From our email:
I have been living in Bed-Stuy for almost a year. I love it. Although I
have had some issues with noise and rowdy teens on my block, I have
felt very safe and proud to be a part of this community.
Last night [Sunday 6/22] was out of control.
I live on the corner of Throop and MacDonough and [...] the
madness started around midnight. Some guy was yelling and throwing
things, kicking cars, screaming, crying, fighting and that alone was
disturbing. From the scene it looked like there were candles in the
doorway and maybe someone had lost a life, so respecting the grieving
process (as disruptive as it may have been) I ignored it and tried to
sleep. By 3:30 there was a huge group of kids in the streets having a
garbage war. Throwing bottles in the streets and at cars, and throwing
garbage from the whole black across the intersection until 4am. [we] finally called the cops at 4am because there was glass all
over the streets and there was no sign of it ending. The cops never
showed. This morning there was a clean up crew all morning trying to
lean up the garbage all over the streets and luckily the rain washed
up much, but if you walk over you can see still some of the aftermath.My reason for this message is just to get some recommendations of who
to contact when things like this happen. My car was not outside, and I
was in no danger that I could tell, but someone really could have
gotten hurt.Advice?
What do other Bed-Stuy residents do in this sort of situation? I feel very fortunate that my block is very quiet and I haven’t seen anything like this since I moved here in 2005. There have been some big street parties but there has been no violence. Are the police really the best answer?
What do you think?
Call 311. Make a noise complaint. They’ll send cops over.
I would also call you precinct community rep.
I don’t get a police response when I call 311 about noise. I know some people who imbelish and say there are weapons or drugs involved to try to get a response, but that doesn’t seem to work either. Do others have the same issue with 311?
I always assumed 311 was who you would call to report an ongoing problem, usually a quality of life issue like garbage or repeated noise complaints. 311 logs each call and after a certain amount of complaints it has to be investigated. As for an immediate response, well I’m curious about that as well.
I also live on this block on MacDonough and this corner is always too loud. Everyone I talk to on the block is very sick of this building with loud teens. These kids need a summer JOB….
i was told by officers recently that the 79th precinct has only 2 or 3 patrol cars on duty at any given time to respond to 911 calls, due to budget cuts. i had called 911 when i thought that my house had been broken into (it had not) and the police showed up 2 1/2 hours later. they told me that all “non life threatening” calls were bumped down the list. the other officer then looked at me and said, “actually, we have 15-20 calls to respond to right now-we’ve gotta go. please call the mayor’s office and complain”.
the only way any neighborhood in nyc sees positive change and support is through pressure from the community-if you aren’t vocal, the mayor/police/community affairs people think that no one cares.
make the calls.
On a funny note-does anyone remember Flavor Flav’s song “911 is a joke”??!!
“Everyday they don’t never come correct
You can ask my man right here with a broken neck!
He’s a victim of a job never being done
He woulda been in full effect
if late 911 wasn’t a joke…”
I use to live in Park Slope near the police station ON 6 ave and Bergen and they had 10 cars park outside at any given time… Somethings seems so unfair
This sounds like an ongoing problem. You should have your block association contact the precinct community affairs as well as the Community Board.
That is a real problem with MacDonough Street between T&T is that the Block association president I hear lives in the building with that is producing the problem. This block association is not active at all. I think people tried in the past to clean this corner and have given up. The energy is very low.
More “GENTRIFICATION” will always solve this problem!