push-in on Vanderbilt this afternoon

anonymous

A half-hour or so ago a man pushed in the door behind me as I entered my building. I promptly freaked and pushed him out as hard as I could, and he took off.

The police found him a few minutes later, but then they let him go (?) after taking his information. I'm about to call the precinct and find out what's up with this, but meanwhile, be on the alert as you enter your building. (I guess we should always be.) He was an African-American man, in his 30s-40s, missing most of his teeth, wearing an oversized maroon t-shirt and jeans. Very skinny. I had seen him a second before when he was sitting on the stoop of the building next door to mine.

jamesondean

Subject: Thank you.

Thanks, Alice, for alerting the board about this. I had my female roommate look so that she's aware as well. I hope you press charges if that's an option. I have zero tolerance for violence.

carnivore

Subject: Re: push-in on Vanderbilt this afternoon

alice wrote: A half-hour or so ago a man pushed in the door behind me as I entered my building. I promptly freaked and pushed him out as hard as I could, and he took off.

The police found him a few minutes later, but then they let him go (?) after taking his information. I'm about to call the precinct and find out what's up with this, but meanwhile, be on the alert as you enter your building. (I guess we should always be.) He was an African-American man, in his 30s-40s, missing most of his teeth, wearing an oversized maroon t-shirt and jeans. Very skinny. I had seen him a second before when he was sitting on the stoop of the building next door to mine.

That totally sucks. I hope they catch that guy.

anonymous

When I saw him before this happened, he was murmuring comments at all the women who walked by... I didn't even register him as a threat because he was being so conspicuous.

I don't get why the police would just let him go. I'm fairly unnerved by this, as he knows where I lived and he seemed, let us say, unhappy with me. [/i]

isa

What the hell? Why did they let him go? What street did it happen on?

anonymous

It was on Vanderbilt between Park and Sterling Place.

carnivore

Even if you weren't actually assaulted, isn't forced entry a crime? Did you tell the cops you want to press charges?

Any lawyers out there who can help explain this?

anonymous

I just called the 77th--the first officer I spoke to was puzzled over why they let him go; the 2nd one guessed they just gave him a summons for trespassing. Either way someone is supposed to call me back with the details, so I will let you know.

anonymous

This just happened to the author of finslippy:

http://finslippy.typepad.com/finslippy/

Someone needs to call the precinct and alert them to this. Best would be a call from the victims. Some phone numbers are posted here:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/phn077.html

emily

Freaky! I wonder if alice and finslippy live near each other? At least we all know what he looks like now.

ETA: I posted this to the main blog, because I think more people look at that, and it sounds like he'd be easy to identify and run away from if you saw him.

Edit again: Oh wait, isn't finslippy's name alice?! Hmmmm. Never mind.

candicissima

EmilyM wrote: Edit again: Oh wait, isn't finslippy's name alice?! Hmmmm. Never mind.

Yeah I think they are the same person. At least I know for sure that Finslippy lives in the nabe because my friend is one of her readers.

anonymous

Subject: "crazy" toothless guy

I live in the neighborhood and I work for a few agencies that deals with mentally ill homeless persons. If the police aren't doing anything, than I suggest that someone call LifeNet (1-800-543-3638) and get advice. The police should know about LifeNet, but some could use reminding so feel free to suggest it to them when you speak to them again. Outreach teams could be dispatched to get this guy into a shelter -- and perhaps into mental health treatment, if needed.

alice

Yep, I'm the same person. Sorry for the confusion!

One of my readers pointed out that the most they could charge him with is trespassing, which wouldn't be an arrestable offense. So I can see why they let him go, and now that I've calmed down, I can also see how he was so addled he probably isn't thinking clearly enough to have some sort of vendetta against me.

That said, the police could have taken five seconds to explain what was going on, and they didn't. My mother-in-law even walked up to their car to ask what was going on, and they wouldn't give her anything. They barely even got the story from me before they walked away--I didn't give them all the details as I assumed they would return.

alice

And also--no one ever called me back.

daveb

alice wrote: That said, the police could have taken five seconds to explain what was going on, and they didn't. My mother-in-law even walked up to their car to ask what was going on, and they wouldn't give her anything. They barely even got the story from me before they walked away--I didn't give them all the details as I assumed they would return.

Welcome to Prospect Heights...

captain m

I dont want to say anything critical of local PD, (ouch, my tounge) but if you would like help calling the precinct and/or writing letters of concern and or a lack of attentiveness let me know and I will help.

This is happening more often and its not right, it sucks cops get crappy pay and I would like to see them get more and would support any candidate who would do so (their pension system needs major reform though), but they work for us and low pay is not an excuse to do a shitty job.

alice

Captain M, I'd appreciate any advice on the specific dept. I should call to get more information and/or register my concern with the situation. Calling the main switchboard certainly got me nowhere. Should I contact community affairs?

anonymous

Yes, I would recommend calling community affairs and make sure to cc: the letter to your elected officals at all levels - City Council, Borough President, Assemblymember and State Senator. If something is also sent to electeds it usually gets a reply. Perhaps also cc the letter to the community board representative.

carnivore

DeeDee wrote: Yes, I would recommend calling community affairs and make sure to cc: the letter to your elected officals at all levels - City Council, Borough President, Assemblymember and State Senator. If something is also sent to electeds it usually gets a reply. Perhaps also cc the letter to the community board representative.

Don't forget Public Advocate.

captain m

alice wrote: Captain M, I'd appreciate any advice on the specific dept. I should call to get more information and/or register my concern with the situation. Calling the main switchboard certainly got me nowhere. Should I contact community affairs?

I'm not sure who to call, DeeDee and Canivore had good suggestions, what I am saying is that if you find someone that would respond to calls/letters, I would be happy to help you out. Post the info here and I'm sure a couple of neighbors will do the same.

stacey

Im so sorry to hear about your experience. I will definitely add my name to any letter you send. Maybe you can add that the police let him go for just tresspassing but who is to say that is what he was up to? Since he was making remarks to the women passing and he did follow a woman into her home this sounds more like the actions of a rapist/predator than a tresspasser - this may get the attention of some other Departments at the PD such as the sex crimes unit. Thanks again for posting this.

anonymous

Subject: Same guy?

Not sure if this is the same guy, but before I read this, I passed some guy standing on the corner of Union and 7th in a large red soccer jersey muttering obnoxious comments to women as they walked by. I paid him no notice.

alice

Not that there's any shortage of guys like this... but was he a really skinny guy? With short hair? Missing some front teeth?

I called the 77th again and spoke to someone in community affairs. Once again, he said he'd get the details and call me back, but he didn't. He kept saying the officers probably made a judgment call and determined he wasn't a threat. I stressed that I would have appreciated it if they had told me that themselves, maybe I could have responded to it...

daniel

Subject: Not too sure on the teeth

I didn't really take too close of a look at him, so I didn't see if he had teeth or not. I'd say he was in his late 20's or early 30's, was thin, about 5'8", was wearing blue jeans and some sort of soccer jersey. He was standing on the corner, and made some comment to the lady who was wlaking in front of me. I got home a few minutes later, and saw the post here about it, and I imemdiatly thought of the guy I had jsut seen. Like I said, no idea if it's the same guy or not.

I saw a disturbing sight a few weeks ago - I was walking along 6th Ave, approaching Garfield St. A young guy was walking towards me, a block or so away. He was walking somewhat fast, like he was in a hurry, and he was swinging his right arm in very short, fast strokes, while his other arm swang normally. I didn't really lookat him when he walked by, but as he passed be I noticed why his right arm was moving oddly - he was jerking off as he walked down the street, his penis was in plain view. I wasn't looking at the guy as I was walking, so I didn't notice until he was right next to me and I saw his hand mangling something out of the corner of my eye. Pretty nasty. I should have called the cops, but unfortunately did nothing.

medusa

alice wrote: Not that there's any shortage of guys like this... but was he a really skinny guy? With short hair? Missing some front teeth?

I called the 77th again and spoke to someone in community affairs. Once again, he said he'd get the details and call me back, but he didn't. He kept saying the officers probably made a judgment call and determined he wasn't a threat. I stressed that I would have appreciated it if they had told me that themselves, maybe I could have responded to it...

In case you haven't been doing this already, I suggest that you start keeping a log of calls made, time & date you called, who you called and their badge number. Even just asking for names and badge numbers may start getting you a little extra attention. But once you have a decent sized list of specific people who have failed to call you back you can forward a smoking letter to Tish James, Markowitz, Bloomberg, etc. And then you can work on media if you fail to get further responses.

alice

Daniel, this guy looked older than that. Probably it was someone else. That story about the guy on 6th ave. is disturbing indeed. Of course, I've seen jerking off in the subways enough times to practically expect it. But while walking? My goodness.

I told my mom about the push-in and she asked, "What did you do?" and I said, "Well, that's between the two of us but I'm finally in love, Mom!" She didn't think that was funny.

Medusa, I realized when I hung up today that I should have gotten a name. I haven't been as methodical with this as I should have been--I don't even have the names of the officers who showed up in the first place.

Also, thanks to everyone for offering to add their names to a letter, to make calls, etc.

alice

Well, I finally managed to get the report from Detective Raton in Community Affairs. And now I'm more upset than I was before.

Essentially he told me that the officers at the scene determined that the man in question was not a threat because he didn't have a weapon on him. So they did a "stop and frisk," found no weapon, and they let him go. No summons for trespassing. Why? I asked, and the response was that the police would have had to see him trespassing in order to charge him with trespassing. Does this make sense to anyone out there? So I said, "Don't most crimes occur when the police aren't around?" and the detective replied, "The officers determined that there was no crime," thus ignoring my point completely.

Why didn't the police return to talk with me to get more details than my initial five-second account? "They didn't get a chance." Oookay. So after sitting in their car for ten minutes, they didn't have a chance to return for 30 seconds and explain what was going on, much less get a detailed account.

I know this isn't the Crime of the Century, or anything, but it disturbs me greatly that they didn't get my full story before making their determination, and that Community Affairs could be so incredibly dismissive. I kept trying to engage this guy in a discussion of whether or not he felt appropriate action had been taking, and he just shut down completely. All he could do was repeat, "A stop and frisk report was issued." Period.

I just called Letitia James' office and supposedly someone is getting back to me.

medusa

Finally, some answers. Lame ones, but at least answers.

OK. I have to say that I suppose in the big picture, there's no great injustice done here. I wouldn't really want this guy arrested and held. That seems like it wouldn't do anyone any good. Maybe he could have been issued a summons, but what would that do? Maybe he already has a record and this event would be such a blip on it that the cops figured it wasn't worth the paperwork.


That being said they obviously should have communicated with you, the law-abiding (at least theoretically) citizen. Also (as my husband points out) if they had wanted to bust the guy they would have found a way to do it. That's why I wonder if they knew him and knew him to be a harmless drugged out loser. I'm not sure all of us feel so great about them (cops) deciding who's not a threat and who is.

Is the idea that because he didn't have a weapon, he couldn't do you any harm? No teeth, so he couldn't bite? Poor muscle tone, so he couldn't push you around? (I could go on...)

Really lame community relations, I'd say.

I'd mention to the Tish James people that you've been discussing the issue on a community bulletin board. That should rattle some pencils.

alice

It's also upsetting because everyone is quick to tell me how wrong I was not to tell the cops that he had been commenting on women, etc. shortly before he did this. And I'm already really pissed at myself over this, but jesus, I THOUGHT THE POLICE WERE COMING BACK. I'm an idiot! I admit it!

I guess I expected a summons. I know it wouldn't make a real difference, but being told he didn't even trespass really threw me. Because, um, yeah, he did.

stacey

Alice don't beat yourself up over this. Being a victim of a crime no matter how small is terrible. Most people don't know what to say when they call the police because most of them seem to talk down to us. Let me know if I can help in any way

anonymous

A couple of years ago I witnessed a very unusual and forceful public-masturbation incident that squicked me out completely. I called the police, reported it, described the guy extremely accurately, gave them his exact location, and I was very pleased when I saw from my window as they pulled up into the park in their police car and started talking to him. The police had my number, and I made clear on the phone that I was completely available to them.

I was considerably less pleased when, 90 seconds later, they hopped in their car and drove away.

I talked to a couple of officers on the street about it the next day, and they let me know the magic words: "I want to make a complaint." "I want to press charges." Often, if the victim of a "minor" crime doesn't say this, the police feel just fine about letting the perpetrator walk away.