Teens Terrorizing Our Community: How Do We Protect Ourselves?

When I arrived near the scene of a stabbing outside of Canarsie High School a couple of weeks ago, it was like heading to a war zone. The stabbing victim, reportedly a student, was in an ambulance and being taken to the hospital by the time I got closer to Rockaway Parkway near Flatlands Avenue.

Herds of students walked along Flatlands Avenue, talking about some fight that happened at the school earlier that day but the sound of School Safety patrol cars, and their sirens, racing to the scene were like air raids going off on a battlefield. Some students just hung around on street corners, others pushed each other near the bus stops and you could hear unruly teens cursing and yelling to each other.

You couldn’t even make your way along any sidewalk without meeting a wall of boisterous teens – some teasing each other and testing passersby who had to walk in the street with traffic just to avoid being harassed or involved in the childish display.

Is your school a crime scene waiting to happen?

What the hell is going on here?

I’m not gonna sugar coat anything – walking around the community when school lets out is one of the scariest times you can be outside. What do you do when you’re simply waiting for a bus on a busy avenue or taking a stroll to a store and a dozen youths are heading your way? The first thing you might think – or ask yourself – is “am I safe walking in these kids’ direction? Where do I run if they harass me?”

If you think I’m exaggerating in my observations, give it a shot and take a walk along Rockaway Parkway or Flatlands Avenue during school dismissal. I don’t want to say that the fear of being terrorized by teens deters everyone from going about their business, but no matter what officials do, our streets don’t feel safe when massive groups of teens take over.

Thank God all of the teens responsible for the Flatbush area McDonald’s attack were arrested. But those kids really had nothing better to do than gang up on someone and cause a brawl? Teenagers, in my opinion, get a really bad reputation and whenever they say teens don’t have enough positive things to do, it makes me wonder it they’re right (“they” being community leaders). That could be true – or maybe they’re so caught up in each others’ drama that they don’t want to be bothered doing anything BUT retaliating against each other.

We’re not exactly sure how the suspect in the Rockaway Parkway stabbing got a hold of a weapon to begin with when there’s tons of security and metal detectors at the school – but it’s still unsettling.

What are we going to do with these teens to keep them in line – have military personnel stand guard at all corners in and around local schools and train stations to keep the peace? When you get to a school and see police patrolling, diverting traffic and closing off blocks – as if our city has just witnessed a terrorist attack – what does that say about our attitudes towards teens? Fine – authorities don’t want more teens to get out of control and School Safety officers are doing their job. However, Rockaway Parkway should simply look and operate like a busy shopping area and NOT a scene from the Wild Wild West! 
Maybe authorities should institute a curfew and clear out the community of all those teens walking aimlessly and causing havoc.

 Youth programs? Let’s get real! The availability of youth programs does us no good if teens aren’t enrolling in any of them! Instead, they’re hanging out at McDonalds or congregating in groups after their extracurricular activities and pursuing their vendettas. Conflict resolution and reaching out to youths involved in gangs is a hard task to undertake when there are so many teens taking matters into their own hands.

When my late editor Chuck Rogers and I listened to the office police scanner, hundreds of radio calls of post-school dismissal shenanigans came over the frequencies. Sometimes, he’d pay no mind, look at the scanner and shout, “School’s out!” which usually meant the call was about typical teens stirring typical trouble. Is “typical” acceptable and how many armed guards do we have to post outside near schools to let kids know that their violent frames of mind need to be reformed? Check out the avenues the next time school’s out and let me know what the answer is.

Til then, the community won’t be saved by bell!

A Life Lost: When Spending On Surveillance Doesn’t Pay

If I had the resources, the time – and maybe an intern’s detailed assistance – I would investigate how many arrests were made in Canarsie last year thanks to surveillance camera footage. How many unsolved crimes exist despite footage capturing someone in the act? To be specific, how many crimes in New York City Housing were thwarted, altogether, by the presence of cameras?

A year ago, a young man shown on camera walking through Bayview Houses was apprehended for a rash of robberies shortly after his image was released. Maybe the arrest was a result of the new technology installed at the housing development. Maybe it was thanks to quick-acting residents who recognized the thug while he was walking the grounds.

Really…how much are cameras really worth much when you realize they might not prevent a crime from occurring. Yes, criminals may be deterred from committing an act if they know they’re on camera, but they could easily conceal their identity and get away with murder – literally – should they feel the need to commit one.

Unless there’s a security guard behind the scenes, watching live video feed, who will act promptly before the suspect flees the scene, too many tragedies will occur with only a video camera in place.

It’s good to hear that 29 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments in the city will be getting security cameras by the end of this year. Last week’s news of upgrades and additional installations will probably be well received by NYCHA tenants – but how effective will cameras be when it truly comes to crime prevention? What about inside buildings, elevators, hallways and areas where cameras won’t reach?

In my opinion, it won’t be enough to spend millions upon million of dollars (NYCHA and city officials are reportedly providing $17 million) on installing cameras in city buildings, as per Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement last year.

Let’s get real! When the media publishes the headline and story: “Shooter/stabber/robber caught on camera,” the horrific act has already been committed. A life has already been lost, changed or impacted…A wallet or phone has already been stolen and an attack has already traumatized the victim!

We’ve seen plenty of camera footage on the news where a gunman opened fire in the middle of the street, outside of a club or house party. It’s great that we have those images of the reckless punks, but in many unfortunate cases, police were unable to respond fast enough to catch up with the suspects – who already left multiple people with wounds that perhaps scarred them for life – or cost them their lives!

Chances are, arrests are made in those club and party house shootings as a result of someone coming forward with information. However, it’s satisfying knowing that justice will eventually be served and that a criminal will do time as a result of being positively identified via technology.

When it comes to scum-of-the-earth nutcases like Daniel St. Hubert, who brutally stabbed two innocent children in an elevator in the Boulevard Houses in 2014, justice can’t come soon enough even though he was arrested within a few days of the stabbings. Would it have mattered if a camera were installed in those buildings while he was committing the heartless crime?

Even if he knew he was on camera, I don’t think he was in a sensible, normal frame of mind to realize what he was doing in the first place. Reports stated that St. Hubert went back and forth with authorities on whether he was mentally fit to even stand trial! Please…A “normal functioning” person does NOT take a knife to two defenseless children! In this case, I don’t think all the cameras in the world – worth thousands of taxpayers’ dollars – would have saved those innocent kids.

It seems like most criminals aren’t banking on getting arrested or being identified – or most of them wouldn’t be committing the crime in the first place. I know that’s a naïve way of thinking, but can we assume that a lot of criminals are somehow “mentally unfit,” which results in them making irrational decisions to commit crimes? Cameras stand no chance – anywhere, not just in NYCHA buildings – when it comes to ruthless scoundrels and their violent tactics.

In my opinion, we need more HUMAN presence instead of machines and technology to simply observe a crime going down. Unfortunately, there’s not enough money in the world to hire enough manpower to patrol NYCHA to catch criminals and repeat offenders. Preventing shootings will NEVER happen!

Let’s see if the millions of dollars spent on installing cameras will spare the lives of thousands of victims who are waiting to be shot, stabbed, robbed and attacked. Instead, we’ll be looking at blurry and dark images of someone running from a crime scene.

When crime decreases in buildings that already have cameras, we might have a chance to capture the moment – and the crook – before it’s too late.

A Wake Up Call For The Late And Not-So-Great Mayor De Blasio

Okay – I know you label someone as the “late and great,” you’re referring to a person who’s passed on – someone who’s possibly leaving behind a legacy, of sorts, for their amazing character and feats. It’s not always implied that if you’re “late”, you’re “great,” but will that label ever be bestowed upon New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio – who’s notorious for showing up late, if at all, to dozens of events he’s scheduled to attend?

First, my apologies. It’s been a while since I’ve covered a slew of evening community meetings. When I DO cover meetings, I’m prompt and waiting patiently for civic matters to begin. I wrote a column years ago on how community meetings rarely start on time (“Meeting Overkill” April 28, 2011). If they say it’s supposed to start at 7:30 p.m., you can wait from 7:45 until 8 p.m. for a politician to arrive and for everyone to get settled and start talking business. An 8 p.m. meeting? If everyone’s seated by exactly 8:15 and an important politician who’s making a speech is already present, you’re in luck!

Yeah, it’s frustrating when you’re on a newspaper deadline and a Tuesday night civic meeting has potential to last until 10 p.m. but that’s part of the job – and starting the meetings earlier – or on time – would be a real treat for those who don’t have all night to spend at a meeting.

A lot of politicians are “fashionably late” – especially when a civic organization is waiting for them to arrive so they can get started. I understand if a politician is traveling from another state – or even from one meeting to another and has to be at three or four places in one night. What’s the mayor’s excuse – oh, that’s right he has lots of them, including how “tired” he was from the night before.

Mr. Tardy de Blasio overslept in November 2014 and was late to the memorial service for families who lost loved ones in American Airlines Flight 587. Recently, he was 15 minutes late to the St. Patrick’s Day Mass. The poor baby has problems sleeping…Isn’t taking care of your nocturnal problems..um…NOT the public’s problems? Let’s go back even further– and this time to address how stubborn he is about attending certain functions most electeds naturally attend. Our fabulous Mayor decided he didn’t want to pay respects to the late former Bronx Congressman Herman Badillo last year. He also consciously decided not to attend the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade because of its exclusion of those who have different sexual preferences. He made himself clear and told the media – upfront – that he was “hired to implement policy and not go to parades.”

So why should he make an appearance at ANY parade AT ALL? Hey de Blasio, just stay home and don’t worry about showing your face! After all, didn’t New Yorkers vote for him because they want him involved in everything going on in this city?

Is this guy even a team player? Or is he just assuming what most people already know – that plenty of events don’t begin on time anyway, so why get there at a reputable hour? Does he run late simply because he can? I guess he needs his beauty rest after a long night of organizing…whatever city things he needs to delegate.

If you ask me, he’s setting a bad example – not only for his children, but for New Yorkers who voted for him. When it comes to memorials, ceremonies and school events, you CAN’T oversleep! What kind of values does a person have if they make excuses all the time? This was the job he was hired to do – and if he can’t be there to DO IT, why should New Yorkers support him?

Come on – if I came in to work late every day just because I overslept or didn’t get a good night’s sleep, my boss would have a serious talk with me. I’m sure others, working in high corporate positions, would be fired for not attending company meetings “just because they don’t want to.”

Does be Blasio really have a right to be late?

Let’s get real! The big deal is that things get done and people are respected for DOING THEIR JOB – which they can’t do efficiently unless they arrive at work ON TIME! It’s more than just a professional call – what about the fact that those who practice good timing have to wait on our Mayor? We’re talking about making thousands of people WAIT. Does this Mayor of ours respect those who are waiting for him?

Personally, I never made repeated excuses for arriving late to work. Maybe I should have went into work an hour late the next day for every hour I was kept waiting at the meetings the night before! Yes!

Okay…We all know it doesn’t work that way! Being on time is part of the work grind, which our almighty mayor doesn’t think he has to abide by. Well excuuuuuuuuse me! 

I’m just going to hit the snooze button and skip watching Hizzoner the next time he holds a press conference…zzzzzzzzzz….

Unpublished as of 3/18/15

Up Close And Personal: A Message That Our Trustworthy Democrat Won’t Erase

Dear Hil (it’s okay if I call you that, right?),

I hope this message finds you well.

There’s been an awful lot about your so-called scandals blowing up the media lately. It concerns me – as a citizen and as a journalist who works for a small newspaper in Brooklyn, New York. So, I thought I’d e-mail you, woman to woman, professional to professional, to talk about a few of the hurdles you’ve managed to jump over in the past few decades.

I’m sure you know that presidential hopefuls slip up every now and then…Wait – you didn’t officially announce your run for president in 2016, did you? Is that an idea you’re still playing with? You can tell me – I’m great at keeping secrets!

First of all, kudos to you, as former first lady, for standing behind Bubba all of those years even though he “didn’t have sexual relations with that woman” back in the day. We all know you had a motive behind keeping Slick Willie around – isn’t that right? Didn’t you just want to beat the crap out of that Lewinsky chic? You can confide in me about that – woman to woman, you know?

I’m also curious what you thought about a Brooklyn-based Hasidic newspaper removing you from the White House Situation Room back in 2011when they caught Bin Laden. With all of your political power, I’m sure you dealt with it in a mature manner in front of the press…but how did you really feel? You can be honest with me – I won’t tell anyone and I’m sure no one else will be reading your response – this is your personal e-mail, isn’t it???

When they started to subpoena your e-mails, didn’t you feel just a little violated? I mean, here you are, a highly respected Democrat, former secretary of state and former first lady.... and your authority is being questioned – by the authorities!

What were you thinking when you told the press that your decision to send State Department e-mails through a private e-mail server was a matter of "convenience"? I thought it was common knowledge – especially to an educated and strong woman such as yourself – to separate your personal business from your professional business.

If you have nothing to hide, why did you allegedly delete all those messages? If you did talk to anyone about the Benghazi attacks, don’t you think it’s time to come clean about those correspondences? Suuuuuuuuure, investigations haven’t found anything particularly suspicious in your e-mails (that must have been pretty invasive!). But if you withheld some of those messages, what good does that do our country?

How does it feel to have your reputation and presidential “values" questioned? I know, you’ve still got the backing of plenty of Democrats who say lots of politicians have used their person e-mails to conduct professional business– but those damned Republicans… How are you going to deal with their plans to smear your possible campaign?

I can tell you, from experience, that it’s sooooooo simple to separate your e-mail accounts. I would never attempt to give my personal e-mail to people with whom I have professional relationships. 

This is just between us, but my boss yelled at me SEVERAL TIMES for allowing residents, civic leaders and politicians – or any professional contact – to reach out to me through my personal e-mail. After all, there are matters that our entire business needs to be kept apprised of – and why would I discuss personal matters with my friends via a business account? Common sense plays a big role here, don’t you think, Hil?

If there's something one of my professional contacts needs to say - let them say it to the company through a public correspondence. After all, I really wouldn't want my boss thinking I was planning or plotting something with a professional contact behind my boss' back. That's just not professional! Am I right Hil?

I’d love to know what you're going to do with your new e-mail account and how you're going to organize who you correspond with through different e-mails... It can get messy, believe me! 

What's your new private e-mail going to be anyway? If you need someone to walk you through the process of setting up another address, I’d be more than happy to help! Oh, just don’t tell anyone, since we don’t want people thinking you’re not tech savvy enough to create an account all by yourself.

By the way, I’m not a democrat and I’m not crazy about liberal media, but that’s okay – my political choices are confidential, and you won't tell anyone....right?

Conservatively Yours,

Dara Mormile

We’re All Performing For An Unethically Operating “Circus”

Years ago, I went with my mother and sister to the circus when it was showing at Marine Park. We also went to circus performances in Coney Island and Madison Square Garden, where the colorful clowns, acrobatic performers and magic shows wowed the crowd.
 

Shortly after seeing the Cole Bros. Circus – the one that took place at Marine Park – a local elected official came down on one of the acts, which included cats ever-so-carefully walking on a tightrope. The cats were rewarded with treats after they successfully completed the trick, but the controversy over making the felines do crazy things for human entertainment dominated the otherwise playful show.
 

Now that elephants are being banned from the circus, I estimate that The Greatest Show On Earth® will soon be absent of ALL creatures that have to be tamed or trained. Yes – humans will soon be the only mammals undergoing excruciating practices to get a “wow” out of spectators.
New York City is already dealing with its own animal rights issues. The liberal mindset of those who want to ban horse drawn carriages comes up frequently in City Hall. Getting the votes to officially do away with this nostalgic tourist pasttime is always under scrutiny. But why wasn’t this attraction banned years ago? After centuries of having these beautiful equines symbolize the character of our city, with many coachmen at risk for losing their jobs, protesters NOW claim it’s a “cruel job for animals.” 
Is there something that’s currently being practiced by those who train animals that wasn’t implemented decades ago? I agree that many animals are the victims of cruel training exercises – but it’s 2015 and a lot of the protests are addressing what animals have been experiencing all along.
 

You might not consider yourself cruel – but how about the unethical treatment you’re imposing on your pooch when you’re training them? Who said Rover wants to roll over, sit, fetch, speak, or play dead? Play dead? Why are we giving our furry friends treats for mastering the art of simply being a carcass on the floor? I’m sure some animals have fun learning to dance on their hind legs for food that you dangle in front of their face (no, that’s not cruel at all!)
 

Let’s get real. There’s something about the sudden uproar of animal rights that gets politicians and activists talking. If the unethical treatment of elephants, lions, tigers and bears – oh my – has been going on for so long, what’s taking circus folk so long to remove those animals from their shows? Ringling Bros. recently announced that it will stop using elephants in their shows – but who’s next on the chopping block?
 

Other than attacking and going on a destructive rampage, animals can’t demonstrate if they’re being treated cruelly – especially if they’re being subdued by a circus trainer. Look at someone who worked with animals all the time – like Steve Irwin, who thought nothing of putting his head in a crocodile’s mouth in front of thousands of people. Irwin always tested the waters when he created a mini-circus with various animals, but he somehow pissed off a stingray in 

September 2006 and the shark-like fish killed him during a documentary taping.
 

Let’s take it up a notch! How about banning aquatic performances where trainers make sea lions or dolphins balance a ball on their nose or kiss some strange germ-ridden kid on the cheek?
If we’re going to do away with animal cruelty and the exploitation of any animal that provides a public service, we’ll have to start closing zoos and aquariums! Humans have long found ALL animals and their behavior – whether it’s trained or natural – amusing, but the curtain will surely come down on every act and we’ll have no entertainment at all…Until then, the show must go on!

Don’t Deny The Facts When It Comes To “Demographic Diets”

What’s your favorite food? Hot dogs? Pizza? A good old-fashioned hamburger with the works? Maybe you’ve got a hankerin’ for some type of hero or sandwich accompanied by a bag of potato chips. 

 

Back in the old days, when Canarsie’s demographics consisted of mostly Italian and Jewish residents, we had a handful of diners, pizzerias and delicatessens, which served all kinds of foods to whet your appetite.

Where did all these restaurants go?

Perhaps they’ve migrated or met the same fate as a Key Food Supermarket in Clinton Hill, which officials recently announced will be demolished so that an eight-story condo could be put in its place. What stirred up even more controversy, aside from residents having nowhere to food shop during construction, was the idea that the supermarket was closing due to “gentrification.” One politician even said she hoped the new grocery store, if built within commercial space on the first floor, would be “accessible to communities of color” and that “white people don’t eat the way we do.”

Is this offensive statement an accurate observation about what’s important to black/Hispanic communities that was taken as a racial slur? Or is she stating, on another level, what a lot of people think: that eateries and dining options change when demographics do?

Take this into consideration – certain Key Food stores carry different groceries and have diverse specialties in different communities. Visit the Key Food near Gerritsen Beach and compare it to the one we have in Canarsie. Someone in that corporation is indicating that residents in Canarsie don’t need an elaborate bakery or gourmet food section. Why? Don’t the variety of people in our community want a healthy selection of different delicacies?

If you’re going to tear down a supermarket and rebuild one that accommodates, say, black people, what does that mean? No “white people’s food”? The way I see it, people of different cultures – not just races – do eat different. I’m sure a supermarket in Coney Island, which has a large population of Russians, has different specialties than a grocery store in Borough Park.

However, it’s disappointing that a lot of minority communities lack quality restaurants and a variety of supermarkets in their neighborhoods. Who’s to blame for this? I call this social and racial challenge the “demographic diet.” Think about well-to-do communities that are built up – such as Park Slope and Williamsburg, where they’ve got hundreds of shops and restaurants to choose from. What – minority communities don’t like to eat? Are some of those gourmet eateries and cafes too “expensive” for the class of residents living in low-income communities?

Are we on a diet? Don’t Canarsiens need more places to eat and more variety when it comes to where we shop? If our local Key Foods and other small supermarkets were torn down for multiple-family dwellings, I’m sure someone out there would play the race card – that they’re taking away our supermarket because we’re a “minority community.” Let’s get real! In a way, they’ve put us on a demographic diet by closing hundreds of places that once provided a mélange of foods!

However, the Flatbush-Ditmas Park community recently celebrated the reopening of a Key Food that reportedly offers “healthier options”…as opposed to strictly “unhealthy” foods they’ve been selling to this community? According to News12, the new supermarket has more produce and dairy sections. What did the supermarket offer residents before – fat and lard-laced groceries?

A lot of politicians are trying to change how food businesses operate and what they offer residents. But what does that do for certain communities like Canarsie, where our selection of eateries is constantly diminishing? If you’re hungry for the answer, so am I…after all, we’re on an unwanted demographic diet that forces us to go to other neighborhoods for a good meal!

Want even more in-your-face insight? Check out my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DLikeItIs. Feedback is welcome!