Super Soaked at St. Marks and Grand

2cents

Hey all;
The exact same thing happened to me, same day, place, about a half-hour later. Cycling by the exact same corner, it was a slow-motion moment when I knew I was gonna get hit, couldn't stop or dodge.. (nnooooo...!) It was curious they were all yelling and partying on the corner like that.

Totally in shock for about a second, I thought about how to react- should I pull out the twelve-pound chain and start whipping insolent ass? Hey, there sure are a lot of them there... hey, I'm actually pretty comfortable now, considering the heat- I didn't fall, and nothing got damaged as far as I can tell.. I decided to keep going.

Upon arrival (couple blocks away) my friends told me it was SOP.. the 'Clinton Hill Welcoming Committee.' The fact that "it's only water" is also bullshit. It's an assault, end of story. The point that most of us weren't hurt with small to negligible amounts of property damage is also besides the point- as apollonia666's neighbor would attest- because we weren't all so lucky.

It's total bullshit that these kids get away with acting like a pack of dogs with thumbs. WhyFi is right. All the people involved should make separate complaints to the police department. Now that I know this is not an isolated incident, I'm calling them today (FYI: 77 Precinct 127 Utica Avenue 1-718-735-0611) to register a formal complaint- because the more people call it in, the easier it will be to (as KWaC said) determine this as harassment / assault and not just 'disorderly', and more likely something will be done- we don't know if one or a dozen others have already done the same.

I'm not saying "let's throw 20 kids in prison for pranks" but determining punishment and dispensing local justice isn't my job. Cops are just as happy to not get involved when they don't *have* to. Make them *have* to. No doubt neighbors haven't done or said anything out of fear of escalation, fear of antagonism or aggression- but I've got some news for you... the relationship is already antagonistic and aggressive. The question is what are YOU going to do about it?