Police: Youths Have Opportunity To Turn It Around
A pair of 83rd Precinct police officers were honored as Cops of the Month for arresting two teenagers trying to rob a store on Gates Avenue in Bushwick of $5,000, the precinct commander announced at the 83rd Precinct Community Council meeting last Tuesday, May 20.
Police Officers Lanayia Soto and Jeffiery Chin were lauded for making the arrests on Apr. 13, according to Deputy Inspector Anthony Tasso, the force’s commanding officer.
While on patrol Chin and Soto responded to a reported commercial robbery on Gates Avenue. At the store, two teenagers had demanded cash while brandishing a gun, which turned out to be a fake. The phony gun was a actually a pellet pistol, but resembled a handgun, Tasso said.
The suspects lifted $5,000 from the store, but its owner was able to sneak out, and hit a button that closed the gates and alerted police, he said.
One of the suspects got out and was arrested, and the other crawled through a drop ceiling into an adjacent store, and was then arrested.
The two suspects were 15 and 16- years-old, police reported.
“They had no arrests prior to that day,” Tasso said. “They had a stupid idea, that if successful could have been lucrative and led to a life of crime.”
Working in the Youth Unit at the 83rd Precinct, P.O. Melvin Kendall believes this could be a turing point for the two teenagers. He is responsible for meeting with every juvenile, and their family arrested in the precinct. “So at some point I will be meeting with those two kids that were arrested in the robbery,” he said.
And he hopes to have a positive effect, but realizes he can’t reach every single troubled youth.
“We do a lot of work reaching out to the youth,” Tasso said.
Getting them to listen is not easy, however. “It doesn’t work with everybody, but we try with everybody,” Kendall said.
Kendall also presented a plaque to 17-year-old Samantha Conde, who is set to graduate from high school this spring, but was awarded for completing the Precinct’s Law Enforcement Explorers Program. The program is “an opportunity to experience a lot of what police officers do every day,” Kendall said.
“They learn all the aspects of police work. I’m not trying to make them into little police, but better people for the future,” he added.
Soto and Chin received plaques donated by the Times Newsweekly for their efforts.
83rd Precinct crime update
Tasso told the meeting crime is down 15 percent in the 28-day period, but up six percent for the entire calendar year, compared to 2013. “As the weather is getting warmer, we’re going in the right direction,” he said.
“A month ago we were up 13 percent, so we’re chipping away. But we do have crime.”
Though violent crime is down, burglaries and auto break-ins remain prevalent in the precinct, Tasso said.
Similar to the incident on Gates Avenue, perpetrators have begun targeting small businesses in the neighborhood.
“Our biggest burglary problem has been of the commercial nature,” Tasso said. The precinct is seeing reports of stores being robbed, late at night, with crooks targeting ATM machines.
That’s been our biggest problem when it comes to burglaries,” Tasso said. They tend to rob places late at night and during very early morning hours while no one is around, he told the meeting last Tuesday.
And catching the crooks has been complicated by the gates being pulled shut. “They’re cutting locks, and putting the gates down and when we drive by, there’s no way to know what’s going on in there,” Tasso said.
He also advised the group, “we are seeing a lot of auto break-ins,” in the precinct, particularly near Woodhull Hospital and local gyms.
Tasso said suspects are striking around these types of locations because perpetrators know cars will be parked there awhile, Tasso said.
“Don’t leave anything in your car and they will have nothing to steal. Crooks try handles and look through windows for valuables,” he added.
With summer approaching, Tasso cautioned residents to not leave their windows open or unlocked at night while sleeping.
He said thieves may try to enter your apartment if an air conditioner is not properly installed, as well.
“Try to not leave those windows open at night,” Tasso said. “Criminals usually try during the day when they know people are at work or at night when they are sleeping.”
Transportation forum
A pedestrian and traffic-safety public forum was held at the Audrey Johnson Learning Center in Bushwick the night before, Monday, May 19, to “raise the profile of what’s called Vision Zero,” according to Drew Levitt of Transportation Alternatives.
The larger goals of these forums and the organization is “we are trying to make the strets of NYC safe for everyone that uses them,” Levitt said.
Last year more than 250 people were killed as a result of traffic accidents, according to Levitt.
“More than one quarter of pedestrian deaths are from failure to yield,” he said.
The Vision Zero roll-out process has been in three phases: Education, enforcement and engineering. Education is letting people know the seriousness of the issue, and clearly defining what is illegal, enforcement is changing behaviors and engineering is making physical changes to the street to make everyone safer, Levitt said.
The organization is working with CouncilMemberAntonio Reynoso to organize another forum for late June or early July. “We will be here next month to let everyone know the date,” Levitt said.
Council elections
All current ranking members of the 83rd Precinct Community Council were re-nominated and re- elected at Tuesday’s meeting. They include President Barbara Smith, Vice President Ismael Feliciano, Treasurer Elvena Davis, Secretary Victoria Fernandez and Sergeant-atarms Bishop Michael Clarke.
Smith said there will be no meetings in July and August; June is the last monthly meeting until September.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 17, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bushwick stationhouse located on Knickerbocker Avenue and Bleecker Street.
