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Early Addition
The Williamsburg Stabber, who is more than likely a group of stabbers, has struck again. In April two cops walking the beat told us "the increased police presence was in response to a spate of machete-wielding gang violence" -- well, a lot of good the increased security has done. A tipster writes in to tell us about last weekend's Saturday morning stabbing, which police suspect was part of a gang initiation and in step with an upsurge of gang activity in the neighborhood. From the email:
At around 8-8:30 on Saturday he was walking home from the Metropolitan Pool gym. When he turned onto Driggs, he noticed someone riding on a bicycle. He turned onto Fillmore and the person rode slowly next to him. When they reached around the middle of the block the person on the bike pulled up in front of him, and without saying anything, he stabbed him 3 times in the chest. He then took off, again biking slowly away.The suspect was said to be in his 20s or 30s (a little late for gang initiation?) and word is that a trained camera on the block recorded the incident -- but it failed to capture the assailant's face.My friend said it was very difficult to describe his assailant. He hardly took notice of him upon seeing him on his bike, as he appeared 'like a normal, non threatening neighborhood guy' riding around at 8:30 in the morning. The man never showed his face during the incident, and afterwards he could only see him from behind.
As for the victim, the knife punctured the sack around his heart (miraculously coming within a millimeter of the heart) and he is now recovering. According to the tipster, the police noted that "Fillmore Place has become a desirable location for crime due to the fact that it is not well lit and has so little foot traffic."
While the "Metropolitan Mugger," who had been holding up women at knife point, was captured in April, muggers are still afoot; on May 31st a man was mugged at knife point on South 3rd between Roebling and Havemeyer. The difference between those assaults and the stabbings is that there is no motive with the alleged gang initiation incidents -- Saturday's victim didn't know his attacker, and nothing was taken from him.
Photo of NYPD mural via dM.nyc's flickr.
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was it a bias attack (on a hipster)?
#1, No. I think the attacker was a hipster. You know how violent all of those people in skinny jeans can be when their bandanas aren't properly adorning their bodies.
Hipsters Schmipsters. What a bunch of dumbass xenophobes.
Hipsters or no hipsters, I live a few blocks away from this and I'm sort of terrified. I'd rather it if neither hip or unhip demographics got stabbed in the chest.
Lucky guy, but I don't know how many times I've read of a wound that was "millimeters away from a major organ" or "another 3 centimeters to the left and he would be dead." One has to wonder if there's some embellishment going on by the journalists or the attending.
That _literally_ happened outside my window, got interviewed by the detectives and everything later that day.
The camera were from my house, and we severely regret not having them turned on. They have been off for months now, but I think that's gonna change _real_ soon.
I got jumped at fillmore place in jan. and live on south 3rd. This is really not cool, and really makes me nervous. The neighborhood is going to shit! How about some Gang rehabilitation officers or something...all hell will break loose when the kids get out of school.
The neighborhood was sh*t 5-7 years ago with gang activity, assaults, and robberies everywhere you turned, especially around 9th, Roebling, and Driggs areas. I see the gritty side of the Burg is taking back its own. No surprise here. No million dollar condos can change the mindset of hoodlums and thugs - which the Burg is famous for. I feel sorry for people who bought into the Williamsburg gentrification hype. Enjoy your million dollar living during the middle of the day - as long as you walk in groups - but stay in your million dollar prison the other 18 hours every day and make sure you keep the alarms set and doors locked.
If Filmore is such a problem, why not put a cop car on the corner in the evenings. Oh, right, b/c that would be too easy and make too much sense. And it would actually require cops to do something other than loaf.
Too bad New York opted out of the Constitution and outawed private ownership of guns!
Then again, the hipsters getting assaulted are just the ones to despise places like Texas, where a guy with a knife would wind up getting ventilated by his intended victim if not several bystanders...
If you are in Williamsburg on Friday nights, the volunteer-run Safe Walk will walk you to your destination on Friday nights from 11 pm to 2 am Saturday. You do not need to feel threatened to call for a Safe Walk, but why chance it?
Safe Walk is a program of RightRides for Women's Safety, is available for anyone (yeah, guys too!) and is also available in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, Fort Greene and Greenpoint. More information, including the dispatch number is here
The East River will stop him: you know how everybody in Williamsburg is into Stabbing Westward.
Jack the Hipster?
it's probably the hispanics that want the hipsters out of their hood, i mean these hipsters are totaling making brooklyn a bad place to live
I didn't know hipsters went to the gym.
10-- everybody will end up dead if anyone can legally carry a gun. If the cops did their jobs these things could be prevented. I see cops standing around Bedford and N7th in the middle of the day, then nowhere to be found in the wee hours when people actually need them.
Did it ever occur to you people that not just hipsters live in this neighborhood? and regardless of anyone's intention for moving here its obsurd that someone is attacked for being a hipster. They want money and they act without rationality. the end. If anyone was confused about how safe williamsburg is in comparison to other neighborhoods this crime spree is a good wake up call. Doesn't matter the level of gentrification, if a criminal wants to venture into your neighborhood they arent going to be so selective as to look for skinny jeans. Last time I checked being mugged sucks for everyone. try being a woman at night in this city. sure there are services offered but its an inconvenience that human beings cant respect women enough not to target them.
tavarua you're right. i live on s3rd too and as soon as the kids get out of school everything gets so much worse. i cant even count the number of times ive been called a faggot on my block, prob more so then when i was in high school. so what, now its only a matter of time till i get stabbed? wonderful.
also with two fu*king cops on every corner how is this sh*t still happening?
Probably a hedge fund manager or a Carrie Bradshaw wannabe -- they're notorious for backstabbing.
#16, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. You really believe that if everyone carried a gun that everyone would end up dead? Really? There are guns (and other, more powerful weapons) all over this planet, and yet there are 6 billion people still here. You should really think before making an inane statement like that.
Okay I get it a bunch of middle to upper class 'transplants' moved into your neighborhood and made the rents skyrocket and you feel they have taken away a neighborhood that belongs to you and yours. HOWEVER this does not give anyone the right to STAB or HARM the newcomers...come to think of it weren't you or your parents/grandparents new to this neighborhood at some point? Change is inevitable, but what we need to do is figure out a way to live in harmony. Sorry to sound like a hippie
If it's so freaking dangerous to commit violent crimes in Texas then why do big cities like Dallas and Houston have much higher crime rates than New York?
Eff gangs. I hope the hipsters drive them out.
LOLz! must b a middl sk00l g4ng if th3y pr3y 0n hipst3rz. r0fl! I gu3ss th3y will w0rk 0n up t0 t00ristz wh3n th3y g3t 0ld3r! H4ppy huntinzz!
The guy who got stabbed was a life long resident of the neighborhood, in his fifties, not a hipster.
Now he stabbed a woman in Queens
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6222094
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06232008/news/regionalnews/woman_critical_after_cycle_by_stabbing_116835.htm