[A reported OD in the Park earlier this summer via Derek Berg]
The Post reports that the NYPD yesterday sent officers into Tompkins Square Park "to deal with junkies openly shooting up heroin." (The Post headline: 'Crusties' shooting up heroin in Tompkins Square Park finally get the boot.)
The action was apparently taken after an unnamed nearby business owner called 311 to complain. The Post reports that this 311 call was later returned by someone in Internal Affairs.
We'll let the Post tell the story:
The business owner said his partner recently asked a cop on patrol why nothing was being done to stem the scourge and was told: “Well, if we don’t catch them doing it red-handed, we can’t search them for drugs.”
The business owner, who asked not to be identified by name, got fed up and called 311, and received a call back the next day from a stunned Internal Affairs Bureau cop.
“He was flabbergasted,” recalled the source, who said the investigator called the situation “inexcusable” and vowed to “get to the bottom of it.”
And...
“It’s well known they have issues in the park at times, and they deal with it on an ongoing basis,” the spokesman said, adding that cops have made 63 drug-related busts there so far this year.
This was the fifth consecutive year that the rate of deaths from heroin-involved overdoses increased throughout New York City, according to Department of Health statistics.
Meanwhile, the 9th Precinct tweeted this from yesterday...
Our #NYPD Conditions Team spending the day in Tompkins Square Pk talking to visitors & listening to concerns pic.twitter.com/DAcNOFaVhI
— NYPD 9th Precinct (@NYPD9Pct) August 16, 2016
Media reports about an influx of homeless people and drug users in Tompkins Square Park last July prompted the arrival of an NYPD patrol tower.