By Joy Bergmann
Three teenagers allegedly robbed a 20-year-old man in Riverside Park around 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, an NYPD spokesperson told West Side Rag.
The victim was walking northbound inside the park at West 99th Street when three male suspects described as approximately 16 years old approached him, according to police.
Suspect #1 put a knife to the right side of victim’s neck, police said. Suspect #2 pointed a silver firearm at the victim’s torso and said, “Give me everything you got,” then reached inside the victim’s pockets, stealing $865, police added. Suspect #3 “worked in concert with” the other two suspects, police said.
NYPD had no further description of the suspects and said the victim did not suffer any physical injuries. The investigation is ongoing.
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I feel sorry for this individual as it must have been very frightening being isolated like that in the park. At this point, it should be clear that you must adopt the decades-old mindset in how you live in NYC and not be in the parks after dark. Why you would be in the park with that much money is another question.
This is the reality of the policies and the politicians that most of the people on the UWS side voted for again and again. If there are no consequences for armed robbery then armed robbery will become a viable way of life for some and we will continue to be victimized.
Now on top of the decimation of our judicial system comes the ramifications of the misguided compassion that again redients of the UWS overwhelmingly supported regarding “migrants”. The city already does not have the resources for police let alone every other city service including educating our kids which is long-term how you solve crime but the mayor will now institute budget cuts that are the direct result of a wide open border and NYC’s “sanctuary city” policies.
Meanwhile, Nadler and Schumer have done nothing to help the city offset the deficit caused by their border policies and yet are advocating for billions more for wars around the world.
Those of you who continue to vote this way shouldn’t be surprised that things are going to get a lot worse very quickly once these cuts and freezes start. Government at every level is failing in its most basic duty
Bill Williams, This is in response to your comment, “This is the reality of the policies and the politicians that most of the people on the UWS voted for again and again.” Virtually everyone on the UWS is concerned about the armed robberies that have been taking place in our neighborhood. I and many people I know voted for Adams because we felt that as a former Police Officer, he would know how to deal with and work to reduce crime. Oh boy were we wrong! What is your opinion on how members of our community can best try to solve this problem?
Typical “Republican” nonsense taking points. Armed robbery is a class B felony. The consequences, when convicted in a court of law by a jury of one’s peers (a protection of the United States Constitution), is a sentence of 5 to 25 years in prison. And sanctuary city status is not connected to the migrant crisis in the city in any way whatsoever since sanctuary city status is related to illegal immigration but the migrants in question have been processed by ICE and have requested asylum, so their current presence in the US is (temporarily at least) 100% legal. Please make sure your facts are correct before making public statements stating otherwise.
I’m not a Republican. I’m totally fed up with current policies and agree with Bill.
Also am sick and tired to hear the crime denying and current policies apologist talk.
Wrong…the sanctuary city status has everything to do with the “migrant crisis.” Those who encourage the breaking of US immigration law (current administration, sanctuary cities, etc) should have to deal with the problems being created.
As to the “processing” mentioned, it’s so minimal you can’t even call it processing. Wading through rivers, climbing walls & crossing private property is not the orderly entry into this country for consideration based on political reasons. Poverty & crime are not valid reasons for asylum.
As a teacher, I teach my students that any claim they make must be supported by relevant and legitimate evidence, as well as sound reasoning. To be relevant and legitimate evidence, they must look at all available evidence, and analyze it together to see which claim would be the most well supported. Then they must connect the evidence to their claim, using sound reasoning, based on fact. I guess you’re lucky that you were not in my middle school class, because your claim above would receive a failing grade.
Additionally, you don’t have to believe that their claims of asylum are legitimate. Claims of asylum are evaluated by federal immigration judges, who make their decisions based on law, not based on your opinion.
You evidently don’t understand all that much about sanctuary cities, laws regarding asylum or the so-called migrant crisis–and you are conflating three or four different things into one grand misstatement! Bottom line: there is ZERO evidence that immigrants to the U.S. (illegal or otherwise) commit crime at higher rates than U.S. citizens do, and there actually is quite a bit of evidence that they don’t.
Walking in Riverside Park at 8:50 PM with $865 in his pocket???
Blaming the victim, are we?
Not blaming as much as incredulous, one would think. Maybe he was there to buy drugs from someone else? a 20 year old with nearly $1000 in cash? Something just doesn’t smell right with this story. A crime is a crime, but there’s something else going on here.
Doesn’t everybody??? 🤣
They targeted this guy. They knew he had cash…for whatever reason.
I had a similar thought. Perhaps they had been observing him, and noticed him flaunting a wad of bills earlier at some point. It’s possible he had a nice watch or expensive shoes that caught their attention. Regardless, the situation remains alarming.
This wasn’t random, this was targeted. Still a robbery but for every day citizens this probably doesn’t affect your ability to use the park.
Are you crazy?! Who in their right mind walks in the park after dark, with or without cash?
As a lifelong New Yorker, I would never go into a park at night unless it’s for an organized, large event. That said, armed robbery is a serious crime that must be prosecuted.
Yeah, with a desk appearance ticket.
So the victim was close enough to pinpoint his assailants’ age around 16 but could offer no further description of the suspects? Nothing at all?
The NYPD press source had nothing more to provide, is how I read it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t in a report somewhere.
Will keep my eye out for 3 teen boys, no further description. Wish us luck!
Scary-and this could happen to anyone at anytime, but you really have to use good judgement-They are -they are not robbing someone at 3 in the afternoon when there are a lot of people around. Don’t be in the part after dark and don’t carry so much cash.
Silly kids! Lol! Nothing to see here. All is well on the UWS.
A few youths being rambunctious. Folks here are happy with the way things are. At least 81% of them are.
Don’t be ridiculous, we are all interested in preventing armed robbery. If Di Stasio has a secret plan to stop all crime, it would be nice if she would let the rest of us know.
If Gale has a secret plan to stop crime, it would nice if she let us know too.
To all you “never walk in the park..”-ers: if you need to take a bus, you get out on Riverside Drive proper and need to exit through the park to get to the Riverside service road.
To the west of Riverside Drive is a cliff. The park is at the bottom of the cliff. As long as you stay on the top of the cliff after dark it is not particularly dangerous.
Would Stop and Frisk help?
Crime is lower now than when stop and frisk was last utilized in NYC.
Stop and frisk was halted because:
a) it wasn’t leading to lower crime;
b) it was causing tremendous distress in affected communities; and
c) a Federal judge ruled that the manner in which it was being implemented in NYC was unconstitutional.
Is it lower or is it reported less. Numbers mattter at the higher-ups meetings.
The comments.. LOL blaming the victim; for carrying mohney. Got it. These same individuals likely voted for the radical chic reactionaries in NYCCouncil ntm the controlled opposition in NYCHall who btw just earlier scape goats the ‘”eonomics” of NYC to gaslight the hiring freeze for NYPD. You get what you vote for folks. Collecitivists long ago ceded the high ground in NYC you voters havent yet gotten the message; but this guy did. -Hoping for an ez wintter untili Spring. ..
I was assaulted by an adult and 2 teens in broad daylight while other people rushed by me to get to the subway. They were completely fearless because they knew damn well that no one was going to come to my defense. Just for the record, I wasn’t wearing an expensive coat or sneakers, I wasn’t carrying a purse or wearing jewelry or distracted by a cell phone. They repeatedly punched me in the face because I DIDN’T have any money. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are if groups of ‘kids’ are intent on coming here to rob and assault people. I’m fed up with all the flippant remarks and victim blaming, not to mention the never ending excuses for ‘teen’ criminal behavior. : (
Oh boy. Reminds of the days of yore, when you’d carry a $20 just in case you were mugged.
Sorry you went through such an awful, traumatic experience.
Now that the Mayor has announced freezing police hiring, I am sure that will make so many politicians who called for defunding the police very happy.
Did anyone not think there would have to be tough financial cuts coming when over 125,000 new people arrived in a year needing costly services?
Apparently NYC is OK with keeping current laws & policies in place as they voted in the same people currently running things – we just have a lot less money and services now. And less police.
People who voted for this are happy with the current situation as long as they can call moderate democrats Trump supporters.
I don’t think this sounds what it sounds like… Who in the right mind would be walking with $865.00 cash (20yo) at 9:pm inside Riverside Park at 8:50pm?
The lights in the park are terrible, very old and you cant see a thing . I am walking my dogs every evening and in some areas is so dark because the lights are missing .