3 Arrested after Armed Robbery of Patrons at SAJE

wow! I'm very glad the 77th caught these guys.
and yikes. I'm sure the patrons were terrified - they must all be very thankful to know the police resolved the situation asap.

Subject: Re: 3 Arrested after Armed Robbery of Patrons at SAJE

King without a crown wrote: Officers from the 77 pct arrested 3 suspects after a gunpoint robbery of 2 patrons inside SAJE on Franklin ave and Park plc. The suspects went into the coffee shop, struck one of the victims with a firearm and stole 2 laptops. After a brief pursuit the perpetrators were arrested on Bedford ave and the Firearm was recovered. All the suspects were in their teens.
Kudos to the 77 precinct!!! Finally a Robbery thread with a happy ending!

Wow. A friend of mine from Berkeley, CA told me about something like this happening to a bunch of students using laptops in a coffee shop.. looks like it's made its way here too.

If they're teens not adults does that mean that even if they're convicted they'll be back out on the street again pretty quickly?

Gotta say I'm really impressed the police caught these guys so quickly!

King without a crown wrote: Juveniles who commit Armed Robberies can be charged as Juvenile Offenders. Which means they get charged as adults in Criminal Court. The fact that we'll be seeing them next week on the corner, is an unfortunate byproduct of a failing Legal System.

I understand your pessimism probably comes from experience, but it sounds like at least one of them could also be charged with assault as well, and like there were a bunch of eyewitnesses. Given that, do you think they really will be out on the street again so soon?

Saje is a nice place. I hope their business isn't suffering too much as a result of this. What day did this happen, KWOC?

3 cheers for the quick response!!!
Let's all do our part to insure we continue to have this type of response to our 911 calls.

Just yesterday there was a story on NY1 saying that Operation Impact may have to end because of hiring shortage: http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=76346
(We are not currently an Impact Zone, though we have been in the past, this report just highlights the severity of the police shortage)

Please continue to send in your letters!!!
This campaign is ongoing, the deadline was to try to have as many as possible to send in before Commissioner Kelly's forum on the 13th.

Our site has had a lot of hits from Brooklynian, but so far, sadly we have not received too many letters

IF you sent your letter directly to Commissioner Kelly instead of to us for distribution, could you PM us so we have an idea of how many we generated.

Thanks
and send in your letters today. it's not too late for us to present them:
http://chcoalition.googlepages.com/crownheightswrites

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!!

X-brooklynite wrote: That no child left a byte program is working well with the juvies in crooklyn.

Yuppies, hide thy laptops.

No child left a byte! That's hysterical!

Good job, Nick and good luck on your finals!

Subject: robbery at Saje Cafe!

Nick nice job man. I think that you were crazy to pursue those guys on foot considering they were armed, but much respect. I was mugged not too long ago on Park Place between Classon and Franklin by three guys, one of whom pulled a knife. I'm lucky I only lost out on $22 bucks.

It is unfortunate that the structure of society allows for such disparities in wealth and opportunity to be flaunted so openly between the haves and affected bystanders the, have-nots. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that what occured at Saje was right. It's just that the high rate of unemployment for young black men in NYC is abominable.
An interesting article from the nytimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/20/national/20blackmen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin[i[/i]

Subject: Re: robbery at Saje Cafe!

keegee wrote: It is unfortunate that the structure of society allows for such disparities in wealth and opportunity to be flaunted so openly between the haves and affected bystanders the, have-nots. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that what occured at Saje was right. It's just that the high rate of unemployment for young black men in NYC is abominable.

I just reread the earlier posts, and can't see where anyone mentioned the thieves' race. Did I miss it? If so and they are white, does that change your opinion?

When I was in college, students were advised not to leave their laptops alone in the library, lest they be stolen by other students of that predominantly white, middle-class, Catholic university. So much for the class resentment of undereducated individuals as the prime motivation for theft.

I understand what you're trying to say, but really, you're making a huge, not to say insulting, assumption about laptop owners. Most college students go deeply into hock to pay for their educations. Grad students live on peanuts. However, many still buy a laptop because it's the best tool their money can buy, and if they have research on it, the loss can be far greater than its monetary value.

Sprite's post was a great example of how to disagree with someone politely, and the one before it was... um, not (but for what it's worth, KWAC, I've generally found myself agreeing with you more often than usual lately -- which may either please you or annoy you to no end! ) Let's not turn this thread into a flamewar, please folks?

Subject: patron #2

I was the other patron in the Dec 7th armed robbery at Saje. I'm a working artist who has spent half my life at environmental or social outreach jobs, mostly for low income afterschool programs for very little pay to help prevent these kinds of situations.
My laptop was an amazing gift for the holidays and had irreplaceable work on it that was to help pay rent. Still unrecovered. I know my neighborhood has lots of crime but I thought it was safe during the daytime to have a laptop in the cafe. I went back to Saje yesterday to see how the staff was doing and there is now a big lock on the main door--patrons are buzzed in. It's a shame as it's a place that is very very connected to the community, not so much like a bunch of yuppies in a Starbucks. There is a great womens' community group that I'm a part of, lots of local musicians...
Crown Heights needs funding for programs for teens to give them something to do besides rob people before it gets funding for more cops.

Thanks Nick A. for your adrenaline chase, though please don't push your luck so much in the future. again I'd like to say...you'll be a good lawyer.

i've only been in the neighborhood a week and all of these mugging/robbery threads are kind of freaking me out. i walk around the neighborhood all the time with my dog and the area LOOKS totally safe to me. but, because i've been hearing about all this trouble, i find myself watching my back all the time, especially when i open the door to my building.

anyone have any experience or hear about anyone getting mugged while they have their dog with them? i feel like no one will mess with me when i have her by my side (she's an american pit bull terrier), but just wondering if i should still be worried.

Anonymous wrote: i've only been in the neighborhood a week and all of these mugging/robbery threads are kind of freaking me out. i walk around the neighborhood all the time with my dog and the area LOOKS totally safe to me. but, because i've been hearing about all this trouble, i find myself watching my back all the time, especially when i open the door to my building.

anyone have any experience or hear about anyone getting mugged while they have their dog with them? i feel like no one will mess with me when i have her by my side (she's an american pit bull terrier), but just wondering if i should still be worried.

I have 2 dogs, a shepherd mix and a pit and have lived in CH for a little over a year now. I've had 2 sketchy incidents so far at night, both times the "gentlemen" involved changed their minds when they saw my dogs. The dogs are an excellent deterrent, anyone looking to do something will usually look for an easier target without dogs (especially a pit). I don't walk down certain streets at night, I stick to the more well lit ones. I guess I've been lucky but I haven't felt too unsafe around here. I've been in NY since I was 6 so watching my back is kind of ingrained in me. I think if you just keep being aware of your surroundings and don't flash money or electronics then you'll be okay.