Photo by Vicki Kolomensky.
December 4, 2017 Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 54 degrees.
Notices:
A fun free concert by the Mendelssohn Glee Club and more local events are on our calendar.
The Catholic school admissions process started early this year and people can tour schools on Tuesdays. “The remaining Touring Tuesday dates are: December 5, January 9, January 30 (takes place during Catholic Schools Week), February 13, March 13 and April 24, from 9 a.m.-11 a.m., or by appointment.” Learn more and apply here.
News:
Revered Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine was suspended “after three men came forward with accusations that Mr. Levine sexually abused them decades ago, when the men were teenagers…The accusations of sexual misconduct stretch back to 1968.”
A Columbia dorm was evacuated last week after a fire.
Murders in NYC are down 17% this year. “As of December 1, there were 259 murders. Last year, there were 313. New York is on track to have fewer than 300 murders for all of 2017 in a city of 8.5 million people.”
An event at a local health center spread cheer this weekend. “The annual event hosted by the William F. Ryan Community Health Network brought out hundreds of its under-served clients for a special winter wonderland at its West 97th Street center – one of the organization’s 18 sites across the city.”
A West Side Rag commenter made it into a Post story on poop-scooping. “‘Ed Koch (under whose administration the pooper scooper law was enacted — and vigorously enforced) has got to be rolling in his grave, which will likely be covered soon with you-know-what,’ an Upper West Side resident commented last month on the West Side Rag blog.”
And here’s our head-scratcher of the day. How did a massive car part end up in the 81st Street B and C train subway station?
There’s a piece of a car body in my subway station pic.twitter.com/q5s6pHbqnc
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) December 4, 2017
murders down 17% for the year? what happened to the crime wave due to getting rid of racial profiling?
facts are facts.
Imagine how much lower the numbers would be if police were allowed to use all the tools available to them. (STQF) It’s like saying less speeding tickets were issued for the year, and police didn’t use radar. So….what if they DID use radar also? Hmmm Allowing the police to reasonably use all the tools in their arsenal would allow the numbers to be as low as possible. Isn’t that what we all want?
in answer to Tim, above:
why don’t we just pre-emptively lock up all young men of all races, ages 16 — 30? you will find crime will go way way down. isn’t that what we all want?
for those who don’t recognize sarcasm, no, that’s NOT what we all want. we want a society where people have civil and human rights, where people are treated justly regardless of race and gender and age and clas, and where we also have low crime.
the excuse that authoritarian practices can get rid of crime is the oldest one in the book. De Blasio has shown that democratic and fair practices can result in very low crime in a major city. but apparently how low the crime rate, it is not enough for the authoritarians.
In fact, we still have a long way to go to reach fair criminal justice and incarceration procedures in the US and in the state of NY.
and race is always at the center of things. I want to be as clear as i can. if you advocate for Bloomberg-era racial profiling, you are advocating for a mass racist practice akin to what existed in the Jim Crow south.
But in precincts like ours:
Murder is flat vs last year
Rape is up 37.5%
Robbery is up 7.6%
Felony Assault is up 1%
Burglary is up 18%
Grand Larceny Auto is up 42%
Rather than decreases all over the city we used to have we now have an uneven pattern across the city.
And by the way in ref to STQF the US Supreme Court says it is constitutional and has upheld it several times in recent years. Until they decide otherwise the ACLU and the Dems in congress can use this issue to fundraise all they want, but it will NOT change the law of the land
regarding “Stop and Frisk” as used in NYC, Robert’s comments above are avoiding the issue and raising a straw man.
the question is not whether it is constitutional to “stop and frisk” someone. the question is: was the practice of the NYPD under Bloomberg, involving no suspicion of criminal activity and with admitted racial profiling, unconstitutional, a violation of civil and human rights, and, in fact, ineffective?
the NYPD continues to carry out “Stop and Frisk” questioning under De Blasio… but it does not carry out the mass racial profiling based S&F that was policy under Bloomberg. under Bloomberg, almost every Black and Hispanic male under 40 living in NYC had been stopped and frisked multiple times, in the vast majority of the cases with no suspicion whatsoever.
this policy has never been tested at the Supreme Court level. it was found unconstitutional at a lower court and then, when De Blasio came in, he dropped the appeal — thankfully, as it was and is an abhorrent and racist policy.
the defenders — including many repeat commenters on this site — argued over and over again that we would see a vast increase in crime and go back to the “bad old days”. as is obvious, that has not happened, and the De Blasio administration has shown that Community Policing can be very effective. crime has, amazingly, continued to go down, and is now way below Giuliani-era levels.
I will deal with Robert’s claims about the “local precincts” when i have time to look at the statistics. i believe he is cherry picking, but will have to look.
since crime has gone down without racial profiling, what excuse can its supporters possibly have for wanting it restored? they can’t argue effectiveness. I suspect they simply WANT Black and Hispanic males to be continually stopped and frisked on the streets of NYC, for no reason other than their race, gender, and age.
if you still support Bloomberg’s racial profiling policy, after the results of the De Blasio era, i suggest that you have to look internally for your reasons. if you are honest with yourself, you won’t like what you find.
Oh Bruce. We are in a post-fact era! Try to keep up.
Chuck
But…but…these days we see POOR PEOPLE just STANDING on the STREETS! Surely this means we’re returning to the 1970s and the streets are being engulfed by violent crime!!!
Car part mystery solved:
Owner just following the alternate side of the pavement parking regulations.
Wow, so you’re both satisfied with yourselves (and your opinions) because there were only 259 murdered this year?
Given the effluvium of emotion-based (and fact-free) comments that plague this site throughout the year, these regular commenters are responding to that, and their sarcasm is a reasonable poke at the many people who whine about everything going wrong and getting worse under this mayor. I’m sure no one, indulging these commenters, is OK with any murders, but the fact that the rate has gone down means they can indeed enjoy some self-satisfaction in being at least statistically on point.
Cat – I’m assuming statistics aren’t your thing – but when you look at the denominator and then compare to other cities, it is rather impressive.
I grew up in Detroit. I know all about statistics. It just bothers me that people have the same reaction to murder as they do to a bagel shop closing and a museum being renovated, lol.
@Cat… With 8.5 million people in this city. That’s pretty good!You should have seen the 70’s with A LOT less people! Wish it were none but that’s in a non-existent perfect world!
Why is a car part in the subway station news? It isn’t that big in size and the answer is the same for a crumpled up bag of chips – someone put it there. People – please get a life. This is not newsworthy for heaven’s sake – you are pulling a Facebook – no one cares. We don’t need to document every stupid thing.
Does anyone know whether the number of murders includes those killed in the downtown bike lane terrorist attack?
Why is James Levine such a shock? Just another person in a position of power taking advantage of someone who might have looked up to him.
Pretty much anyone in Manhattan who could spell ‘o-p-e-r-a’ had heard rumors about Levine, and for at least 20 years. I remember one time having dinner with a friend and seeing Levine rumble past. My friend kind of grimaced and recounted a story similar to the allegations being made.
I do not find it credible that the management of the Metropolitan Opera managed not to hear of similar reports. This aspect of his existence was no secret.
You are not kidding. I’ve known there was a problem for many years, and I only attend operas. I can’t even imagine what’s going to come out about payoffs.
What does James Levine have to do to be fired and not “suspended”, kill someone? Peter Gelb, the director of the Met, is a real piece of work (he welcomed the opera about the Achille Lauro murder).
Re: “A fun free concert by….”
’tis assumed that concert will be both FUN and FREE.
NOT, repeat NOT, that it will be Fun-Free.
Who would want to go to a fun-free concert anyway, eh?
😂
The police station on 82 street between Columbus & Amsterdam Ave is the dirtiest block. Full of garbage & dog poop? If the police will not give out tickets for this on their own block then it just shows how lazy they are when it comes to cleaning up their own block.BUT they will ticket you very quickly if you have an auto on their block all day.