The parents of a 5-year-old girl are outraged over their daughter's homework assignment, which included spelling exercises for the words as "GUN" and "ROB." NY1 reports that the Flushing family is "demanding answers" after seeing their daughter's lesson when she came home from school today. "She showed me her homework, I look at it and I see the word gun on it. The first thing I thought was oh no no no, I don't want you reading it, I don't want you spelling it. I don't even want you looking at the picture. Trying to keep her away from from violence and she is being drawn to it in her homework, and that's not something I want her to learn," Lawrence Gillman told NY1. more ›

A man was stabbed and beaten over the head with a beer bottle at a Chelsea nightclub around 4 a.m. Saturday morning. According to DNAinfo, the incident occurred at The Shadow on West 28th Street, and the victim was transported to Bellevue with injuries that were not life-threatening. Authorities were called to the scene to control the crowd, but it's unclear what caused the altercation. more ›

Philadelphia police have released a video of Flyers fans beating up Rangers fans after Monday's Winter Classic outside of Geno's Steaks! One of the victims was Neal Auricchico, an off-duty NJ cop and former Marine, whose father said, "He got banged up pretty badly. "Stitches in the one eye, and the other eye is pretty puffed up. He went for a CAT scan today, and we're waiting for the results on that." more ›

A Queens teen was fatally shot in the head during a violent 24-hour period between Thanksgiving and Black Friday. According to police, 18-year-old Eric Norman was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in the driveway of a home on Beach Channel Drive in Far Rockaway around 10 p.m. Thursday. According to the Daily News, there were seven other shootings during that 24-hour period. more ›

Put. Down. The. Pepsi. That's what good old Science is telling teenagers to do, after a new study announced a "clear link" between drinking soda and acting violently. more ›

Tonight at 9 p.m. the Occupy Wall Street movement is sponsoring a Solidarity March with the protesters in Oakland, California, from Zuccotti Park down to City Hall. Last night, police in Oakland fired tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bangs and bean bag projectiles at OccupyOakland protesters at around 7:45 p.m. Despite authorities claiming [pdf] that there were no injuries to protesters, many photos and videos dispute that notion. According to the Guardian, 24-year-old protester Scott Olson is in critical condition with a fractured skull and brain swelling after being hit by a police projectile. Olson is a veteran of the Iraq War. more ›

Last month, we saw disturbing video of a disoriented man rolling around on the L train tracks after falling off the platform in Brooklyn. There was a lot of debate over the actions—or rather, the inactions—of the videographers. But besides the fact that they chose to upload the video of the man-in-distress online in the first place, the thing that most irked us was when they documented themselves laughing about that situation. In the (albeit not perfectly clear) video below, two witnesses cackle gleefully as a guitarist is jumped on a 1 train by a group of people, before being shoved out at Canal Street. more ›

Police now believe that the gunmen who shot and killed 18-year-old basketball standout Tayshana Murphy early Sunday morning in her Harlem housing complex intended to kill her because of a dispute with her brother. Originally, authorities believed that Murphy, who was shot in the head on the fourth floor of the Grant Houses around 4 a.m., was killed because she was wearing a sweatshirt that made her resemble another boy. Now, police are "looking into the possibility she was involved in an earlier assault," a source tells the Daily News. "It looks like they were aiming for her and the two people she was with." more ›

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Crown Heights riot, which erupted after a 7-year-old black boy, Gavin Cato, was killed by a Hasidic driver and, three hours later, a 29-year-old Australian Orthodox Jewish scholar, Yankel Rosenbaum, was fatally stabbed. A Long Island rabbi invited a number of figures to speak at a panel this weekend, but one invitee—the Reverend Al Sharpton—has various Jewish groups, as well as Rosenbaum's relatives, up in arms. more ›

Former NYPD Police Commission Bill Bratton, who was hired under Mayor Giuliani and is widely credited with stemming the city's reputation for crime through the broken-window theory and Compstat, has been appointed as an unpaid "consultant" to Scotland Yard. Bratton was personally chosen by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who told Parliament that the UK "should be looking beyond our shores to learn the lesson from others," with regard to the widespread rioting that has gripped London in recent days. "He thanked me for accepting the engagement," Bratton told the Daily News, "I thanked him for the opportunity." more ›

The five people arrested after Tuesday night's melee outside Tammany Hall (which sent five cops were to the hospital) appeared in court yesterday to blame the violence on police. "Everyone was leaving the club peacefully," said Luis Pena, who is charged with assault, riot, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Then the police "came, rushed the door and just started throwing people out." more ›

A high density of bars and nightclubs combined with manic out-of-town revelers and wary locals gives the Lower East Side an electricity all its own. It also provokes scenes like the one late last night at the intersection of Rivington and Orchard around midnight. Nightclub Tammany Hall was hosting an album release party for rap group Smif N Wessun. more ›

Not long after a man stabbed two men to death on the No. 2 train with a kitchen knife last year, the NYPD stepped up its enforcement of the city's illegal knife ban, and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance got Paragon and Home Depot to stop selling illegal switchblades. Former Pulino's chef Nate Appleman was caught up in the crackdown, as was artist John Copeland, who was arrested in October for allegedly carrying a gravity knife in a belt clip as he walked home in the East Village. Now Copeland has filed a lawsuit to block these kinds of arrests, and he's teamed up with the Arizona-based group Knife Rights. Their slogan: Sharper Future™. more ›

A Brooklyn man who had just received his masters degree was murdered in front of his childhood home in Bushwick early Sunday morning. 24-year-old Calvin Louis-Juste, who graduated from Cortland University last fall was "shot in the neck at close range around 1:45 a.m. as he walked from his family's Moffat Street house to meet up with friends," The Daily News reports. more ›

This month, we've already seen two prime examples of how NYers react to rats on their subway: with nonchalance, or utter panic. Now rat-video king NYC The Blog is offering a third, much more primitive and cruel response to the mix: stomping on the rat. The video, taken by Vasily Zinchenko, is a vintage one made in 2008 on a D train near Grand Street station in Manhattan (but just uploaded yesterday to YouTube). Zinchenko's friend who was on the train with him, Uladzimir Taukachou, told NYC the Blog: "I saw how rat jumped in the train,. People were seating with their legs on seats. They were afraid that rat could bite them. Kids were so exited. It was fun." But be warned: a man in white shoes goes the ungentlemanly route, and furiously steps on the rat, seemingly killing it. Regardless, this is just further proof that it's the rats' city now, and we're just renting space in it. more ›

A baby shower ended in bloodshed early Sunday morning after a fight broke out in the party room atop the Bethel United Zion Church in Prospect Heights. The scuffle soon spilled out onto the street and a little after midnight at least three shots were fired, striking three male partygoers. A 22-year-old was shot in the leg, a 19-year-old was shot in the leg and buttocks, and an 18-year-old was shot in the leg and arm. All three were taken to the hospital and are in stable condition. It remains unclear what caused the altercation and no arrests have been made yet. more ›

"This is the worst I've seen it, open these community centers, give these kids other things to do," said Charles Rogucki who lost his sister to gunfire in Coney Island. His sentiments were backed by a rally that took place in the neighborhood yesterday, drawing dozens who want to bring an end to the recent violence. Unfortunately, they had to step over crime tape to do so. more ›

Wanting to stop them before they turn "deadly," elected officials are giving a south Queens unit the go-ahead to crash house parties in the area. The unit was formed earlier this year, but because of multiple shootings during such parties recently, Assistant Chief James Secreto said, "we had to move it up in priority." Just last June, one person was killed and two were injured during a drive-by shooting outside of a house party in Jamaica. One Queens native said, "Having lived out here I know how important it is to curb these parties before they get out of hand." more ›

Just two nights after Queens saw three killings, three more are dead across Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Surveillance footage shows two men entering a Mobil gas station on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing at 1:39 a.m. this morning, shooting Pakistani immigrant Nadeem Khan in the chest, then leaving without taking anything. Police suspect Khan may have been involved in a dispute with local thugs, but those who knew him are in disbelief. The store's manager Balvinder Singh told the Daily News, "They just walked in and shot him." The paper released surveillance footage of the two killers: more ›

July weekends are turning out to be deadly periods for the city, as four people were murdered in the course of a few predawn hours on Sunday. Just after midnight, Nazario Bleu was shot in the torso near the Pelham Parkway Houses in the Bronx. A second man was shot as well, though he managed to reach a nearby building to call 911, and remains in stable condition. Bleu was declared dead at the scene. Unfortunately, this was just the first of the night's shootings. more ›

Just before 6 p.m. last night, an emotionally disturbed person stabbed four people during a frenzy of violence in the Meatpacking District. The man started at a sunglasses boutique, where he stabbed a manager, and then stabbed three people at an outdoor salsa event in the plaza, before being subdued by many cops and taken into custody. One witness told the Post, "The guy was crazy, he looked like he had rabies or something. He had a real wild look in his eye when he pulled out the knife." Another described to the Daily News, "This guy was throwing the cops off of him like The Hulk." more ›

The mysterious, black-clad troupe of troublemakers—who most recently smashed a tea shop window on Bedford Avenue—has spoken. Or rather, has emailed. The full press release is after the jump, and attempts to describe the method behind their madness. more ›

A 20-year-old man was arrested for shooting two women on West 34th Street early Monday morning during the Midtown "wilding" that began on Easter night. According to the Post, Rayvon Guice was "charged with assault and weapons possession. Guice, who has a tattoo on his neck that reads, 'God's Gift,' has eight prior arrests, including on weapons and drugs charges, police sources said." more ›

Dozens of people have been arrested after melees in Times Square and near Penn Station that left at least four people shot by guns or a BB gun. According to WABC 7, "The violence broke out after a yearly Easter Night ritual of a roving band of rowdy youths walking to Times Square after attending the auto show at the Javits Center." And a security guard in Times Square told the Post, "This kind of nonsense [on Easter night] has been going on for the five years I've been here." more ›

With his Kew Gardens office still closed after a white powder incident yesterday afternoon, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens) blasted Sarah Palin for sending out a Tweet that he says could be interpreted as a call for violence. The vocal health care reform supporter says the former Alaskan Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate shouldn't have sent out a message reading: "Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" more ›