Tuesday, February 12, 2008

GANGLAND


I read two disturbing articles today about gangs in Bay Ridge. Graffiti crime was up 96% in Brooklyn last year, more than in any of the boroughs.
Graffiti often signifies a gang presence in an unsuspecting neighborhood, like Bay Ridge.
The Ridge had 185 graffiti crime complaints last year, up from 73 in 2006. That's an increase of 156.9%!! Only Williamsburg had more complaints with 186. Just one more than The Ridge, so I'm going to call it even. If I was getting that kind of increase in my investments that would be fantastic. But I'm not.

So what does that say about The Ridge!?

I'll tell you what it says and it isn't pretty. According to Deanna Rodriguez, head of the Brooklyn district attorney's gang unit,
"once you know how to read it, it can be frightening. When it comes to gangs, they are not tagging places because they have nothing else to do, they're making a statement. This is a precursor to other activities, and when we see it, we can pretty much tell when the violence is coming."
Oh good. That just made my day. Where's my Xanax? Evidently, The Ridge is popular with the Latin Kings, a Puerto Rican gang, and the Italian gang Hoodlums Doing Damage.

Maybe we should have less Gestapo meter maids and have more police to combat this growing problem.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How appropriate, the timing of it all:

Defend Bay Ridge

Right in Bay Ridge said...

Thanks for the link!

And you're right, something needs to be done to clean up Bay Ridge!

WIBR said...

I'm glad to be topical, if only for a day.

Mark said...

Alan, you're always a topical solution.

Anonymous said...

Oh Mark, I'm shocked... that reads so like a Fox News story. Tagging was done in buildings around the Roman Forum 3,000 years ago. Doesn't mean there's a bloodbath on the way. All crime across the city is down, you know that. Oh well... there's only one solution then.
RUN AWAY!!!

Mark said...

Yes, NY Brit, crime is down overall since the bloodbath year of 1990. However crime is so far up in 2008 compared to 2007.

Cialis said...

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There is a significant graffiti tradition in South America most especially in Brazil. Within Brazil, São Paulo is generally considered to be the current centre of inspiration for many graffiti artists worldwide

pharmacy escrow said...

I didn't know that they represent their territory with that kind of thing. I thought that it was something related to GTA San Andreas thing.