Sunday, November 7, 2010

Booze beat for the LES?


The Post has this "exclusive" item today:

Fed up with drunken antics on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood business association hopes to get off-duty cops to walk what would essentially be the city's first booze beat.

If approved by the NYPD, the moonlighting crime fighters -- in uniform -- would patrol the beer-soaked lanes between Houston and Delancey streets Thursday nights and on weekends.

They wouldn't be permitted to work inside or at the front doors of the many local gin mills, but they could lasso sidewalk lushes.

"We think having a cop on the beat . . . would really help nightlife establishments be quieter and safer," said Lower East Side Business Improvement District Executive Director Bob Zuckerman.


The Post also managed to speak to one person opposed to this idea.

And barflies voiced concern that the off-duty cops could become the fun police.

"This is a noisy city," music writer Nicole Wasilewicz, 25, said outside Pianos on Ludlow Street. "You come here to make some noise."


[Image via]

15 comments:

  1. I am all for this!

    And miss Nicole W can take her attitude right back to her NYU dorm-like universe and leave us residents in peace!

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  2. "This is a noisy city," music writer Nicole Wasilewicz, 25, said outside Pianos on Ludlow Street. "You come here to make some noise."
    it's assholes like this that cause the problems and are what we need to get rid of

    let her invite her friends to her neighborhood bars to "make some noise" and see how popular she'd be

    and what about above houston street
    and all the other neighborhoods that would cry for some sort of assistance

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  3. Good idea but unlikely to get funded. The city is in a financial crisis.

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  4. please! last night walking home I encountered 3 piles of vomit in the middle of the side walk! Also dog shit patrol officers would be amazing too! Think of all the money they would make by these lazy assholes that refuse to pick up their 5lbs of crap! I'm very hormonal right now!

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  5. funding is not an issue. this would be a pilot program of the LES BID--and only a nonprofit (which the BID is) is allowed to hire paid detail. There is not a BID in most of the East Village areas.

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  6. that quote is priceless. wow, nicole, you are so downtown and edgy! see you in five years in nj with a buncha kids!

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  7. Anon at 11AM, "I'm very hormonal right now!"

    LOL!!!

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  8. "It's not like anybody actually lives here," Ms. Wasilewicz continued. "All these buildings that look like apartments are just empty props, right?"

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  9. ...we think having a cop on the beat...


    NFK. Yes, having a cop on the beat would help. How about an NYPD cop, from the precinct, on the beat. Yesterday, I noticed two cops sitting in their unmarked car in TSP and then, of course, cops sitting in a regular patrol car on Ave. A. Um, getting out of the car and walking a beat would, yes, be one way to reduce the craziness on weekends.

    What would it take? Two cops? Four cops? Walking a regular beat, introducing themselves to bouncers and bartenders and bar owners and local business people. I'm sure there's a need for the undercovers who drive taxis and sit in cars but, come on, as far as I can tell, no cops in the neighborhood have a regular walking beat. It's not exactly a show of force, it's more a matter of good communication and getting to know what's what in the 'hood. Also, ahem, it's probably cheaper and more efficient than the way the EV and LES are policed now.

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  10. every so often the police brass discover street patrols help and they start new limited pilot programs - usually with recent graduates of the police academy - the "newbes" are usually not experienced enough and the program dies.
    too bad

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  11. Nicole, I would tell you are an idiot, but I think my fellow EV Grieve readers are doing a great job of that already.

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  12. "This is a noisy city," music writer Nicole Wasilewicz, 25, said outside Pianos on Ludlow Street. "You come here to make some noise."


    This type of logic has been posted posted before in other blogs as well. It is the mantra of the Rube, the Frats and Gossip girls that were spawed in rat malls from flyover states

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  13. funny, years ago i would've been opposed to cops patrolling the streets and controlling people. today? sounds like a great idea! and let Nicole be their first pinch.

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  14. LOL I know I cling to the scaffold backing on the false front that is my building and the others here some tethered some duct taped in for the night agree. The reason we are here is to provide a scenic backdrop to college kid debauchery.

    November 7, 2010 12:43 PM
    Blogger Richard Bensam said...

    "It's not like anybody actually lives here," Ms. Wasilewicz continued. "All these buildings that look like apartments are just empty props, right?"

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  15. ...years ago i would've been opposed to cops patrolling the streets and controlling people...

    It doesn't have to be done in a stupid, controlling, fashion. I'd much rather have public policing than undercover guys everywhere. Also, in my experience, beat cops tend to be more responsible--arresting people who are real hazards and handling people who aren't quite hazards but are clearly breaking the law in a more humane fashion by, say, taking them home or calling their parents or whatever.

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