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Early Addition
Crime might have gone down in 2003, but this past week has been a doozy. First there was the horrific case of Nathalie Guzman being hit and run by three different cars - with none of the drivers bothering to stop and see if she needed help. Queens Councilman Eric Gioia felt that the three hit and runs had a level of "human callousness and depravity not seen since" 1964's Kitty Genovese murder (38 people did nothing as they heard and even witnessed Genovese's cries for help). The NYPD just found the one of the cars and drivers, apparently the third car to hit Guzman when she crossed Roosevelt Avenue.
Then there's this terrifying story about a parolee's 13 hour crime spree that included murder in Queens, sexual assault in Manhattan, and shooting at people while breaking into apartments in the Bronx. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says, "Detectives in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens were diligently working together on leads. This included images captured on cameras located in the housing developments in the Bronx and Lower Manhattan and Queens where the shooting and the homicide took place. After the break-in attempt, a neighbor tried to help. Then after Shobey stabbed a Queens man, someone called the police to say Shobey was responsible for the stabbing and Bronx shootings.
When 45 year old Andre Shobey was arrested, police found a knife and loaded .32-caliber revolver on him.
The NYPD will update their weekly crime statistics for this week in a week or two, but so far crime is down.
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I have a theory about this. Every year, just before Thanksgiving, there is a spike in crime. I believe that that this has to do with judges being lenient on criminals. They don't want to put them behing bars for the holidays, so they give them a lesser sentence if the crime wasn't that bad. As a result, from Thanksgiving to about Valentines Day, the violence on the streets is kicked up a notch.
Interesting, that's something I'd like to check out. I thought there was a spike of crime during the summer (hot weather, boiling tempers...).
ahh...diffusion of responsibility...that's the best!
the summer also has to do with people being outside more, hanging out, drinking, etc, etc.
A Kitty Genovese reference...that's rare. This guy who runs a website all about Kew Gardens has done extensive research on the case (you might almost call it obsessive.)
The linked site that Edith has pointed to is very good. It's a bit of an urban legend that there were 39 witnesses to the murder of Kitty Genovese who it ignored it. The police response to the first report of the murder was delayed and blaming it on the neighborhood seemed like a good idea at the time.
The Natalie Guzman story is strange. One car could be an accident or a murder, but two more cars on Roosevelt Ave at insane speeds driving into a crowd surrounding an injured Guzman on the street -- that doesn't add up.
I think I met that crime spree guy before! Evidently he used to come to our radio station on Saturday mornings, volunteering to answer phones during our fundraising drive. Scary! If he had snapped on a Saturday instead of a Wednesday.......