to the only possible explanation. And if someone has an alternative version, even if said person has evidence and/or authoritative confirmation, they might be “kooky.” how could they possibly think such a thing?
Why would the sexual abuse agency i cited not have a better idea about this than you, Sam? and what possible reason could there be for a 20% rise in sex crimes? do you think this has anything to do with ending “stop and frisk”? or with some increase of homeless on the street, real or imagined?
you do realize that the vast majority of sex crimes are committed by people who know each other and/or within familues, right?
as for the increase in murders, if you follow what the Mayor and Bratton are saying, you would know that this is confined to certain precincts. and that they have put more cops into those precincts, and that the numbers have already plateaued will end up about where they were last year. this “incredible” increase in murders means 19 more in the course of a year, citywide. some of this is simply random variation.
there is an ongoing political axe to grind on the part of some people. the NY Post has been at the forefront, continually trying to convince people that there is chaos on the streets of NYC with a liberal mayor. it is a lie, and a very malicious one. if the crime numbers we have today took place under Giuliani or Bloomberg, the right wingers would all be celebrating and crowing.
In other words, either there has not been an increase in crime *or* the reported increase in crime is not really an increase in *actual* crime but only an increase in the number of crimes *reported*, which means the police are doing an even better job than they used to do, so we are all safer than ever.
Geez. Talk about manipulating the facts. Why is it that people feel so much less safe recently? Is it just that there is something in the air?
Yes Bruce I read it 2 months ago when it was written. You truly believe that in one year there was that much of an impact in “better policing” to reflect a 20% rise in the numbers?
How about murder rate? Or are we skipping over that?
did you take the time to read the article i linked to? maybe you are “skeptical” that the increase in reporting of sex crimes explains the increase in numbers, but advocates who work every day in this area don’t agree with you:
“We have no reason to believe there is more sexual assault than was happening last year at this time,” Liz Roberts, the deputy chairwoman of Safe Horizon, the largest victims’ services agency in the city, told me. There has been no increase, for instance, in calls to the organization’s sexual-assault hotline. “In terms of N.Y.P.D. response, we have seen a lot of attention to this issue in the last few years,” she said. “They have been engaging with victims’ services on a different level.”
“One important change made in the past year is related to protocol. Previously, a sexual-assault victim who went to the hospital would have to call 911 to report what had happened. A patrol officer would then come and speak with her, assess the case and, depending on that assessment, contact a detective from the Special Victims Unit. The reporting process has been streamlined so that a victim is able to see someone from the unit right away (as she would in an episode of “Law & Order: SVU”). She is in contact, more quickly, with someone trained to deal with what she is going through, and the special victims squad is more capable of recognizing and documenting the crimes.
“Similarly, this year the department formalized a program that better serves victims who don’t speak English.”
I’m not sure my post was hysterical in any sense of the word. I provided some metrics released by the NYPD.
While “better policing” or an increase in reporting these type of sexual crimes would be a big win, I’m skeptical that these measures would justify a 20% increase in sex crimes.
Wow! When the City’s own statistics show such numbers, you know it must be pretty bad…
If victim lost consciousness for from 20-30 minutes, are there any consequences to his brain from the oxygen deprivation?
He was not deprived of oxygen for 20-30 minutes. Just the time it took to complete the chokehold. Probably less than one minute.
I figured that, if you were unconscious (“woke up 20 to 30 minutes later”) for that long, you must have been deprived of some degree of oxygen. No?
You can be “knocked out” but still be breathing.
Hey, AC – maybe he does NOT live on the UWS. Maybe he was a visitor. Does that mean he deserves to be assaulted?Did he even know he was in the Ramble, and what that even means? The citizens of this city should be able to walk any-
where they choose without the fear of losing their lives. I’m really sick of this blame the victim s–t!
And I want a toilet made out of solid gold but at some point you have to be realistic and come back to reality. This is a major city where you have to be careful, Central Park has always been a dangerous place and you need to have street smarts to live here. It’s just how things are.
Jake, a secluded and dimly lit section of a major park at 10 pm ??? Come on bro’ , , , that’s common sense whether you live in NYC or any other major city. 🙂
Is it okay to suggest that he’s African-American?
Of course he is black. Just like every other street criminal we read about here. The criminals are black. The victims tend to be white or asian. That is reality.
WSR has posted pics of plenty of white suspects in recent weeks. i guess your racist filter didn’t let you notice this. And i guess the African immigrant on the UWS who was the one victim of a murder in the area this year also escaped your racist filter.
you are sad, sir, but equally sad is that some others here agree with you. i notice you hide your ugly comments behind anonymity.
Bruce, I dont recall seeing any recent photos of white perps on this site, so I reviewed all of the WSR storiesas far back as late May and did not see a single one. What are you referring to?
This is probably what Bernstein is talking about, especially given his comments on this post:
https://www.westsiderag.com/2015/06/13/man-choked-woman-on-78th-street-police
Let’s given him the benefit of the doubt…. 1 of the dozens of violent crimes that have been posted on the WSR shows a white perp. Yet if you point this out you will be labeled a racist. At some point there needs to be some kind of honestly. Whatever the reason is, most violent crime in NYC is perpetrated by African Americans. This is a simple fact.
Here are recent crimes highlighted in West Side Rag which were not committed by African-Americans, or at least people who appear not to be African-Americans. out of these 6, the incredibly non-racist “Sam” discovered only one. I don’t have time now to provide all the links.
Aug 7: subway groping
July 6: groping of woman (pic)
June 13: man choked woman (this is the one Sam managed to find)
May 8: subway shooting (suspect described as “Hispanic)
May 1: purse snatcvhing
April 20: bank robbery (three different crimes, one clearly non Black suspects in pics, two suspects)
in many other cases we don’t have pics, such as the recent assault on a two year old by a man described as a “friend of the family.”
clearly this is not a ratio of “one in dozens” as sam claims.
Thanks for the reply Sam. You can’t tell from that picture anyting about that man. He could be black, white or latino. People need to lean what the word “racist” means. It means believing one race is superior to another. Pointing out the frequency that certain racial groups commit crimes is not racism.