By Jessica Brockington
Police are investigating two separate gunpoint muggings last week, 20 blocks and 24 hours apart. Captain Marlon Larin of the 24th precinct says investigators believe the two may be related.
In both instances young men in their 20’s were robbed of their iPhone 6’s just after midnight. The first was at Broadway and 100th Street on October 16. A 23-year-old man heard someone shouting “That’s my phone not yours!” A black man in his 20’s displayed a black handgun, grabbed the victim’s phone, and ran north and east on Broadway.
The next night, at 233 West 80th Street, a 21 year old man was accosted by two black men in their 20’s who showed him a black revolver and told him to give them his phone and money. The men then ran eastbound on 80th Street.
Police had no further information to release at this time.
Although major crime is down in both the 20th and 24th precinct this year, robberies are up in both (10% in the 20th and 8% in the 24th).
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.
I don’t really get why these loser waste of human being thugs would steal iphones. Are the parts really worth much? I’m pretty sure the phones are useless. Am I missing something?
There is a huge market for stolen iPhones. Many of them are smuggled out of the country and sold in Asia. An unlocked iPhone 6 would be worth @$500. There is a kill switch on iPhones that render the phone useless when activated but there is a way to hack it to still unlock it.
What we should do is support legislation that makes all smartphone manufacturers have a mandatory kill switch that is hardwired into the device (an actual chip) and not software based. This would reduce crime rates on stealing phones.
Does anyone know what time these muggings took place?
The article says ‘just after midnight’.
After midnight, we gonna let it all hang out.
Nothing good happens after midnight. That is not to excuse the behavior of the perpetrators.
Maybe the DOT will now restore the lamp post it took down on the south side of 78th Street off Riverside Drive and we’ll be able to see who is lurking in the darkness to rob us. Where does the DOT, apparently acting at the behest of a building owner who wanted the lamp post removed so he could put up a canopy, accede to such a request and put people in danger?
Or… maybe stop and frisk could / would / should have prevented these losers from having that gun in the first place.
Stop and frisk worked. I might not be alive today without it.
What 99% of all ultra-progressives don’t understand is that the purpose was NOT to catch the thugs packing the guns. The purpose was to frighten them into NOT carrying the guns in the first place, because of the stiff, mandatory prison sentence for carrying an unlicensed gun. Most of these low-lifes only took the chance of carrying when they went out to kill another gangbanger.
Yes, many innocent kids were probably stopped and frisked. Yes, the vast majority were kids of color. But are the illegal guns in and near the projects… or are they on West End Ave?
No program will remove the thousands and thousands of illegal handguns already in this city (more arriving every day from points South).
But if anyone has a better solution than stop and frisk to keeping guns off the streets, tell the mayor and police commissioner.
THANK YOU for DARING to speak truth to ultra-liberal B.S.!
All the “progressives” boo-hoo about Stop-QUESTION-and-Frisk’s tewibble impact on the psyches of young men of color…TOTALLY IGNORING THE FACT that these same young “men” are probably the perpetrators of BLACK-on-BLACK crime.
Ask the residents of any NYCHA project whether they are more worried about ‘bangers self-esteem or the fact that they can die from a stray bullet just by going out of their building?
The Fourth Amendment is ultra-liberal? News to me…
No one is going to steal your clam shell phone.
Stan, I happen to be a liberal progressive UWSer who is in favor of stop-and-frisk.
I know it’s sometimes hard to accept that everyone can’t be boxed up and labeled, but do try to let your brain do some work.
Making an argument without throwing labels and drama around will typically make a person seem more credible, rational, and sane.
Re: “make a person seem more credible, rational, and sane.”
Unfortunately, NO ONE (except the Webmaster)comes across as terribly rational or sane on this blog.
Often it sounds more like a reunion of The Bellevue or The Caramoor Alumni Association.
Yes let’s go back to frisking %90 of innocent New Yorkers just to just to appease affluent anxiety
If it means the safety of my family, friends, and even you, Mark, then I say frisk away!
What is an illegal and deadly gun compared to the freedom of having one and shooting people, right? You are a demagogue.
yes, we should do that actually.
But that would be illegal under the Fourth Amendment, and is going to cost the taxpayers millions in lawsuits for false arrests (again). If you cannot clamp down on illegal gun possession without resorting to ‘let’s-search-all-blacks-just-in-case tactics’ perhaps, just perhaps, you’re not up to the job… .
Hey Wally…
Did you read my comment and the replies to it below before you made these statements?
What is “false” about an arrest for carrying an unlicensed handgun? Or a knife with a too-long blade? Or any number of illegal things the police might discover when frisking?
Stop and frisk was never meant to reduce “illegal gun possession”; it was aimed at reducing the carrying of guns on a whim. If a gangbanger’s gun stays under the bed, its bullets won’t kill an innocent child by mistake!
How would you solve the problem? Better yet, how would you actually reduce the many thousands of unlicensed handguns in this city? Show us please, how you’re “up to the job!”
Yup, the UWS just gets safer and safer and same for Lincoln Center Area. Just send those kids out to play and dodge the bullets and the rats…I’m waiting for someone to castigate the phone owners to actually use their phones in a public place. The usual blame the victim UWS mentality.
quote: A 23 year old asian man heard someone shouting “That’s my phone not yours!”
Why does it matter what the race of a witness is?
Fair point, we took it out. WSR
Actually the color of the gun IS relevant. There are laws governing the color of gun sold tin NYC so that when police can more easily identify a toy gun vs a real one. That said, nothing to stop a smart criminal from painting their gun glow orange to fool police….
West Sider had it right the first time around.
Knowing all the facts and tiny specifics helps detectives (and the reader) determine if this was a hate crime based on race or sexual orientation. The ‘witness’ in this case was the ‘victim’ and knowing the racial make-up of ALL parties involved helps determine if it mattered. As you probably know, 233 West 80th is two lots West of Les Homes Book Store, a popular gay establishment & only business open 24 hrs on that block. This is the second incident involving a crime on that side of the street within the last 2 months.
Don’t change your writing style West Sider.
Was the witness the victim? That wasn’t clear to me. I think he was just a witness. Not sure why race or age are really necessary in that case.
I take your point that race is relevant, but if racial identifiers are going to be used, it would be fair to reveal the identity of all parties mentioned in the story. Presumably, the first victim is white since he is referred to just as “man” while the other two are “black man” and “hispanic man.” Why don’t you go ahead and give a racial identifier to the first man rather than treating white as the norm?
The police are looking for the attackers, not the victim. You do understand that, don’t you. That is why the race of the victim is not that important.
The attackers with the gun were black, it’s a fact.
Yeah!
And they mention “a black revolver”. What difference does it make what the color of the revolver is!!
The neighborhood is getting dangerous. It’s a good thing I practice Krav Maga.
I hope you’re joking? Trying out some Krav moves on a guy with a gun wouldn’t be so wise….
Apostrophe should be used to make possessive. Apostrophe is not used to make plural.
“””Yes let’s go back to frisking %90 of innocent New Yorkers just to just to appease affluent anxiety”””
why do you consider that iphone users are affluent?? I believe the statistics are that 90% of new yorkers use cell phones… I doubt you would consider that the same percentage is affluent.
As a Latino born and raised in the UWS, I have been stopped by officers belonging to the 2-0. They asked for ID and I had nothing to hide, so I followed their instructions. If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be bothered; insulted; or upset.
So YES! I rather have 90% of my innocent neighbors inconvenienced, than have 10% of my neighbors innocently killed!
Please try to stop interrupting the discussion with facts and reason.
Here we go again – a black gun! This is totally unfair to all the other guns out there. I’m surprised civil rights defender Bruce hasn’t chimed in yet on the racist gun comment.
BLACK GUN LIVES MATTER TOO!
I’m shocked that you actually identified the race of the criminals. These days it’s usually omitted (though everyone can guess what it is).
Actually, Jessica (is she one of West Sider’s new hires?) is violating one of the basic rules of reportage by reporting facts of a crime without attribution.
If the police told her it was a black man, then all she had to do was write: “Police say a black man in his …”
If she got this information from eyewitnesses, she should have stated so.
And if, by chance, Jessica actually observed these crimes, she could have written: “I saw a black man in his …”
(And yes, it’s “in his 20s…” not “20’s…”)
… modifying my comment.
Giving this some more thought, something has been bothering me about the term “black man.”
That’s not the usual syntax used by the police. They would more likely say something like: “The suspect, a black male in his 20s, displayed a…”
(Whether the police would bother describing the color of the gun is also questionable, and another issue.)
“Black man” has a connotation beyond a physical description — think someone we should all be afraid of.
I haven’t written crime stories in a long time; there are some very basic rules.
Why does it specify “man”? Doesn’t that support the concept that men are to be feared?
Why not refer to the individuals involved as “humans”?
I mean, how far should this be taken until it becomes ludicrous?
Stop and Frisk was deemed unconstitutional and a violation of citizens civil rights in a court of law. You’re going to have to let it go and get back to living in NYC. We’re living in the real New York again, not that fantasy Bloomberg tried to shove down all of our throats.
There is a systemic failure in the parents of these mutants who raise amoral criminals. Training the parents with parenting skills should be more important than school education. Parents need to be taught, otherwise we get criminals galore.
Watch the apostrophe: “young men in their 20s” not “young men in their 20’s”
re: ScooterStan’s comment above —
Dont’ you mean Creedmoor (as in NYS psych hospital in Queens)?
Caramoor is a music center and festival north of NYC in Westchester.
[had to pick this nit down here, as there was no reply button up above]
Joe, how come you don’t understand that searching people without probable cause is unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional and creates an atmosphere of mistrust in the community. Making kids, charged with RWB, take a joint out of their pocket so it’s ‘public display’ is law enforcement at its worst.
Cocaine, the drug of choice of upper upper middle class businessmen is a scourge on this country – the trade causes hundreds of dead in Mexico and the US. You would have no problem if the police stopped and frisked you (I assume you’re white) a few times a month?
No, I don’t know either how to rebuild a car transmission either, but I can tell incompetence when I see it.
Technology today does not need “stop & frisk”. I heard a while back that the NYPD were experimenting with military grade vans equipped with x-ray units that have the ability to see through walls of a building and through a vehicle. At the time I read about this, the police claimed that they were not using it to check people for weapons…but the technology can do it. Not sure what has became of this, but the police tried to keep it a secret. My concern with this idea is subjecting us to harmful x-ray radiation like they do at airports.
More info about the X-ray vans here: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/the-nypd-is-using-mobile-x-rays-to-spy-on-unknown-targets/411181/