Elected officials are holding a candlelight vigil for Tessa Majors, the Barnard student who was killed on Wednesday, inside Morningside Park. The vigil starts at 4:30 p.m. As Council Member Mark Levine wrote:
“Tess, as she was known to her friends and family, was by all accounts an extraordinary young woman, who was interested in journalism, played in a rock band, and undoubtedly had a life of enormous potential ahead of her. Her loss is painful beyond words.
This Sunday you are invited to join me and other Northern Manhattan elected officials along with community leaders, Morningside Heights residents, and students for a candlelight vigil to honor Tessa’s memory. The event will start at 4:30pm in Morningside Park on the bottom landing of the 116th entrance.”
It is tragic that Tessa Majors was not adequately warned about the dangers of Morningside Park and Morningside Drive. These areas were off limits and considered extremely dangerous and crime infested even as back as the ’60s when I was going to Columbia.
No one knows if she was warned about MP. Those of us who have been around for a while remember the park 45 years ago and I would not walk through the park when it’s dark.
It is clearly a tragedy. Until police can provide safe passage for those in the park (which won’t happen in my lifetime) I think it’s appropriate to notify students re the safety of the park after dark.
It is a tragedy but no one should be surprised that young kids in this area are armed and willing to use force. WSR reports it nearly on a daily basis
Also tragic -14 and 13 year old boys were armed with knives and brutally killed her. Time for parents in our community to put away the digital devices, explicit violent music and connect better with their children. What on earth were those children doing with knives? So so fed up.
What’s truly tragic is that you are seriously comparing the end of the 2010s to over more than half a millennium ago? And just how do you know that she was not adequately warned about the dangers of the area? Enough with the baseless assumptions already. Doesn’t help anyone a bit.
The 60’s were a HALF CENTURY ago, not a half millenium ago. Half a millenium ago, 500 years ago, was the Middle Ages, for your information.
I stand corrected. Yet my careless mistake accurately reflects how disconnected I believe it is to compare 2019 to the 1960’s.
What is truly tragic is her death and not that “she was not adequately warned” about the dangers of that park. Tragic is the City’s and NYPD’s failure at providing safety to the community who lives, works, studies or simply transits in that area.
Ed Mullins of the police sergeants union deserves universal condemnation for his politically motivated remarks based on hearsay from one unnamed source that alleged Ms. Majors was in the park to buy marijuana. In 30 years in the city its perhaps the most disgustingly craven comments related to this type of tragedy that I can recall. Mr. Mullins is a blot on the NYPD.
Disgraceful comments by Mullins, but equally so, by Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez at the vigil:
“This is the city that we built,” Rodriguez said. “We live in a segregated city. We live in a city of the rich. I know that we want to eradicate poverty. But we failed whoever did it.”
Whether from the proverbial Right or Left, there is a profound and blinding allegiance to ideological paradigms, lacking nuance and serious reflection. Mullins’ weaponized a tragedy to score political points, so did Rodriquez. Maybe an evil should be called and named an evil, a tragedy a tragedy, and the living should shut their mouths and grieve with the family whose loss is profoundest of all?
About three days after the fact, some so-called friend claims to have known that Tessa went to the park Wednesday evening to buy marijuana. What possible motive could anyone have in spreading such a story other than to disparage the victim, implying that Tessa was at least partly to blame for what happened to her?
It’s such an old smear tactic. The victim can’t defend themselves, so you can say whatever you like about them. And this came from a friend? With friends like that…
Oh boy. Here we go. Ted – couldn’t agree more. The UNION (NOT the NYPD) and its president spreading hearsay for political benefit is despicable. M – again, couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately every large city has the risk of random acts of violence. But by 13-14 year olds??? Backintothe 1980s – do you honestly expect the NYPD to be at every corner, every quiet street, every staircase? You go do that job. For a day. Then tell me how empowered (or helpless) you feel. There’s a reason the NYPD suicide rate has shot up. And it’s not because they’re slacking on the job. Lastly – jeez H. Christmas. This whole thing is horrific. BUT – and it’s a big one… – Where are the mourners? Where are the candlelit vigils? Where is the press? … WHEN THIS KIND OF THING HAPPENS ON A DAILY BASIS TO PEOPLE OF COLOR??? Nowhere. Because if they are people of color obviously they are doing something dubious/part of a gang/uneducated/prone to violence/any one of innumerable excuses we (as a whole societal group) apply to the situation in our own minds, just like Mr. Mullins did here. That’s all. Just think about it for a minute. Quietly. Honestly.
Do I “expect the NYPD to be at every corner, at every quiet street, every staircase?” Of course I don’t, I expect them to map out the most problematic areas – and it sounds like MP has been one for DECADES. No need to monitor empty staircase in the west village. But Tessa (and everyone in this community) needed the NYPD in the staircase where she died. Everyone on WSR has described their awful experiences at that park for years and police couldn’t improve anything there for years? Quite the contrary, apparently they cleared the area and let the criminals run the show. To the extent that they felt very comfortable in robbing people at knife point even during the day. Sounds normal to you? Not to me. The fact that more policemen died by suicide this year than in the line of duty is a testament to the disservice DeBlasio represents to the city and the NYPD. Policemen have been trashed left and left by this administration, to the point their hands are tied up and they can’t do much anymore. And all DB has to offer are his hypocritical “thoughts and prayers” and pretend surprise at how bad things have become under his “watch”
Not only are the NYPD seemingly incapable of apprehending all the juvenile suspects thought to be responsible for Tessa Majors’ death, but they formally imply that she was at least partly to blame for what happened to her. Apparently, some unnamed “friend” claimed to know that Tessa had gone to Morningside Park on Wednesday evening to buy marijuana.
Even if it were true, what motive could anyone possibly have in spreading such a story other than to disparage the victim? With friends like this so-called friend, no enemy required.
Let’s not forget how useless CM Bill Perkins is when it comes to ongoing safety in area he represents. Senator Brian Benjamin’s office is an utter failure daily when calls, emails, letters are written to address street safety issues in his district. Now, he has the audacity to want to run for Comptroller?
I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 24 years and the past year or two I noticed that it’s going downhill to the point where I consciously felt UNSAFE this WHOLE past year and stopped running early morns and eves in Morningside Park. Mark Levine must be aware of the violent crimes taking place past year in Morningside. AND WHAT HAS BEEN DONE ABOUT IT? I never see any cops around. I also was harassed by 3 young teenage boys at the 110 B/C subway stop this year and had to call 911. Was anything done about that!? NO. In fact, 911 never even called me back to make sure I was ok. IT IS UNACCEPTABLE. Neighbors shouldn’t feel unsafe in their own hood. WHAT IS HAPPENING WHO ARE THESE NEW CRIMINALS WHERE DID THEY COME FROM and why do they feel it’s their right to take over the area as their “turf”!?!?! THERE NEED TO BE MORE COPS 24/7 PATROLLING THE PARK AND AREA NO JOKE.
The police are too busy blaming the victim to do anything positive. Did you read about what Ed Mullins said in the paper?
It is remarkable to me that Morningside Park was safe enough that anyone would dream of jogging in it. When I moved to NYC 31 years ago (how is that possible?), it was so dangerous you would never have gone close to it. I’ve been astonished that mothers would walk their babies there, and people would exercise there. It was a lovely sign of how far the city had come.
These recent events are tremendously worrisome and frightening. No one wants a reversal of the hard-fought progress.
Something is wrong when groups of teenagers are wandering around robbing people. It is important to know how a 13-year-old came to be involved in robbing people at knife point. Lack of police presence could be part of t he problem, but 13-year-olds aren’t automatically drawn to this kind of behavior when police aren’t standing there. Is it lack of supervision? Are we back to a point where these kids are so doubtful of their future that nihilistic behavior seems appropriate? None of that changes the terrible loss of another young person – whatever she was doing in the park – but we need to understand this.
“Are we back to a point where these kids are so doubtful of their future”. Although I should be used to it by now, I am still astonished by how some people, so steeped in their preconceived notions, will bend and twist facts and logic so that their narrative is not challenged as patently false.
A great tragedy for the family of Tessa Majors and for our City. I would like for our Mayor to show respect to the Majors family, get on a plane and pay New York’s condolence to the family.