From Concerts to Crime at McCarren Park

The music has stopped at McCarren Park Pool, the hipsters have moved on to other concrete pastures, and it looks like crooks have been taking advantage of the area. The Brooklyn Paper has two accounts of recent muggings, reporting that "a thug shoved a woman and stole her purse at around 2 am...he threw her to the ground and warned, 'If you don’t stop struggling I’m really gonna hurt you.'" That same day someone attacked a 63-year-old man, demanding, in Polish, “Give me money.” When the man refused he was left with a black eye, but the police now have that suspect in custody. Looks like we're going back to Vigilante times, kids, at least until 2011.

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By Jen Carlson in News on September 17, 2008 11:16 AM

Comments [rss]

BQE

@jaycjay: or, maybe you should realize there are a lot more people living in that neighborhood who are not well-off. And, one doesn't need to be a new move-in with a lot of money in order to afford a 200$ i-something.

wmsbrg has historically been a much more dangerous place that it currently is. it's getting safer each year, believe it or not.

soopaman

Where's the Hipster crime watch? Oh probably mixin Cd's on their Mac. and to busy to care about other people besides them selves and their Che t-shirt.

99centmenu

Expect more of this as the economy struggles to get back on its feet. It's gonna be a long ride.

jaycjay

Again, read through the reports. Sure, one reported victim was 63. Take some time to research what you think you're talking about and you'll see that he was an exception.

BQE

yeah, right, 63 year old guys are prime targets for iphones and ipods. dork.

jaycjay

There've been muggings and other assorted criminal activity in that park as long as I can remember -- just like in any other semi-isolated area in the city. This has nothing to do with the pool concerts ending; look through past editions of that Brooklyn Paper police blotter and you'll see it's nothing new.

On the other hand, I'm not surprised to learn that reports of such crimes in the 94 precinct have been going up. Start moving well-off people into closely clustered buildings and you create a target-rich environment, attracting those looking for easy money, iphones, and ipods from blocks around.