By Carol Tannenhauser
“Someone was throwing bricks last night,” said an NYPD spokesperson, when West Side Rag called the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information (DCPI), on Tuesday morning to ask about a string of broken glass doors and windows, stretching from around W. 96th to W. 101st Street on Broadway.
DCPI is the NYPD’s central press office, located at One Police Plaza. It is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to provide the media with details of crimes that have recently occurred — who, what, when, where, and why — though why is rarely covered. Which is why I was surprised by Tuesday’s encounter.
It started when WSR reader Benny Fong came upon the broken glass around 7:30 am and sent WSR the photographs and tip. I immediately called DCPI — because that’s what reporters do. The detective was so pleasant, which is a bonus. He said the acts — deemed criminal mischief — were reported between 10:30 pm and midnight on Monday.
“The pattern was the same,” he said. “They must have had a wheelbarrow full of bricks.”
He recited the details: 2560 Broadway (97-98), front door of vacant store smashed with brick; 2592 Broadway (98), brick shattered front door; 2606 Broadway (97-98), CitiBank window smashed; 2642 (100-101), car service window shattered.
“Remember this on November 8th,” the detective added, unexpectedly. “Remember what’s on the ballot. This is the crisis of the moment — literally, broken windows.”
The police are waiting to view security tapes, he said, back to business. As of now, the perp is “completely unknown.”
“ immediately called DCPI — because that’s what reporters do. ” – thank you, Carol!
Seems to be criminal mischief in the second (if damage >$1500) or third (damage >$250) degree (both felony). https://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article145.php#p145.12
It certainly could cost more than $1500 to replace windows these days.
I hope they are charged for each location.
The political aside from the detective (which, what’s his point? Our mayor isn’t up for reelection) has no need to be printed in this article.
Oh please. He said it. They recorded it. Let us guess, you don’t agree? Kudos to WSR for the quote. Obviously that detective is pretty fed up, to make that statement
State elections are much more consequential if we want to address crime than city ones. Bail reform, raise the age, discovery laws, less is more and many other pro-criminal legislation originated in Albany. It’s time to vote those pols out
sure, lets shhhhhhh everyone with a political opinion different than you, lets keep your echo chamber alive and well!
No one’s stopping that detective from voicing his opinion. We’re questioning the appropriateness (and the legality) of his doing so while doing his job of representing the NYPD to the public.
See the difference?
Agreed, the detective is welcome to his opinion but it’s inappropriate for police to be campaigning in the course of their duties.
Campaigning? What candidate did the Officer mention? The Officer simply mentioned that voting for laws was important. If I am not mistaken, no names were mentioned.
No I dont see the difference.
What candidate was mentioned? I don’t see any names here.
“the legality”? HA! This ain’t a Communist country YET!
Election day is shortly before Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass when the Nazis came after the Jews. This obviously is not comparable to that horrible event (though the Trumpers are increasingly reminding me of Nazis), but the lessons of the Holocaust still apply – if you do nothing to stop seemingly small offenses, then they will gradually grow to bigger ones.
A lot of UWSers want to put their heads in the sand and act like there is nothing wrong. The increasing number of seemingly petty crimes will soon turn into more significant crimes against your physical well-being.
Vote wisely. Looking forward to WSR providing candidate analyses and hopefully they will provide their thoughts on problems like these, particularly those for whom it is clearly in their jurisdiction to do something.
The reality is that we, the UWS grannies, have given up our rights to defend ourselves. This is codified by law. Further, we have now decided to ‘not see’ things right in front of us. We all know that dozens of people saw or heard this crime occur. No one, it appears, did anything.
We need to act like a community by defending it. Not by actually confronting anyone (heavens!) but at least getting a pic or two to support the investigation by the NYPD whom we protest so much.
Is there any statistic that is going in a positive direction over the past 3 years?
Although there is in no way the foot traffic that used to be on these blocks pre-Covid before midnight, I would be incredibly surprised if nobody at all saw or heard anything. Bricks are not exactly quiet. Maybe I am not understanding how the dots are being connected between the 10:30-midnight stretch of time and 7:30 am when WSR was made aware. Calls to the precinct on 100th? Video? Anything??
Sorry, the detective said those were times the broken glass was “reported.”
I’m really tired of the police being so inept/ineffective and blaming everything and everyone except their performance. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but you have to wonder if they’re not doing their job on purpose either out of spite, bruised feelings or some misguided attempt to make some kind of a point. Regardless, they’re not doing their jobs well and they’re blaming others, which they should stop doing. The responsibilities (or restrictions) of police under the U.S. and NYS Constitutions are not going away; those provisions are not going to be suspended or relaxed. And, the citizens of our country (the majority, anyway) are not going to abide excessive use of force, so-called “testilying”, or other forms of police malfeasance. The effort to blame one political party for crime is both abhorrent and nonsensical. No political party supports crime, and bail reform is a red herring–it was enacted years ago in many other jurisdictions and there’s no evidence that it is responsible for an increase in crime. The police need to get over themselves and get out there and do a much better job within the confines of the law.
“The police need to get over themselves”? Seriously? After cheering and jeering for looters and justifying crimes while accusing all the police of everything starting from racial profiling to brutality instead of treating each police misconduct with proper case-by-case investigation, you expect them to “get over themselves “?
No, they no longer want to risk their lives only to watch criminals walk free and them potentially be accused of racial profiling, losing their job and pension.
You can’t be more wrong and if you doubt it, come to the Community Precinct meeting TODAY, WEDNESDAY at 7pm at the Library on 100th to hear how much they have been doing CONSTANTLY…over and over again.
Talk to the Commanding Officer if you think you know what they are thinking. You are completely wrong but go see for yourself and you will hear all the arrests they have made. It’s every 3rd Wednesday so if you want the truth, you should attend one.
What is the point of the police doing their job well when they know that the criminals will simply be let out to do it all over again? You have to bend over backwards to find a reason why police are “not doing their jobs”? Really? How about being demoralized on all fronts?
Why would they have bruised feelings?
Let’s face the reality: the neighborhood has changed for the worse. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Crime is up. Homelessness is up. Quality of life is down. This is a fact. I keep hearing it’s worse now than it was back in the day and I believe it.
Funny, I posted an answer here, too, but the West Side Rag simply doesn’t post most of my comments. I moved to the City in 1981. I do not remember it ever being this scary. Much of the problem, though, is caused by reckless e-bikes. It used to be reckless regular bikes, but now they are zooming 30-40 miles per hour. Also, there are no consequences for crime now, so yes, the City is much more deadly. The perpetrators are brazen and will assault anyone and everyone in the middle of the day. I also remember lots of homeless back in the 80s, but the people were not violent like they are today. I think there are many people here trying to spin their own reality, but it really doesn’t work. People know how they feel. Gaslighting them will not work.
Did you live here “back in the day”? I did. The neighborhood is safer. Let’s remember that hanging out in the street when you are homeless and without permanent housing
It is not a crime to be homeless !!!
Being homeless does not make them a criminal.
Back in the day (I guess the crack days in the early 80s), I remember all the crack use, prostitutes, drug dealers, and pimps throughout Amsterdam Avenue in the 90s. My very young daughter used to pick up little crack vials and tiny baggies in the playgrounds in Central Park. Those were the bad days!
Unequivocally, it is NOT worse than it was “back in the day” re: safety. In other ways – the influx of moral/crime panic types and the proliferation of empty high end condominiums – yes, it is worse. Just now how you claim
What exactly do police do for us at this point? And I’m not blaming the police, they are fine people, but their hands are tied and they are completely ineffectual. Every time I see one, they are on their cell phone (but I hardly see any police anyway), and who can blame them? They show up AFTER the crime, ok, that’s great. But police provide absolutely ZERO deterrent effect. No criminal in this city is NOT committing crime because they are afraid of getting caught. THERE ARE NO POLICE IN SIGHT ANYWHERE. And they know that even if they were caught, they’d be released. Police in the park, for example, routinely see people flying by on electric vehicles which are prohibited in the park, and they do NOTHING. Every night we have people racing up broadway, easily exceeding 80mph (believe it) and blowing through red lights in the early morning. The police know this, but they ignore this. I guess someone has to get hit and sent 500 yards in the air before something is done. The mayor is doing NOTHING at all to fix the problems. Supposedly the mayor was pro law enforcement, but in a city with 36,000 police and cameras everywhere, this mayor can’t even stop people from drag racing down our streets and waking us up every night. Total joke.
Hey, he can only do so much. Those photo ops take up most of his time.
Cops are everywhere. Around 2012, they were ordered to back off enforcing quality of life crimes. The NYC Council did that. The City has been in a downward spiral ever since. I was the 20 Community Council president for 16 years, until 2010. Then I retired. About two years later, it started to backslide. It’s never come back up, thanks to our politicians, It’s fact, no matter who posts what.
I see then all over the place.
“The economy is stronger than hell,” as our President tells us, and the crime rate on the UWS has been increasing slightly as it has in i other major cities. Not to worry. The UWS DESERVES BETTER! FAR BETTER!!!!!!!!
Today, I walked past Target near Lincoln Center and noticed a door was covered with wood. I don’t know when the glass was smashed.
Of course this is happening because there are no consequences. Even if caught in the act, the criminal would be arrested, arraigned, and sent right back to the streets. If, however, the criminal was locked up, that person cannot throw bricks because that person is locked up without access to bricks. It’s really that simple.
In New York City, for instance, about 1 percent of streets produce about 25 percent of crime, and about 5 percent of streets produce about 50 percent of crime.
https://www.city-journal.org/the-left-faces-a-reckoning-on-criminal-justice
24 th Pct please bring back the beat cop. We need more police on the streets and less behind desks.
Right on! The Beat Cop…..attend tonights meeting at Bloomingdale Library where I hope to present data on Beat Cops success in Philadelphia! 7PM
What.a hateful purposeless thing to do. I hadn’t made the connection to Crystal Nacht until someone mentioned it below, and that’s chilling. Our politicians should be statespeople, and remember that their purpose is to serve the people, not to nurture hate. We must require them to adhere their oaths.
As a Jew and someone born on the Kristallnacht, I don’t think this brick throwing has anything to do with that. This is just plain old street crime.
They are not Nazis, they are plain and simple street thugs who love the mayor and the DA
All good points but – How about writing to Governor Hochul, Alvin Bragg, Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart Cousins to amend bail reform and raise the age and discovery laws so they make common sense? Their social experiment has been a total disaster. It has not worked, the city is now a dangerous place. Don’t think so? Just wait until one of your relatives is assaulted, maimed and facing months if not years of rehab and unmake to work. You will change your tune and votes. At this point Bragg, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins are as good as co-conspirators with people who commit violent crimes only to be released with a desk warrant t and a pat on the head. Oh wait, was that a free cell phone and Yankees tickets?
Write to them? Hochul sent Adams away when he went to Albany to negotiate bail reform repeal.
The only way to deal with them is to vote them out.
What a comment or two here has to do with “Trumpers” or “Bidenistas” has nothing to do with what’s happening to the UWS.
This is something that has to do with those who represent the districts or the Mayor himself or the DAs. I have seen little or nothing Adams has done to make coming in to Manhattan or the UWS any safer since he has taken office. I’m not posting anything political here. It’s just a blatant fact that the city has gone downhill.
Yes, I’m 67 now and lived on the UWS from 1955- 1978. Moved to Queens and Florida, then back to the UWS. Now I live in another state but I can’t find the nerve to come to Manhattan for any reason. If it was safer, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. I once loved my neighborhood.
Bring back broken windows policing