Consider this an ongoing experiment that you will have exclusive front row seats to watch fall apart. Generally we prefer to just watch things play out, and wait to the end to share the story. But this one is different, and so far 22 days in, the Prog-Marxist refusal to name or confront the problem is getting, well, predictibly interesting. Here is the backstory:
New York City spent $50 million to re-open a huge public pool on June 28th. In less than a month there have been at least four major mob attacks. The pool also experiences daily violence and chronic problems with patrons defecating in the pool.
One of the latest mob attacks was a racially motivated assault of a thirteen year old white girl by older black teens. The perps gloated on the internet about the crime, (story and video below) so we know they were all black. However, the New York media is desperately censoring the race of the perpetrators in all of the pool mob attacks, and McCarren Park issues. Typical Cultural Marxism in Prog-Central New York City.
However, an unknown New York Post editorialist is poking the PC Bear – Check this out.
(NYPost) The cops needed pepper spray this week to break up a scuffle at Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool, and in an assault last week, one girl suffered a broken nose — the latest in a series of violent incidents there that, happily, have produced no serious injuries.
So far, no guns have appeared at the pool, either — though odds are that will change soon enough.
But the continuing turmoil hasn’t earned a discernible word of disapproval from the borough’s elected leaders — who appear willing to let things escalate, unremarked upon, until somebody does get shot.
Or worse.
This is significant, though not surprising, and it speaks directly to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s complaint last week concerning community leadership in the effort to control illegal guns.
To wit, there ain’t none.
Or none to speak of, anyway.
Kelly took a lot of heat for stating the obvious: Folks who criticize NYPD anti-gun initiatives, especially stop-and-frisk, don’t have much to say when it comes to the actual perpetrators of gun violence.
City Councilman Jumaane Williams falls into that category.
He’s from Brooklyn, heads a City Council task force studying violence and is both a voluble critic of the NYPD and quick as a wink with a press release.
But Williams has been mute about McCarren’s troubles — so we asked.
First came the pro forma genuflection to convention: “While the few people who act out need to be held accountable for their actions” — followed by what’s really on the councilman’s mind.
“We must also hold government accountable for the limited positive outlets for youth. We need more youth centers, safe outdoor spaces and, yes, pools.”
Gee, government just can’t win with folks like Williams.
Too much of it — i.e., stop-and-frisk — is bad. But not enough of it — i.e., a swimming-pool deficit — is bad, too. Personal responsibility? What a quaint notion.
But if one pool draws thugs, won’t two attract twice as many? And how many pools must be built before people begin to behave themselves?
Williams couldn’t say yesterday. Presumably a lot, though. Guess what: That won’t work, either.
The councilman is far from the only official in New York who defines “leadership” as the dispensing of baksheesh. But sometimes more is required. (read more)
Meanwhile a 13-year-old girl was punched in the face and needed surgery for a broken nose in the most vicious in a series of violent incidents since Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool re-opened last month.
Eighth-grader Sara Puk told The Post the trouble began as she and two friends were splashing around. “We were screaming at each other, but it was like playing around,’’ she said yesterday.
An older girl said something to her, which she didn’t understand. When she asked, the girl yelled, “Shut up! Trying to avoid trouble, Sara and her friends changed and left.
But when they passed through the exit, they found the older girl and four members of her posse waiting. “We just kept on walking,’’ Sara said, recalling her actions on July 11.
“They started following us. I was trying to stand up for myself, I was like, there’s five of you guys there’s only three of us, we’re really little,’’ she said. “I was scared, it was five against three.”
One of the older teens got in her face and declared, “I’m going to hit you and I’m just going to walk away.’’ Sara and her friends started running, but the older girls caught up. One made a video, which was posted on YouTube.
One of bullies yelled, “Go get her!’’ Sara said. That’s when Eva Hawley, 16, allegedly landed a right hook to her nose. “She’s jumping up and down, hysterically, laughing,” said a source who saw the YouTube video before it was taken down.
The older girls then took off and Sara, holding a towel to her bleeding nose, sat on a bench. The attackers came back, one of them ripped the towel away and laughed.
“You are a bad-ass bully,” a Hawley pal gloated. “You f–ked up her nose good.”
“They were tormenting her and laughing,” the source said. “The victim starts to cry and they are mocking her for crying.” They finally left and Sara and her friends approached a parked ambulance, which took her Wyckoff Heights Hospital.
Doctors had to operate on her nose, which had bled for three hours
Hawley was busted after Sara recognized her at a festival at a local church and told her mom, who notified cops. She was given a desk-appearance ticket for misdemeanor assault. Another girl, 14, was issued a juvenile report.
On June 29, a brawl broke out when lifeguards told teens not to do backflips. Three days later, a cop was punched in the face. And on July 17, a punk battled lifeguards and an NYPD deputy inspector. (article)
But the wonderfully progressive New York Parks Department has not acknowledged a serious problem. “Summertime skirmishes among kids are unfortunate but nothing new,” Parks spokeswoman Vickie Karp said. “The park and pool are safe.’’ Local residents disagree.
“There’s just too much of a criminal element here,” said Tanya Reed, 27. “It’s a beautiful pool, but I would never take my 2-year-old daughter here.”
The violence has sparked memories of the bad old days. “People should be grateful, but they’re fighting,” said a 69-year-old Greenpoint resident, who was jumped at the same pool in her teens. “It started all over again — it’s like the 1950s. It’s a darn shame.” (article)
