In a disturbing – but, alas, unsurprising – report in the Times of February 6th, William K. Rashbaum reports that NYPD precincts, in order to revise downwards the value of items reported stolen (making, for instance, a grand larceny – a felony – into a petit or “petty” larceny – a misdemeanor) have resorted to on-line shopping:
More than a hundred retired New York Police Department captains and higher-ranking officers said in a survey that the intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics, according to two criminologists studying the department.
The retired members of the force reported that they were aware over the years of instances of “ethically inappropriate” changes to complaints of crimes in the seven categories measured by the department’s signature CompStat program, according to a summary of the results of the survey and interviews with the researchers who conducted it.
The totals for those seven so-called major index crimes are provided to the F.B.I., whose reports on crime trends have been used by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to favorably compare New York to other cities and to portray it as a profoundly safer place, an assessment that the summary does not contradict.
In interviews with the criminologists, other retired senior officers cited examples of what the researchers believe was a periodic practice among some precinct commanders and supervisors: checking eBay, other Web sites, catalogs or other sources to find prices for items that had been reported stolen that were lower than the value provided by the crime victim. They would then use the lower values to reduce reported grand larcenies — felony thefts valued at more than $1,000, which are recorded as index crimes under CompStat — to misdemeanors, which are not, the researchers said.
Others also said that precinct commanders or aides they dispatched sometimes went to crime scenes to persuade victims not to file complaints or to urge them to change their accounts in ways that could result in the downgrading of offenses to lesser crimes, the researchers said.
Added to an institutional culture which specifically rewards certain behaviors (arrests made towards the end of a shift, or on days which will require court appearances on scheduled days off tend to generate more overtime payments than other arrests) – it’s not a good recipe for effective law enforcement.
Chunky, missing as of last night from 226 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn – or more precisely, the back yards on the block bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and Carroll and President Streets. Kathryn Drummer, with whom he normally resides, is very eager to have him back. Please report finding or sighting to her at kadrummer at gmail dot com – or by telephone on (917) 364-6752 (mobile) or on (718) 636-8976.
Emergency personnel are on the scene of an unstable antenna near Church Avenue and East 10th Street in Brooklyn. Church Avenue is closed to traffic between East 10th Street and Stratford Road.
We’ve gotten reports of regular interference with wireless devices (portable phones, Wi-Fi, etc.). They’ve tended to be in fairly close proximity to the antenna mast, which is operated for the car service in the same building. Has anyone else nearby experienced what may be RF (Radio Frequency) interference? If so – the best time to ask for the antennae to be repaired/recalibrated may be now, while the tower is being fixed.
Kevin Rosenberg’s new venture, Gear to Go Outfitters, offers high-quality outdoor gear (clothing for men, women and children; – for sale or rental. And if you’re local – free delivery:
That’s not all – they’ve also got experienced people leading guided trips – and if that weren’t enough – they’ve got a reputation for food “gourmet backcountry meals” on the trail that you’d want to eat even without the preceding and intervening hikes.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is “It’s a Wonderful 10th.” this year, as Rich Timperio, drag racer become art impresario, celebrates the tenth anniversary of his New Year’s Extravaganza at Sideshow Gallery, the spiritual nexus of the New York City art world. It’s a multi-media show of hundreds of artists, living and dead, veterans and rookies, warriors and adepts, but all hard hitters with great aim and the lightest touch. Timperio chooses the artists based on the seriousness of the endeavor, not on any fixed approach. He asks each one to bring a work that characterizes a unique vision, then orchestrates the whole into a singing symphony. Ken Butler’s musical instruments as works of art and the birds that evolve into cutouts flying free of the paintings of the ex-war correspondent Henrietta Mantooth might stand as emblems for the whole, uncaged, but beautifully composed production. The visual music and spirit of camaraderie among artists and art lovers gathering to celebrate the birth of a year that art does make new will sweep you up the instant you pass through the doorway in the graffiti covered wall.
Here’s our list of the Best of the City 2009: Hardware Stores and Appliances. Not all of have websites – so they’re linked when available, but that’s not a sign of anything. These establishments were selected on the basis of repeated dealings with them, the criteria being honesty, reliability expertise and pricing – not necessarily on the selection of goods, which varies by neighborhood and market. We’ve excluded large chains because the quality of service varies radically, and apparently randomly, depending on which employee you encounter.
Weinstein and Holtzman
Weinstein & Holtzman is the apparently tiny storefront hidden, at 29 Park Row, in the middle of all of the various storefronts of J&R Music World.
We’ve been customers of Brooke’s Appliances for years. Open Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays, for anyone having trouble working that through), they don’t sell anything they wouldn’t recommend, and we’ve been happy with everything we’ve bought from them. Big companies and big distributors tend to discriminate against small neighborhood retailers – so their stock doesn’t include every brand. But everything they do sell is reliable. They’re located at 387 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215, tel. (718) 832-0055. Charlie Lucchese, one of the twins who run the store, tells me that they currently have Sodastream seltzer-water-makers on sale – just in time for New Year’s Eve.
From The Daily News, Thugs slay Brooklyn social worker Douglas Smith in fight over exercise equipment:
A Brooklyn social worker described as “the picture of health” was slain at his neighborhood gym in a feud over exercise equipment.
Douglas Smith, 50, was knifed and clobbered with a hammer by a pair of muscleheads who attacked him as [...]
Twice in the last two months, Mike’s Tech Shop has brought back to life comatose or apparently dead Macs for our household and for our dear friend and neighbor, the film editor David Lee.
My wife’s Mac – written off as dead by another well-known and reputable (and usually pretty good) Apple repair place – [...]
Not local, but he’s from Cleveland Heights, which is a neighborhood like ours, except it’s in Ohio.This is a working LEGO brick, with a removable threaded eye hook for the keychain.
Bram Lambrecht’s LEGO keychain – and some other cool stuff – can be seen at BLDesign.org
I wrote this letter to Mayor Bloomberg on August 12th. As of this writing (October 19, 2009) there’s been no response.
August 12, 2009
Hon. Michael Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
A child living on my block, the block of Stratford Road, Brooklyn between Caton and Church Avenues – lost his leg earlier this year when [...]
As public radio goes through its intermittent hat-in-hand cycle, we thought it worth remembering that in some places possession of a radio device – even just a receiver – is criminal.
Please consider donating to your local public radio station. Ours is WNYC.
It’s hard to write headlines without fawning. But here’s a blog written by and about a very cool couple in San Francisco – Lifetinker. Thoughtful, funny, out-of- the-box posts; from which I’ve tentatively concocted the following hypotheses:
We’ve already determined that we need high-speed rail and pneumatic tube package and mail delivery across the country, and [...]
For those unfamiliar with Manhattan geography, Manhattan is much longer on its roughly North-South axis than it is on its East-West axis, although the island is narrower at its southern edge. (And it turns out to be harder to quickly locate a map showing the entire island than one would think).
The current (and possibly next, [...]
The Disaster Accountability Project needs your votes – which in this case means just following the link below and then adding a comment (any comment will do – and if you’re so inclined, you can use the mark #poplog so we can see how many Popular Logistics readers participated).Here’s the rest of the information you [...]
Local Deanna Zandt is conducting some research for her upcoming book, Share This!:
For Share This!, I’m trying to cover and answer some of the most common hesitant feelings when it comes to people getting fully on board with the social networking movement. If you’re not active already, what are the questions you need answered, or [...]
Greg Clary of LoHud.com (Lower Hudson News) reports that
More than 10 percent of the 172 emergency sirens within 10 miles of Indian Point failed to work properly during a quarterly test of the alert system?this morning, according to emergency and plant officials.
A spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, which owns and runs Indian Point, said it appears [...]
Tom Robbins of the Village Voice reports in Back to School for Bus Hoods that
a pair of brothers who served as top officials of the union representing city school bus drivers pleaded guilty today to extortion charges in Manhattan federal court.Nick and Paul Maddalone became, respectively, the fourth and fifth high-ranking [...]
An acceptable number of child-vehicle accidents? The answer is – however many there are, in our community, that number, certainly, is acceptable. Not that it should be acceptable – but, collectively, we acquiesce by not protesting. I don’t exclude myself. I’ve made paltry efforts to remedy the situation, at least as of this writing.
City Council [...]
Songs of Peace, Love, and Global Warming. The debut album from our friend, XB Cold Fingers - available on CDBaby.com and coming soon to iTunes and Amazon.
Don’t ever say that some of the female members of Brooklyn’s city council delegation are soft: they aren’t. There was a raucous public hearing last Wednesday evening at the Brooklyn Museum (near Grand Army Plaza), that was aimed at getting the general view on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposed service cuts in the next fiscal year; at this e […]
I should really make this title: “OF DREAMS AND DRIVES AND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT”, since it highlights the importance of parental involvement in young children’s lives. This column deals with two black female attorneys and their two kids; and in both instances these kids were raised in single-parent households. Too often these types of situations are frowned […]
I guess it was just too much for me to hope that the quality of black and Hispanic electeds will get better in a post-Obama USA. After all, there was really nothing to base that on. And after years of frustration with the quality emerging from New York, I guess I was just grasping at straws, in hope that we could elect people, who are not only intellectually […]
Miniposts 0.6.5
NYPD purchases 40 hybrid vehicles Via Inhabitat: the NYPD has purchased 40 Nissan Hybrids – 22 to be used unmarked, 18 as marked blue-and-white “RMPs” (internal terminology for “Radio Motor Patrol [vehicles]). If it takes – it’ll be significant – but we don’t have the numbers at hand. Cross-posted on Popular Logistics. (0)
ToePrint Project: Energy Conservation Teach-In The ToePrint Project is conducting an Energy Conservation Teach-in on June 17th. Details here:An Energy Conservation Teach-In. The noted architect and Toeprint founder Ellen Honigstock and environmental educator Sarah Goodman – founders of Sustainable Kensington/Windsor Terrace have arranged the event, which will be held at Oak and the Iris Café, located at 2826 Fort Hamilton Parkway on the corner of East 4th Street on Wednesday, June 17th from 6:30-8:30PM (0)
Energy Efficiency and Affordability Where We Live! All I can talk about lately is that 95% (or so) of buildings that will be standing in NYC in 2030 are already built! That and the fact that 86% of NYC's energy use comes from those buildings. What this tells me that reducing energy consumption in our ... […]
President Obama announced the details of the Homestar Program today. Rebates would be sent directly to Homeowners. There are 2 categories for rebates: Silver Star and Gold Star. Silver Star rebates would reimburse 50% up to $1,500 to make simple efficiency upgrades such as insulation, duct sealing, water heaters, HVAC units, windows, roofing ... […]
Join Parents for Climate Protection and Beth Elohim Environmental Committee for our 4th Annual Family Gathering (free and open to the public) in support of climate protection. We have planned exciting activities for children, teens and grown-ups. For young children: Tiffany Threadgould of RePlayGround will show kids how to turn ... […]
If you have always wanted to see the movie The Greening of Southie, now's your chance. I'm moderating a post-movie discussion on March 5th at the Park Slope United Methodist Church - 6th Ave and 8th Street at 8pm. Come for the potluck dinner beforehand at 7! I haven't seen ... […]
We're participating an a public art project called Seeding the City. The project aims to install tiny green roof modules (about 4 square feet each) on a large number of city roofs and mark them with flags so they can be visually linked to one another. These links come from neighbor ... […]
An article in The Brooklyn Paper has more in depth information about the actual process involved with being allowed to bring your bike up to your office. […]
This week is green buildings policy week at the Toeprint Project! Yesterday, the City Council passed the Greener Greater Buildings Plan including 4 new laws requiring Energy Audits and Retrocommissioning for buildings over 50,000 SF, Benchmarking, the creation of a NYC Energy Code and new requirement about lighting upgrades and submetering. More ... […]
Check out the latest version of Green Queen! Click here for a .pdf format. Details are: October 14th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm One Jackson Square 122 Greenwich Avenue, NYC $10 at the door to cover costs. Thanks to our sponsor, Susan Singer, SVP, The Corcoran Group, NYC's first Eco-Broker. www.susansingerspaces.com. Green Queen - Chapter ... […]
Want to make your home more environmentally responsible? Come to a Teach-In on October 14th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at One Jackson Square (122 Greenwich Avenue, NYC) about sustainable strategies you can implement in your home. Our goal is to have New York City be a model in sustainability as well ... […]
On Monday, September 21st at 3:30 Ellen is giving a talk with Matt Bendix, PE entitled "Energy Code Design for Residential Buildings". The event will be hosted by HOK Architects at 620 Avenue of the Americas #6, NYC. This session is part of the NYC Department of Buildings - Hosted Seminars in ... […]
Sports Medicine at Chelsea
Voice: 212-366-5100
Fax: 212-366-6275
Sports Medicine at Chelsea
22 West 21st Street Suite 400
New York, NY 10010
(Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues)
616 E18th Street, a co-op, reports: Verizon Fios Installation Has Begun Verizon Fios installed some conduit from a man-hole at Foster and East 18th under the street and our sidewalk to the south side of our building. While this is the first step to have fiber-optic cable directly into our ... […]
From PS139: The PS 139 Chess Ninjas will take on all challengers this Saturday, March 13 at Barnes & Noble on 7th Ave from 11 am to 1 pm and from 2 to 4 pm. Come by to support the team. You can also watch the PS 139 Chess ... […]
Holy Innocents, the beautiful Roman Catholic church on Beverley between E17th and E18th has plans for converting the large lot they own diagonally across the street on E17th (their "glorified parking lot" mid-block between Beverley and Cortelyou) into a community center, reports Courier Life: Judith Tolbert, an organizer for Brooklyn Congregations […]