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This is in response to several stories I've been reading and event's I've witnessed in the Franklin Avenue vicinity of Crown Heights recently.
I am a born and raised resident of Brooklyn as I often state, I grew up blocks away from Franklin and three weeks ago as I walked through the area on a tree lined street, I was jumped by several guys.
Basically I got mugged.
It was early Sunday morning, I was coming from a popular spot and what I thought was one guy lurking around turned out to be several and they rushed me. Like I have dozens of times I walked past some guys eyes straight ahead and this time these random people decide to grab me. There was nothing I could do at this point but accept my powerlessness. My injuries were not major but they were enough. My belongings were stolen and so was the sense I foolishly allowed, that my neighborhood had improved.
I dont know where to start on this. It's been three weeks, and thankfully I have a enough of positive going on in my life so that I don't have to think about what could have been, but let me say this, I've explained to friends and family what happened with seriousness and jokes and the fact is a group of guys with nothing better to do decided to exert power over my life for a few moments and of course looking at it personally, I can't help but think crime is what's up in the Franklin Avenue section of Crown Heights.
This is what I've observed my timeline, there was the story of the girl hopping out of a car to slash another girl on Franklin near Lincoln Pl. There was the shooter who fired from a roof top on Franklin near Union in the middle of the day as high schools let out a few weeks ago there were several local robberies I heard about through word of mouth more recently, and then I was mugged and just a few days ago a man shot five times on Franklin and Lincoln.
Because Franklin has it's well worn history of being a rough crime ridden avenue people may think recent events are no big deal. The converse is because of the new businesses and new people and general tone of new-ness on some parts of the ave, people may have a more extreme reaction that everything is going to hell in the neighborhood. My opinion is the that while there is probably no overt relation to all these and other crimes, the frequency of the crimes indicates a general disregard among some local residents for the lives and welfare of the rest of us.
To put it plainly there is a crime wave in the area.
We can debate and theorize why this is, I have my own opinions, but let's table that discussion because recently some people in the area have become more brazen and lawless and we need to figure out what to do to get make it clear that there are penalties for these lawless actions. If that means the giant Star Wars AT-AT looking tower comes, back, if that means more cops standing on corners, so be it. Because it's clear there's a growing level of lawlessness going on, and if we don't start doing the little things like calling 311 for our street lights to be working, the bigger things like pressuring our 77th Precinct and local politicians to be active then we are letting the thugs, the cowards and the lawless win.
Note: For details on other recent crimes in the neighborhood check the "I Love Franklin Ave" Blog. My thanks to the writer of that blog as well for getting those stories out.
27 minutes ago
This is awful and I am glad to hear that you are ok. I am moving to the area near Franklin, although I am having second thoughts about doing so after hearing about all the violence. But I am wondering where this happened, so that I can avoid that street/corner. Or do you think this was a random thing that happened in a not particularly dangerous location? Also, as a longtime resident, I wonder whether you have suggestions generally about what streets around Franklin to avoid. Again, so sorry you had to endure this.
ReplyDeletethat is really scary. after a (relatively) calm spring, it seems that things are getting a little crazy on franklin ave again.
ReplyDeleteglad you are okay.
To Anonymous I can tell you it's no one corner where things are happening, and as a long term resident of the area I hate putting a stigma on a particular street or place. But from my recent experience there is a lot of incidents happening on and around Franklin. Like I wrote above, if Franklin Av hadn't improved so much recently, these crimes would be normal.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think is happening is this. As much as New York is always experiencing an influx of new people, the area around Franklin Av in the last two-three years has really exploded with residents not originally from here.
The area has become much better than I remember it being in the last 30 years, probably longer. Franklin was always the rowdy street at best, even when my mom was young.
What I perceive is many people have felt more comfortable walking the neighborhood alone and with good reason, and I am one of those people.
And as a result I feel many evil intentioned people are seeing us as an opportunity. The more violent crime, the shootings I still believe to be personal matters between locals, which doesn't make you feel better if you have to walk past some hectic situation.
If you want my bias, I grew up on around Park Place. I've always favored this side of Eastern Parkway (which newcomers correctly refer to as "North", but I never will) and personally I have no interest in living around the large apartment buildings closer to Empire Blvd.
BrooklynBorn,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog because last night I was brutalized by a group of about 10-13 young teenagers on New York Ave. and Bergen and I have been looking for some kind of rational to this madness. Basically they had no interest in my or my girlfriend's possessions. It was a random act of aggression; probably gang initiation. My girlfriend's fighting instinct was to pull me into the street where the busy traffic on New York Ave was forced to stop. Already the honking started to scare the brutes off and a couple gave us safe egress as passengers in their car. If I were religious I would have believed them to be heaven sent.
We've lived here for almost a year and while I knew crime existed here I didn't really know its true dynamic. I had expected to be mugged by some desperate looking meth addict on the subway, not a rabid pack of teens looking for cheap sucker punches earning their stripes and waiting for their balls to drop.
In other words, you are not in small company if your faith in this neighborhood has been shaken by being the victim of senseless violence.
Keep writing.
-ThickHeaded
Dear ThickHeaded,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear what happened to you. Yours and my experiences are the type that destroy neighborhoods. It's simply not tolerable to wonder which of the hundreds of strangers we pass in our neighborhoods are going to assault us.
I thought about this a lot in the days after I was mugged and I remembered when I was a kid in this same neighborhood, how many long-term residents simply couldn't live with the possibility of being victim to random crime. Eventually, understandably, many or my neighbors moved out. It was a different time. Many of them were getting into their senior years, the city back then was really disengaged (if you think now is bad, try the late 70's) and those factors led to alot of the ills that became the local crisis of the 80's.
There are a cocktail of reasons for what happened to you, most if not all having nothing to do with you, same for me. But we have to give the response, we have to become more not less active in this and any neighborhood. We have to attempt to engage the authorities and hold them to their duty if they fail, and we have to encourage everyone, old and new residents, idealistic and fatigued to be engaged as well.
To that point I was encouraged by our local community leaders to attend events like the next precinct meeting. You can make your case known and your voice heard and speak to the people who are tasked with improving the neighborhood. Councilmember Letitia James is scheduled to attend (she just held a town hall styled meeting about this issue last month) and she has been active in increasing law enforcement in the area.
Also I was told their would be an increase in police presence, and I've noticed it around Franklin Ave, but if you haven't noticed the same on New York Ave and you think it's needed then let it be known. Contact the 77th Precinct for details I'll also be posting dates and places for the next meeting on this blog.