Free NY Parking Thanks to Meter Beaters
After record numbers of scheming motorists beat, jammed and otherwise vandalized NYC parking meters last year, the number of operational meters is at an all-time low. Officials say some drivers are mad about increased parking fees, and take it out on the meters. Others jam things (not money) in the slots in order to take advantage of a new law that says cars parked at broken meters won’t be ticketed for as long as the time-limit allows. According to the NY Post, 83.9 percent of the 55,000 on-street meters were working from July 1 to Oct. 31, 2009. Why not just turn them all into into bike racks!
Bouncers Accused of Beating Gay Man for Dancing with Man
Tarlach MacNiallais is a gay activist from Belfast who helps run the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, which fights for homosexual inclusion in NYC's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, he says two security guards at the Jackson Heights nightclub/restaurant Guadalajara De Noche assaulted him because he was dancing with a man. A police source tells the Post, "[The bouncer] said, 'You can't do that here, this is not a gay bar.' " MacNiallais replied, "I have just as much right as anyone else." Then they allegedly wrestled him to the ground and dragged him away from the other dancers, before punching him, kicking him, and smashing a chair over his head.
Evidence Malfunction In Bronx Man Vs. Janet Jackson Case
Since Michael Jackson coverage officially died on Sunday (R.I.P.), it's time for Janet to get some headlines. The Daily News reports that a Manhattan judge has finally ruled on a 2005 case involving a Bronx man who claimed to have been beaten by the singer's bodyguards at Marquee. The man, Leonard Salati, was attempting to give Jackson his phone number in February 2004 at the Chelsea hotspot, and that's when the alleged beating occurred. He promptly sued Jackson for $120 million and, in 2007, a judge had allowed the case to go forward and said Jackson had to give a deposition. Recently, a new judge told the man to "Beat It" (sorry) due to a lack of evidence. Now that his case has been dismissed, there's no word on if he'll attempt to sue the security company involved... but we're guessing Janet never called.
Two Men Arrested in Assault on Transgender Queens Female
Two men have been arraigned on charges of assault as a hate crime after an alleged rock-throwing attack on a transgender female in Queens on Wednesday night. Carmella Etienne, 22, says she walking by the corner of 116th Avenue and 199th Street in St. Albans when two men shouted anti-gay slurs and threatened to cut her throat. (NY1 reports they even threatened to sodomize her with a baseball bat.) After promising to call the police, the two suspects allegedly said, "The police don't care about you, they won't do anything to us." Rocks and a bottle were thrown, and Etienne sustained a deep cut to her leg.
Man Beaten When Mom's Cries Of Ecstasy Were Misunderstood
Sometimes when a man and a woman love each other very much, they become physically intimate and express their passion vocally. And sometimes children can mistake mommy's cries of pleasure for howling anguish, and rush to her aide. Such was the awkward and violent scenario that erupted on June 6th when a 16-year-old Connecticut girl heard screams coming from her mother's bedroom and thought she was being murdered. So she called her friends, who burst into the bedroom and beat 25-year-old Roger Swanson with their fists and a bat. (He was hospitalized with a black eye and several bruises.) The girl's mother, Melanie Arnold, 34, denies screaming and says her daughter only heard a slap, but police Lt. Bruce Whiteley insists it was the amorous crying that alarmed the girl, who was arrested Tuesday night along with her three friends. Swanson says the teens never gave him a chance to explain, and tells AP, "What if they fight someone else and those guys don't walk away? What if they kill somebody? Then they're going to spend the rest of their lives in jail. These kids need to learn." Yeah, they need to learn a lot of things. Kids grow up so slow these days!
Two Arrested in Violent Greenwich Village Muggings
Police say they've arrested two men in connection with a recent crime spree in the West Village, which left one woman with a broken jaw and other residents of the quaint neighborhood feeling terrorized. An NYPD source tells the Post that Adam Temple, 21, of Hampton Place in Brooklyn, and Anthony Lindsay, 30, of Park Place in Brooklyn, were arrested late last night. The two are suspected of perpetrating violent muggings which targeted mostly white women; in each incident the victim was approached from behind by two males, hit and then mugged. Last week City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sent an email to residents warning them to remain alert and to beware of "strangers asking for directions."
Assaults, Muggings On the Rise West Village
Maybe not anymore; the unidentified victim says that when she noticed her two assailants walking toward her down the block, even "from a distance, I felt like they didn't belong. I had a strange feeling." She believes one of the men had a gun. "They pushed me to the ground... I crumbled pretty easily because I thought it was a gun... I started screaming, 'I don't know what you want. I'll give you whatever you want. They continued to punch me.'" Thankfully, she was able to get her hands on her mace and sprayed the thugs in the face. They made off with her earrings, and she got taken to St. Vincent's with a broken jaw.
Safety Agents at Queens School Accused of Assault
The second incident allegedly occurred in July, while Rohan was attending summer school. The teen says safety agents injured his knee and middle finger, then took him to a psychiatric hospital! The school’s safety agents are members of the NYPD but are not armed; in a statement, a police spokesman says that Rohan "became irate and pushed and struck the agent. The student was restrained and subsequently removed to Long Island Jewish Hospital for psychiatric evaluation." Rohan's lawyer has filed a notice of claim stemming from the incidents, and a Department of Education rep says, "We are looking into this. We take all these types of situations seriously."
After Obama Win, Black Muslim Teen Beaten With Bat on Staten Island
17-year-old Ali Kamara, a black Muslim, was walking home on Staten Island Tuesday night after it was announced that Barack Obama was elected president when he was brutally assaulted by four white men. Kamara tells the Daily News: "I see the car coming. They looked at me and said, 'Obama!' They were not happy. They had hoodies on. They started hitting me with bats and my body started vibrating." Luckily, Kamara was able to break away and hide until the thugs left; his mother, who moved with Ali to Staten Island from Liberia in 2000, showed the News a bloody towel she used to staunch his wounds. An NYPD spokesman says the department's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident as a bias crime. And Kamara says he heard his assailants scream the word "Obama!" but not any other racial or religious slurs, so it could be the bullies just mistook Kamara for the new President-Elect.

