WEST VILLAGE — Pairing the gay youths who hang out at Pier 45 with NYPD and Parks Enforcement Officers may seem like an unusual match, but it's one solution being considered by Greenwich Village residents concerned about an uptick in crime.
The area's community board hopes teaming them up will stamp down crime levels —often blamed on the youths — and foster understanding between the groups.
The proposal was greeted positively by some members and organizers in the LGBT youth organization FIERCE, which has been an outspoken critic of NYPD area patrols in the past.
"We do acknowledge that there's a problem of violence in the West Village," said FIERCE organizer John Blasco at Monday night’s Community Board 2 meeting at Housing Works' health center on 13th Street.
FIERCE Communications Director Ellen Vaz said she would need to get input from the group's full membership on whether they would want to join the enforcement officers on their patrols.
FIERCE organizers have a longer-term solution in the works — the creation of a community center on Pier 40 or elsewhere in the West Village, Vaz said. Pier 45 is located just north of Christopher Street along the Hudson River.
Arthur Schwartz, head of the community board's waterfront committee, said such a center is "totally possible" in the long term.
"It would take some pressure off Pier 45," he said.
Schwartz said Tuesday evening that he will set up a meeting with the 6th Precinct Community Council regarding the possibility of joint patrols of the area.
He said he will not present the idea to the full Community Board yet.
The shared patrols, suggested by CB2 member Alexander Meadows, were also welcomed by some of the young people present.
"When do we start this patrol?” said Tamara Green, 24, who said she was homeless and had been helped by many local service organizations. “We don’t have to wait.”
Compared to the same period last year, the pier has seen a lot more trouble in the past 90 days, said Hudson River Park Trust Executive Vice President Noreen Doyle, whose group oversees Pier 45.
"There does seem to be a trend toward more issues this year," she said.
In the 6th Precinct as a whole, reports of felony assault have risen nearly 27 percent in the past year, according to the NYPD's CompStat reports. Robbery and rape had also risen, though overall crime has fallen by more than six percent in the same period.
Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2011072 ... z2CPfeCGFd
The makings of a gay police state
The makings of a gay police state
I saw this article and was reminded of one of the more bizarre claims of the troll trio, that police sponsorship of youth sports teams were signs of a police state. I wonder what they would think of this:
"Hang on while I log in to the James Webb telescope to search the known universe for who the fuck asked you." -- James Fell
