Underhill Mugging: Cop says satchel-wearers should move

Amen rcheru2364. Amen.

In reference to the above post about NYC losing a large amount of black people, here is the disconcerting article from the Times describing the trend:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/nyregion/03blacks.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=black+exodus&st=nyt&oref=slogin

At 8:10 today, Monday Feb. 4th my room mate was mugged on Classon between Park and Prospect Place right in front of the Hospital/Center for Rehabilitation. He was able to get her iPod from her. She was attacked from behind, pushed to the ground, punched in the face and he sat on her while he struggled with her for her iPod.

She is with the police right not canvasing the area.

There were people at Chavellas and many men standing at the corner bodega. Only three people helped her out. TWO of them were kids.
A man coming out of the hospital took off running to try and catch the guy but he was headed towards the Shuttle. The two kids also gave chase.

I cant imagine NOT helping someone if I saw them getting mugged. Is this sort of thing happening in my neighborhood because people arent willing to help each other out?

RCates wrote: At 8:10 today, Monday Feb. 4th my room mate was mugged on Classon between Park and Prospect Place right in front of the Hospital/Center for Rehabilitation. He was able to get her iPod from her. She was attacked from behind, pushed to the ground, punched in the face and he sat on her while he struggled with her for her iPod.

She is with the police right not canvasing the area.

There were people at Chavellas and many men standing at the corner bodega. Only three people helped her out. TWO of them were kids.
A man coming out of the hospital took off running to try and catch the guy but he was headed towards the Shuttle. The two kids also gave chase.

I cant imagine NOT helping someone if I saw them getting mugged. Is this sort of thing happening in my neighborhood because people arent willing to help each other out?

is your roommate okay? I hope so! sounds like a terrible experience. I'm glad some folks did stop and help her out, and it is too bad that others didn't. I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation - it would depend, probably, on a lot of factors. if I were reasonably certain the bad guy didn't have a knife or gun, I might jump in. otherwise, I might call 911 and start making a ruckus to try to scare the guy off. who knows til you're in the situation?

hope she's okay and that the muggers were caught.

benzapp wrote: [quote=scooterjackson5]In reference to the above post about NYC losing a large amount of black people, here is the disconcerting article from the Times describing the trend:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/nyregion/03blacks.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=black+exodus&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Why is the article disconcerting?

I mean, let's face it - these people left willingly. I've known more than a few people - black and white - who are very happy they moved down south where you can get a 4-bedroom house for the price of a studio condo in a hip part of Brooklyn.

Hell, I think about leaving the area all the time myself.

Gotta say I unpopularly agree here.

In the mid-20th-century there wasn't a great outcry as blacks migrated from the South to the industrial Northern and Midwestern industrial opportunities in such places as Detroit and Harlem. These migrations gave birth to some of the greatest economic, social and cultural changes of the century, many arguably for the the better of both the Black populace and America in general. I daresay that these mass migrations pushed the evolution of race conversation ahead greatly, as opposed to the country stagnating in a ethnically homogenous regionalism.

It is a truly modern mindset that decries the movement/evolution of peoples as a negative, rather than as a constant re-invention of America.

I've known a few black co-workers that have moved to the Atlanta area over the past few years, and they have nothing but positive things to say about the change. I have another colleague who is moving to a newly-built home in the DC-area in the next few months, and he is truly excited for himself and his family.

Looking for new opportunity is the story that propels the American story, and to think otherwise is an incredibly dis-empowering and selfish point of view.

sterling2000 wrote:
In the mid-20th-century there wasn't a great outcry as blacks migrated from the South to the industrial Northern and Midwestern industrial opportunities in such places as Detroit and Harlem. These migrations gave birth to some of the greatest economic, social and cultural changes of the century, many arguably for the the better of both the Black populace and America in general. I daresay that these mass migrations pushed the evolution of race conversation ahead greatly, as opposed to the country stagnating in a ethnically homogenous regionalism.

It is a truly modern mindset that decries the movement/evolution of peoples as a negative, rather than as a constant re-invention of America.

I've known a few black co-workers that have moved to the Atlanta area over the past few years, and they have nothing but positive things to say about the change. I have another colleague who is moving to a newly-built home in the DC-area in the next few months, and he is truly excited for himself and his family.

Looking for new opportunity is the story that propels the American story, and to think otherwise is an incredibly dis-empowering and selfish point of view.

How rosy you gloss over history. There was quite an outcry about the black migration north.

Detroit, as you say it, was particularly difficult as African American workers were considered the lowest of the low at all of the automotive plants. They were relegated to the foundary work at best and the only saving grace for their "advancement" you so glorify was the emergence of WW2. I can't think of an industry that opened more slowly to african americans than I can the automotive industry. At the very height of the automotive industry, only 1 in 5 automotive workers were african american, which is in very stark contrast to the population up there. Seems as the industry became more streamlined, the african americans were also the first to go. So I am not sure where you find the "economic, social and cultural changes" you are alluding to, except in some whitewashed version of history you've either been fed or elected to believe. But its way off.

The migration you talk about was out of necessity. As the early part of this century started to migrate into the use of industry in farming, which was predominantly the only areas of available work to african americans in the south, unemployment was rampant. The "opportunities" up north were opportunities to act as strike breakers to emerging unionization of the industrialized workforce. The strike breaks, african american workers are let go. It happened again and again and as a result the animocity towards african americans in the north was palpable. This was not just in detroit, but in Harlem (the other bastion you hold up for your perceived cultural change), where african americans had to form their own unions (look at the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters as a good example) to get any semblance of equality in their unskilled labor roles they were being "allowed."

We played this game in the north until the late 1940s when there were no people left to help out the war effort. And finally companies had to bite the bullet and turn to the african american population to boost domestic production to keep up with the war machine and to replace the soldiers being killed too quickly to replace with white soldiers. Even then, they got the crappiest jobs, the most dangerous assignments (along with the asian american 442nd regiment). But even then, they were physically attacked while reporting to the military bases and shipyards where they reported for duty. In many cases armed guards had to be brought in to protect african american workers from being attacked during working hours.

By 1967 riots were breaking out all over the north in cities like Newark, Detroit, Cleveland and Harlem based on the very segregation we are talking about. African American workers were still being marginalized and brutalized in the very cities you talk about welcoming them in a cultural change.

This wasnt the looking for opportunity rosy picture you paint, Sterling. Nor was it some "re-invention." It was the status-quo exploitation that exists just lightly under the surface today that revisionist history enjoys painting right over. And its not over yet.

C Balla wrote: Thank you for your honest insights. There are so very few of them here.

Judging the character of a neighborhood, especially with such a deep historical fabric as this one, is extremely challenging. I moved to Prospect Heights from Austin, Texas seven months ago, and often find myself floundering, with my largely antithetical upbringing, with my outlook of this neighborhood and the city at large — problems of petty and serious crime, poverty, and gentrification specifically. I'm deeply interested in learning the history of this place, and exploring physically to gain a deeper understanding of it, but often worry my actions could be considered 'slum tourism', a term which has rather nasty connotations. I'm in my mid-twenties, white, often labeled a hipster — generally a spitting image of the 'face of gentrification' in Brooklyn. I could, like many young whites, live in Brooklyn without ever considering my neighborhood for what it really is (and be despicably paranoid, shouting 'crime wave'), but would rather continue researching and interacting with the old timers here with respect. When one moves to an dense urban area with a complicated history, I'd say such actions are absolutely necessary.

You need to get out and get a life. You parrot the same nonsense every liberal, college educated 20-something says in Brooklyn.

Do you really think any old time white people in Brooklyn are complaining about gentrification? I'd reckon most of the poor with whom you sympathize in your new neighborhood don't even know what the word means.

What we need are fewer do gooders telling us how bad white people are, and more intelligent people playing an active role in bettering the lives of their neighbors. Tutor a kid for a while, make sure he can get into a good college and into a career where he can afford to actually earn a living rather than live off the public dime. The problem here is not rich white people kicking poor helpless black people out of their homes, it's lack of education and broken families. All the research in the world isn't going to change the fact it is personal action and not academic research and government policy that changes the world.

The reality is nothing speaks to the absurdity of modern liberalism like the proximity of Park Slope to such abject poverty. That would make a far more interesting study than the tired, repetitive analyses of the plight of the poor.

benzapp wrote:
Do you really think any old time white people in Brooklyn are complaining about gentrification?

yes (often on this website, but in real life too)

benzapp wrote: I'd reckon most of the poor with whom you sympathize in your new neighborhood don't even know what the word means.

Are you kidding?

benzapp wrote:
What we need are fewer do gooders telling us how bad white people are, and more intelligent people playing an active role in bettering the lives of their neighbors. Tutor a kid for a while, make sure he can get into a good college and into a career where he can afford to actually earn a living rather than live off the public dime. The problem here is not rich white people kicking poor helpless black people out of their homes, it's lack of education and broken families. All the research in the world isn't going to change the fact it is personal action and not academic research and government policy that changes the world.

The reality is nothing speaks to the absurdity of modern liberalism like the proximity of Park Slope to such abject poverty. That would make a far more interesting study than the tired, repetitive analyses of the plight of the poor.

Just fyi, you'll find the economic split within the boundaries of Park Slope.
Personal action and gov policy (and personal action leading to change in gov policy) change the world. The academic stuff is there to help figure it out...
:roll:

Somehow this is a backhanded version of the YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF GENTRIFYING YUPPIES argument, which doesn't get us anywhere.
Bleech.