Trend alert: The bad old days are here again!

Yesterday, we learned that maybe we won't want to watch realistic fare such as "Life on Marzzzzzzzz" since we'll all be out in the streets shooting each other and who needs TV when there's reality right out the window. Or something sort of like that. Today, the Post has a piece titled:

'SCARED TO COME TO NY'
LIKE BAD OLD DAYS OF PETTY CRIME

It feels like a flashback to the 1980s on city streets -- an era no one's nostalgic for.

Overstretched cops are struggling to combat petty crime, according to police sources -- resulting in an easing of enforcement that's taking Manhattan down fast, angry New Yorkers told The Post.

"People tell me they're scared to come here," said Greg Agnew, owner of the East Bay Diner on First Avenue at 29th Street. "Guys are hanging out in the street, doing things they're not supposed to be doing, loitering. They cause fights. They urinate on the floor, There's drug use."

How about the East Village?

In Alphabet City, residents are seeing signs of decay.

"You're seeing empty drink bottles in the street, you're catching people urinating. They're 'tagging up' [spray-painting graffiti]," said Anibal Pabon, 44, an office clerk. "All that stuff is coming back."

(Hmm...public urination: future trends piece!) I don't mean to make light of any of this...I've noticed a difference...The cynicism comes from how the media are portraying all this...Building an entire crime-trends article around the quote from one NYU student, for instance. So we're right back to the bad old days of the 1980s? (Or, in he case of the Times yesterday, the 1970s?) Things are just GETTING REALLY BAD HERE right?

Meanwhile, on the page opposite this scary crime story in the Post, there's an article titled Crime Dips on Subway.

Subway crime dropped by 3 percent in 2008 -- marking a third straight year in which the good guys gained on the underground goons.

Robberies went from 796 in 2007 to 823 and rapes from one to three, but murders, assaults and grand larcenies all declined, according to NYPD statistics.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Noted
Returning to the scene of the crime

Are bag snatchers getting more brazen or are people getting dumber? YOU decide

From the Police Blotter in this week's issue of The Villager:

A woman who put her bag on the corner of the bar at Anchor Bar, 310 Spring St. at Renwick St., during the early hours of Fri., Jan. 2, discovered it was gone when she was ready to leave at 3:30 a.m.

A man who stopped off at Vosges Chocolate, 132 Spring St. between Greene and Wooster Sts., around 4:30 p.m. Sun., Jan. 4, fell asleep at his table and woke to find the backpack that he had placed at his feet was gone.

A woman patron of Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., told police that her wallet and cell phone were stolen between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. Fri., Jan. 9, while she was on the dance floor. Another woman at Le Poisson Rouge checked her belongings right after the first theft was reported, and discovered that her wallet with an iPod and personal property had been taken from her bag, which she had placed on her table.

Returning to the scene of the crime

Walking on St. Mark's last night around 7:30, I noticed the usual number of cops making the rounds, eyeballing the crowd, keeping the peace, etc. Not very noteworthy. However. I'm still thinking about the stupid piece from the Post yesterday:

JUST LIKE OL' CRIMES
NYPD'S LETUP STIRS FEARS OF '80S FLASHBACK

There are so many problems with this article. In the "Alphabet City" section alone. The piece begins "Residents and business owners fear..." So what residents do they speak with? A 21-year-old NYU student. That's it. Maybe find someone who has lived here a little longer and likely doesn't move away during the summer? And while Mitch is a very credible source at St. Mark's Comics, he's the only EV business owner the Post talked with. So let's not get into this plural stuff guys. (And there's one quote attributed to him -- I'd be interested in hearing what else he said to the reporter.) Worse, is the imagery that somehow being homeless is the same thing as being a criminal.



And hey -- nothing against poor Carolyn here. Not really her fault a reporter made a poor judgement in selecting a source and asking a speculative question . . . for an article on the NYPD relaxing its enforcement of petty "quality of life" infractions that may turn the city back into a set for Death Wish. She wasn't even born yet.

Anyway. Thank you to everyone who commented on the previous post.

Noted

From The New York Post today:

If the NYPD relaxes its enforcement of petty "quality of life" infractions, it could be a turning point back to the days when murders, muggings and mayhem plagued the city, says a law-enforcement expert who played a key role in developing the crime-busting policy.

"You might be pointing to a tipping point," said George Kelling, who helped formulate the "broken windows" approach to policing that was the model for Mayor Rudy Giuliani's successful zero-tolerance policy.

"It's too early to tell . . . but the consequence might be more street crime."

By the way, what does a sleeping homeless man have to do with "murders, muggings and mayhem"?

Daily News crime video almost bad enough to make local TV news

The Daily News has this exciting crime story! (Via Gothamist)

A shoplifter with a taste for designer threads was nabbed by police after he and his buddies tried swiping a pricey jacket at a Lower East Side clothing boutique.
Police arrested Christopher Foster, 22, after he and a group of friends tried stealing jackets from Unis, a trendy clothier on Elizabeth Street.
Although his buddies successfully fled the store, police nabbed Foster around 5 p.m. on the Bowery near Rivington Street, where a Daily News videographer taped the arrest.

Nominee for the worst video ever...? How harrowing! (Love how the store owner/manager/victim taunts the perps!)

Welcome to our pretty bank branch

We've written before about the increase in bank robberies in NYC this year. Fancy bank branches abound on seemingly every corner of some East Village streets. It's so convenient! On the topic of the increase in bank robberies, the Times makes this observation today:

A look at the data shows that bank robbers seem to prefer some of the inviting environments of the newer banks on the city scene. Sovereign, Wachovia and Commerce — with plants arrayed on marble floors, jars of lollipops set on low-slung counters and no bullet-resistant barriers between tellers and customers — have some the highest ratios of robberies to branches.

I wonder when bank officials will realize these sparkly new branches are in the middle of an enormous metropolitan area, and not in Pleasantville USA...

Crime stat of the day: Bank robberies up 57 percent in NYC this year

"There are a lot more desperate people," a law-enforcement source told the Post. There have been 263 bank heists in the Big Apple this year, compared with 168 in the same period last year, sources said. That's an increase of 56.5 percent. Perhaps it's more tempting -- or convenient? -- to rob a bank these days since there are bank branches on nearly every corner.