do you feel safe in Clinton Hill?

Very interesting.

i happened upon this thread and wanted to comment because my friend was just mugged (he is 6'5" and built) about 2 weeks ago walking from the train in clinton hill. i will find out which because i don't want to give false information. a group of guys came up to him, hit him a few times, my friend ran back into the subway station...came out another entrance and the guys followed him, knocked him to the ground, hit him a few more times and took his money.

i don't live in clinton hill, but live in a neighboring hood so i won't make too many judgements but i do think that the previous posters who make it seem as though clinton hill is very safe should pay attention a little more. i've heard a couple other incidends my friend has mentioned in the last year or so he's been living there.

i also think people like not to talk about crime in such areas as a rapidly gentrifying clinton hill because it will negatively affect their property values.

Sorry... "here" is Clinton Hill. And I'm defending the truth more than anything.

I am a white woman moving into Bed Stuy next week.

Brooklyn Boi and Fly In BedStuy's comments remind me of an ongoing conversation I have with a few of the guys I work with (they are black men, manual laborers who live mainly in Astoria houses). These men fear the cops a great deal, and will do *anything* to avoid trouble, even though they are totally law-abiding citizens (to my knowledge, they are much more upstanding than I am). The stories they tell about their run-ins with police, the way they are treated by police, and the lengths to which they will go to avoid the police are both astounding and heartbreaking.

Even if some of it is just about their fear and not about objective reality, their perception of what the police will do to them is totally real to them and it absolutely informs their behavior, so that fear impacts us all, really. And I will say without a doubt that they have been harassed by authority over a thousand things that I would never, ever think about. One of them is very careful with his children and will never buy them a bicycle even though they want one, because he doesn't want to get questioned about child abuse or get his kids taken away from him. WTF? Another has a great/terrible story about witnessing a guy getting mugged, being a good samaritan and calling the cops and seeing that this guy was OK, and then getting fingered for the mugging.

Serious!

I guess my point is that if white people and black people are going to live together well, it has to be okay to talk about this kind of fear and what it means to the people who live under it. What they go through totally sucks, and while I think (especially after talking to some black friends who did not grow up in the projects or run drugs as teenagers or spend any time in jail about this issue) that much of their fear is self-imposed, some of it is obviously not.

I think about that story about the guy getting mugged every time I do something blandly illegal (ie, smoke pot on the street or not fix the broken taillights on my truck) that would make my co-workers seriously raise their eyebrows at me and marvel aloud at how either my whiteness or my womanness or both allows me to get away with *everything*.

I've lived in NYC since 1994 and in CH since 2000. I was violently mugged in 2003 in the Spring, but don't know who did it (was beaten unconscious and don't have clear recall).

I don't think it was a racial thing (I'm white and have fleeting memories of black boys standing over me) but just an opportunity. I also understand that many gang initiations begin Valentines day and continue through spring. Who knows.

But, to count the number of times that one has safely made it home down a dark, deserted street does not really prove anything. There could have been a violent mugging 2 hours before, or a half hour after, and you'll never know. Certainly, my incident got no press, Rev. Al did not appear at my hospital bed, and no real intensive manhunt ensued, mainly because I couldn't give any helpful description or details. As I've related in a separate post, I've seen 2 latinos beaten up here in CH, and several of my students (95% of whom are black) in BS have been beaten up on their way home from school.

Its curious to read people post about "scared looking" white people being targetted when the majority of victims is black, who (if they are from here) are justifiably more scared.

I also realize that people like to derive comfort from such acts as "never using a cell phone" and "taking the headphones out" which are common-sense things, but I have come to believe that there are times when one can just not ward off an attack, it just is going to happen, and its not as a result of something you did or didn't do. Believing you can always avoid it means accepting the blame when you are victimized, and I don't think that line of thought is valid.

Subject: Re: Crime on the rise in FG?

Anonymous wrote: But I wonder if I should expect similar things to happen or if these things are a sign things are getting worse. I've read the reports on Clinton Hill Blog about a spate of car windows getting smashed and I see a lot of glass on the street. What do others think?

Glad to hear you got your phone back, that sucks.

While I think these acts of crime & vandalism are unfortunate (to say the least) I do not think they represent a significant increase in crime in the neighborhood. I think crime is going down not up.

Boygabriel wrote: At the 88th Pct community meeting last night the Pct Captain reported that all major crime is down 10-30%, depending on the category. I think grand larceny is up, but he attributed that to a lot of shopping bags being stolen at the Atlantic Center.

Reported crimes, i assume.....

BK Allday wrote: [quote=Boygabriel]I think grand larceny is up, but he attributed that to a lot of shopping bags being stolen at the Atlantic Center.

So people are getting shopping bags snatched from them at the Atlantic Ctr. Mall, or are these unattended bags?

It wasn't entirely clear. It also wasn't clear what percentage of the increase in grand larceny is due to this Atlantic Center theft.

About the Atlantic Center thefts the officer said more than once, "...people aren't paying attention, they get distracted..."

do you guys think it's worth it to buy into the area then? my husband and i are looking around, and we may be interested in an apartment in the area. my husband went to pratt for grad school, and isn't crazy about the idea for the reasons mentioned above... 2 of his friends were mugged, and he worries more about our safety than anything else.

i work from home, we're looking to start a family, and he gets concerned about me. we know the area well and like it otherwise, but we worry about buying in.

thoughts?