
So-called "wolf packs" of teenagers have been increasingly mugging people in Prospect Park lately. The Post says many of the robberies' victims are teens, where suddenly "they are surrounded by a larger group of youths" who then take their money and cellphones. However, a mugging last week was on a 53 year old man who was "shoved to the sidewalk, kicked and robbed," which is alarming, if the teens are looking to be more and more violent (if you're mugged, just give up your money and cellphone so you can walk away from it - remember the guy who was shot twice for his cellphone?). The police are not sure if the gangs are involved or if the violence is random, but eight arrests have not stopped the crimes. The Post listed the crimes and where they took place:
April 15: Fifth Street & Prospect Park West (inside park)For the crimes where the location was clear, those are generally popular areas, especially if you're outside the park or on the path. We're curious what time these crimes took place (afternoon? evening?), but we're sure the police are eager to stop this. If not the police, then we'd guess a consortium of real estate agencies will start to do a neighborhood patrol.
April 18: Third Street & PPW (inside park)
April 28: Fifth Street & PPW (outside park)
April 28: 16th Street Drive & West Driver (inside prak)
May 4: PPW & Seventh Street (outside park)
May 5: PPW & President Street (inside park)
May 20: Inside park, exact location unclear
May 24: Two attacks, exact locations unclear
Photograph from Bluejake





it's dinkins time,
no longer, guiliani time.
summer's here and it's time for dancing in the streets.
Hell no! I would never give a mugger shit unless it was to get his guard down. 2 weeks ago I was cornered by 3 black kids who told me to give them my money and cell. I looked at em. I put my hands in my pocket, got into a defensive stance, flexed my muscles a bit and gave em a clint eastwood stare and said "WHAT THE FUCK? LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT YOU WANNA ROB ME???" then one of them said he'd cut me if I didn't do it. So I said "BRING IT MOTHERFUCKER. LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS". I had my hands on a pencil and held it navy seal style and was ready to plunge it into the first attackers neck and break it off. The robbers sensed I was not going to back off so they just said some derogatory shit under their breath and left with their tails beneathe their legs. Moral of the story. don't give muggers shit unless you are weak and frail and want to live the rest of your life in fear.
Hopefully I won't get mugged during one of my runs, but they probably can tell that I don't have any money stored in my lycra and dri-fit outfit. Those tights hold no secrets.
we need Charles Bronson - or better yet, some Bernie Goetz action
i'd love to hear some vigilante stories this summer
if you kill a mugger in this city, the law will get you off, people don't realize this
It's a stinking world because there's no law and order any more. It's a stinking world because it lets the young get onto the old. Oh, it's no world for an old man any longer. What sort of a world is it at all? Men on the moon, and men spinning around the earth, and there's not no attention paid to earthly law and order no more.
i think charlie bronson is dead.
you won't hear of any vigilante stories,
learn karatay like kramer,
it's like a bunch of lil fists,
or get a gun, the criminals have them.
i only deal in lead
the first line of defense starts with Abortions
What does holding a pencil "Navy Seal style" mean, anyway? Just curious.
those kids need a swift kick to the nuts.
a bullet to the head seems more fitting
navy seal style means tacticool.
listen, the muggers have nothing to lose,
unlike you with the wife, kids and future due to your luck with a special genotype.
so unless you want to be 6ft under with a widow,
take it easy, stop it with the racist shit.
OK? paul kersey.
I'm not sure what's more frightening: the muggings in the Park or some of the responses posted above. Seems to me a few well-publicized arrests might put this trend to sleep. What about creative use of camera phones? Perhaps a few perps posted across the internet and emailed to One Police Plaza might also be a disincentive
(I refer to the subway flasher...considerably less threatening with his measly weapon than some kids with blades).
i'm so sick of these muggings every summer, people need to start fighting back - literally
who said anything that was racist?
what good is a cameraphone if it gets taken away from you when you're mugged?
Camera phones? Brilliant. "'Scuse me, Mr. Mugger, before you steal this cellphone, mind if I take a shot of you taking it?"
Or even better "Hey, that guy's getting mugged! Let me get close with the crappy resolution on my cell phone camera to get a good shot. Closer....Closer....Gungghh!"
Use your goddamn brain.
fight back??
don't make me laff,
ROTFLOL, ROTFLOL, ROTFLOL!!!!!!
so, stop it with your racial shit.
"Navy seal style" means he's a total wanna-be. That story is the dream he had last night, after he rubbed one out into a dirty sock.
there's no guarantees that they'll leave you alone (or alive) after your give them your wallet/phone
...might as well try to take as many of them out
the problem with letting the police handle this is that it usually never gets solved, so these kids go out and mug someone again, you can do a service to the community by taking 'em out yourself
Navy Seal style means total nerd.
he nerds the muggers out, gotta say, an excellent tactic.
how is fighting back racist?
if someone jumps me, i'm not going to cower down...unless he's got a gun pointed at me
Material items can be replaced your whole person cannot.
got to love it some people see defending yourself as racist
no wonder society has gotten soft and let this shit happen to begin with
funny...if i were jumped by a bunch of white college frat guys i'd probably fight back, if it was a group of young black teens i wouldn't
don't know if thats being "racist" by not fighting the black kids and giving in to their demands as opposed taking on the white frat boys
Or you can get shot in the face.
My camera phone puts my photos onto the internet as soon as they're taken. So even if they take my phone, as long as I could get a few shots off during the process of handing it over, I can still retrieve the photos when I get to a computer.
The post implies that teens robbing other teens is NOT disturbing, as long as they lay off the adults. That's disappointing to me.
navy seal style means that I hold the pencil with the eraser on my thumb and the tip pointed down so I can get a downward stabbing motion. Once you stab the guy in the neck with the pencil break that shit off. Remember the knife fight between steven segal and tommy lee jones at the end of under siege? the navy seal style is how they hold their knives. Hey, I was a bit scared too at the time but I was determined that if these motherfuckers wanted to rob me it would be either at the cost of my life or theirs. They obviously saw that my gritted teeth and furious anger meant that it wouldn't be easy and backed off. Now, I'm sure if they had a gun it would have been over but seeing as little girls get killed by stray bullets all the time why not fight back? If United 93 has taught us anything, it's that its better to fight valorously and die for freedom than it's not. Now if they had killed me, and they wanted to rob someone else and that person fought back, and so on then nobody else would get mugged cause the muggers would realize people are fighters. Now if you give in to a muggers demands, they'll think it's easy and just move on to the next target. Give them something to think about.
Well, lookie-here boys, we got ourselves a new Travis Bickle:
"Listen, you f*ckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the c*nts, the dogs, the filth, the sh*t. Here is a man who stood up."
"All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk p*ssies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
--Robert DeNiro, Taxi Driver (1976)
That's what we get for electing Bloomberg. There's plenty of money for cops when they're needed to put down dissent and squelch free speech, but the Parks Police took a 40% budget cut - which resulted in (surprise!) a 40% reduction of police presence in Prospect Park.
only thing is, if you're killed in a mugging
you not gettin 1MILLION DOLLA (in the voice of the BG from the remake of SWAT)
NY'ers don't fight, we bitch and whine.
Hell, we can't even handle a simple emergency such as having to shit outdoors.
ROTFLMAO!
nice general blanket statement united911izajok.
puhleeze,
nyc is the capital of bitch and whine,
u guys were lucky the blackout only lasted one nite.
u know iz speek da truuf
Anyway, does anyone know what time these muggings took place?
Wait for a few years and you remember what Dinkins era was like. No Guliani cops anymore (getting rid of them was the campaign slogan for Ferreri and his cronies).
Anyway, minority teens do not enough public money so it is fair they take it directly from white people. If you feel we need more police or people should fight back you racist/republican/antiliberal.
I remember one instance where black kids wiht criminal history were stealing cars in white area and local white kids attacked them. The result: White kids got long prison sentences and black kids were victims and heroes. This is truly a sick society.
This is nothing new. Doesn't anybody remember the kids "wilding" in Central Park back in the 80s?
If I were jumped by black teens, I would definitely fight back. I wouldn't if they were russian jew mafia, or yakuza though cause they'd probably kill my entire family.
Black people are so fucking dumb. Robbing people is so fucking stupid. First of all, a gang usually has 3-8 people. Now if you mug someone in this non cash carrying world, than the most you can hope for is like 50 bucks. divide that by 8 and you get like 6 bucks each. Now it's a high degree of risk that you will get caught by the police or your victim will attack you back so it's really not logistically worth it. Look at George Bush, a white man. He does crime right. See how he embezzles funds for millions, destroys the environmetn, rigs the election, kills scores of people and the man gets lauded for it. The man commits tons of crimes and he gets away with it. Black people should learn from george bush.
fuck you racists! You guys ever watch the shows law and order or CSI NY? Well on those shows that are set in NY almost 90 percent of the criminals are white guys. Care to explain this? If as you say black people are criminals than why are all the criminals on TV white? HUh? it's cause it's the truth.
democratic congressman Jefferson is even better example. Use racial preferences to get preferential treatment, bribe nigerian officials and store money on your freezer.
If black kids want to kill someone they can learn from ted kennedy. Kill the victim, escape and hide a day, fabricate a background story and you'll get seat on senate committee.
Rule # 1 in choosing a neighborhood: Check the adjacent neighborhoods.
Whenever I get robbed I shit my pants. It doesn't seem to deter the muggers any. Just fyi.
Get a can of mace, and one of these.
http://www.officerstore.com/store/product.cfm/pid_2325_asp_16_inch_expandable_baton/
nice and compact. Trust me, you spray 3 people with mace and just beat the crap out of them. problem solved.
never been mugged, knock wood
but my sister was mugged at gunpoint, all she could do was stammer and got very nervous and jittery.
don't know what I'll do if a guy had a gun to my head, these were two guys in hell's kitchen over 10 yrs ago and she just admitted it to me recently.
what the muggers (two guys) did was stop short, turn around and put the gun to your head.
but then this could happen anywhere, I've heard hotlanta is pretty dangerous.
how do you spray someone with mace and not get affected yourself? Once I was in a bar and someone got sprayed with mace across the room and I started sneezing like a motherfucker and my eyes got all teary just from being 50 feet away from the mace cloud.
Pepper spray comes in 2 forms,
stream and fog,
stream is what you want, fog is when you want to get a lot of people peppered.
yes, sprayback is a bitch.
pepper spray is some nasty shit, but guess what?
the mugger teens have them too.
Let's get one thing straight: Dinkins actually hired the police recruits that came of age during the Guiliani era. Dinkins started NYC's war on crime, and Guiliani lapped up the rewards. Not knowing history is a crime unto itself.
As to figthing back, you have to pick your battles. However, I've found that if you act completely insane, that muggers tend to think you are crazy and will back off. This bit of advice is from a girl who grew up in innercity Detroit. If, however, this bit of advice backfires on your ass, don't come running to me. As I said, pick your battles.
As to the racist comments, not even worth the ephemeral pixels they're written on.
You tough guys are hilarious. I guess you've forgotten what acting tough and saying "What are you gonna do, shoot us?" got this one young lady:
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/01/28/murder_on_the_lower_east_side.php
There's a difference between backtalk and acting crazy. Backtalk will certainly get you shot as it's a challenge and an affront... acting crazy might not and may scare the crap out of the person who is trying to rob you.... but as I said, pick your battles... or better yet, just give up your stuff.
"Remember the knife fight between steven segal and tommy lee jones at the end of under siege?"
You mean the scene where they give the guy just enough rope?
it's like walking up to a mic, tapping it, and asking "is this thing on?"
I like the references to movies and TV Shows like it's "evidence" to back up a point. Under Siege? Wha?
and post #38, the reason why they don't have many black criminals on those TV shows is because they don't want to give them jobs.
all these blacks need to be sent to the south for re-allignment
how bout removing your earphones when you're jogging in the park?
then you'll not only see danger but hear it.
why the assumption that this is the work of a black gang? aren't there white gangs roaming...wait a minute...errr...Park Slope...yeah...I see...stoned-out hippies assaulting people for a linzertorte...sure...
What was "tough on crime" Dinkins doing during the Crown Heights riot?
Most of these new cops I see are barely 5 feet tall and look like they're 14. They can barely walk because the utility belt -- including the 9MM -- is weighing them down. They can't intimidate a puppy nevermind some wilding mugger asshole. People are going to have to fend for themselves and unfortunately a lot of people are going to get hurt before the wilding mugger asshole gets punished.
Scuse me, Mr. Mugger, before you steal this cellphone, mind if I take a shot of you taking it?
LOL!!!!!!
"so I can get a downward stabbing motion. Once you stab the guy in the neck with the pencil break that shit off"
hilarious!
These are way to funny today..I say acting crazy always seems to work..I thought of the baton action..hey go ahead..steal it..it has GPS so I can find you and hunt you down later in the day..go ahead! use that phone mugger!..someone will be waiting for you later with a bat..
Is there a moderator here? I'm sick of seeing these incredibly offensive and completely unwarrented racist statements. They are obviously for shock value or from their sick senses of humor, but it is not amusing and quite unpleasant to read everytime I look at these comments. I'm all for open discussions and different points of view, but there is no reason to be openly hostile and insulting in a public forum.
PS To the provincial idiots-- from a native new yorker-- yes, fight back, fantastic idea-- you'll get what you deserve.
Stay out of prospect park during the evening as most smart people stay out of central park. Problem solved.
Support increased investment in education and contraceptive education so that fewer sociopathic creatures are born to create mayhem for law abiding citizens.
A moderator?
NYC sure has gotten whiny. Look at Ground Zero - anytime something is ready to happen someone bitches.
This isn't the only thing to read online - if offended don't read it.
>>but there is no reason to be openly hostile and insulting in a public forum.
>PS To the provincial idiots--
I'm glad you aren't "openly hostile and insulting" to anyone.
This page was recommended by two other blogs, but I don't get why. Instead of any sensible discussion of what is going on in Prospect Park, there's just a lot of really offensive crap. Muggings and bike thefts always increase when the weather warms, as pointed out by one sensible person, but is this year any worse? Does anyone know when it's happening--like when school lets out, or at dusk? Has anyone noticed an ibcrease of large groups of kids, or anything at all helpful? And Gothamist, your comments policy is clearly for shite.
Basically nothing noteworthy happening right now, but eh. Today was a complete loss. I haven't been up to much recently. I've pretty much been doing nothing worth mentioning.
Not much on my mind. I don't care. I've just been letting everything happen without me , but shrug. Whatever. I feel like a void.