Williamsburg was among the neighborhoods where crime was reported to have spiked in the last quarter, and we’ve periodically seen reports of problem, particularly in South Williamsburg. Late last night we got an email with the subject line “Subject: Danger in the Neighborhood, please watch out. this is serious.” Whether one believes every incident outlined in the email (and they have not been verified), it does speak to some disturbing things happening that merit caution:
You might have noticed while walking around Williamsburg for the past 2 months a large number of police officers in groups around the neighborhood. Especially in the south side, in the area between Metropolitan ave and Broadway, and between Meeker (expressway) and the water. You might have thought it was because of some random accidents and petty crimes, or a return to the Gulliani police state. This is not the case.
For the past few months there has been a spate of violent muggings and random murder attempts including one supposed successful event. (according to the police officer i just talked to) People walking on the street during daytime and night time hours have been attacked by a single person (maybe different ones) who rode up to the victims on a bike and stabbed the person repeatedly.
Up until this evening for me, this was just hearsay from different sources (including from asking a couple of police officers.) Today I found out that this past Saturday morning around 9 am, a friend of mine (Walter from the coffee shop); who has been in the neighborhood for years, was stabbed in the chest 4 times while walking home from the Metropolitan Pool.
The attacker then rode away from the scene slowly looking back at him stumbling. He survived by ringing the doorbell of my friend Sheila on Driggs between Metropolitan and Grand. This is NOT a sick joke. I do not usually cry wolf, (as much as I am a loud mouth, hypochondriac). This is a person I know well, who I just saw on Friday evening, in the hood. When you are walking/riding in the neighborhood, please be aware of your surroundings, do not wear your headphones and make sure you pay attention to people’s behavior around you. A little extra attention and common sense, will give you the time to avoid or prepare for a dangerous interaction.
Use extra care when walking alone, especially in hours when the streets are not busy. From the little information I have, this doesn’t seem targeted and seems evenly distributed in the neighborhood. (The woman who was killed was walking on Bedford, in the south side –according to the police officer.) Nothing is stolen, the people have just been attacked and left.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I am working on a poster to paste in the neighborhood, and I am trying to figure out how to spread this information around the area. Any additional information I will forward as well.
Again, it’s unclear which stories in the email are true, but there have been many reports of an uptick in incidents in recent months in parts of South Williamsburg and of an increased police presence.
32 responses so far ↓
1 don't believe it or not // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:20 am
Arrest every guy in Williamsburg who is on a bike!!! How may could there be?
2 cb // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:26 am
This is interesting. As I was crossing Broadway (at Bedford) with my 16-month-old daughter around 6 PM last night, a cyclist, who looked like a messenger, asked me if I was OK to walk under the bridge. I was confused by this since there were quite a few people around. Anyway, I told him I was going up to the Plaza and not under the bridge so it was no problem. He rode away up Broadway.
I wonder if the offer of an escort is in any way related to this.
3 merc1985 // Jun 12, 2008 at 11:03 am
Building and business owners should have street cameras installed. They have camera’s in the projects. It only makes sense to be able to go back and see what happened on film. I hope at least the victims were able to give a good description of the bike and person, otherwise, the police have nothing to go on. The police if had a detail of what the bike looked like could question everyone on a specific color and type of bike and there is nothing wrong with that.
4 tony baloney // Jun 12, 2008 at 11:38 am
This is why I love hipsters. They aren’t the cause of violent crime. Thank you native NYers for stabbing my friends.
5 thefacts // Jun 12, 2008 at 11:51 am
” (The woman who was killed was walking on Bedford, in the south side –according to the police officer.) ”
Murdered? Does someone have any more information about this? I’m really surprised this is the first time I’ve heard about it and I can’t come up with anything on google.
6 Anonymous // Jun 12, 2008 at 12:51 pm
sounds like gang initiation season to me
7 Matt // Jun 12, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I hope this doesn’t come off the wrong way, but are hipsters to blame? By which I mean, have the attacks been targeted at them, a sort of anti-gentrification. I know this says the attacks were indiscriminate, but how much so? Were they targeted? Is this some sort of sick, twisted revenge.
And while cameras may help catch perps, they rarely prevent crime and actually tend to make people lazy and complicit. It’s kind of like how stores with tags get ripped off more than those without–there’s a way around anything. Just keep your head up out there.
8 come on guys // Jun 12, 2008 at 2:11 pm
you guys this is an untrue report and story.
9 srsly // Jun 12, 2008 at 2:16 pm
wait. there’s crime in brooklyn?
10 wisco // Jun 12, 2008 at 2:39 pm
i have now heard this story 2x today but with very different details.
is this real?
also, yes, there are housing projects south of broadway, and lower income hispanics in south williamsburg where i hear that there are gangs, but in the rest of williamsburg, it seems to me that there are mostly middle class to wealthy residents.
i feel like north williamsburg is really mellow, and i never feel scared or threatened. i was routinely harassed when i lived in Prospect Heights however.
11 haarlem // Jun 12, 2008 at 2:39 pm
“A little extra attention and common sense, will give you the time to avoid or prepare for a dangerous interaction.”
If you live in Williamsburg you probably don’t have any common sense.
12 lee // Jun 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I haven’t heard the reports, but about a week ago a friend and I were out walking and we were surprised to see three separate groups of cops on the beat. We stopped and asked the 3rd group if we could get some more cops closer to our intersection (N. 7th & Bedford) which is just insanely crazy at night. Apparently the dividing line between precincts is Metropolitan Ave. (94th for Greenpoint & 90th for Southside) and they were in the 90th Precinct. where the hell are the cops for the 94th ??? I never see ANY.
Also, the statistics the stations give out seem skewed. I know one of the people who runs a restaurant on N. 6th street and he said that THREE businesses have been robbed recently in the early morning hours.
13 tony // Jun 12, 2008 at 4:29 pm
“you guys this is an untrue report and story.”
I’m afraid it’s true. I woke up saturday morning at 8:30 to find the police at my door – the victim was stabbed on fillmore across the street from my house.
An update from a friend of the victim : “Thankfully my friend is now recovering from the attack. After a passerby saw his condition and called 911, he was taken to the trauma center at Belleview. According to the doctor, the knife punctured the sack around his heart, and came within a millimeter of the heart. If not for that millimeter, and the fact that my friend was in good physical condition and so did not go into cardiac arrest, it would have killed him. But as I said, amazingly, he is now recovering.”
14 cb // Jun 12, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I saw the police tape on Driggs on Saturday morning! The police were taking a statement. It was before 10 AM. We were out for a ride.
I also heard the story that’s quoted above.
If you’re interested in crime reporting for the 90th and 94th check out this link: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/sections/williamsburg/
15 boxcutter // Jun 12, 2008 at 5:21 pm
condos go up, people get slashed. Watch your back cutting over to Moto or Trophy bar. Be like the cops and avoid ALL dead spots in the area. If you see a group of hoods hanging out in one spot or another (neighborhood watch), get the hell out!
16 e // Jun 12, 2008 at 5:27 pm
i have seen cops out on the corners here on southside, but the closer you get to the water(by wythe n kent), the less cops i have seen, and the more deserted it is over there to begin with.
someone mentioned gang initiation….sounds like a possibility to me.
a couple of weeks ago on bedford at S3 there were 2 groups of teenagers fighting over something. one group had sticks and bats, but they were running away, the other group were throwing bottles and stuff at them as they ran. there were cops all over, but almost all of them got away.
this was at like 5pm, mind you, broad daylight with tons of people in every direction.
17 Grand St Girl // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:54 pm
S3rd near Havemayer has always been bad. It was one of the worst spots for sexual harassment when I lived around there.
And on the other side, near Roebling, a group of teenagers chased and threw bottles at me in broad daylight. It was totally unprovoked, no words were exchanged beforehand. I just ran.
Shady shit happens over there. Always has.
18 misswebb007 // Jun 13, 2008 at 2:34 am
I was attacked last saturday night near my home on North 7th btwn Berry & Wythe – late at night coming home from work I passed a guy who had restaurant or deli looking clothes I didn’t see him till I was right up on him (he was taking a leak in a doorway ) he ran up behind me grabbed my mouth so I couldn’t scream but I managed to get free fight back and scream loud as hell – nobody on the street finally someone must of woke up shouted Hey and that snapped him out of it – he ran for his bike and rode off with me screaming chasing him. I dont think this was this stabber person just someone trying to pick on what he percieved as a weak woman HOWEVER I was daydreaming wasn’t where my feet were and should have paid more attention. Dont sleep people keep your eyes open and stay safe and BTW in response to Haarlem shame on you – no matter if you agree with their politics, style or lack thereof no one deserves to be beaten stabbed raped or killed because of it. I have lived in the neighborhood 17 years and sure do not qualify as hipster but do not wish harm to come to anyone.
19 Change you can believe in // Jun 13, 2008 at 10:23 am
Obama in ’08 and this problem will be solved!
20 rabbit // Jun 13, 2008 at 5:21 pm
all this is surely quite real- when i started working on the southside in ’98-99, a corpse was found on a chair on the roof with a bag over its head a block away. one or two more were found under the bridge, around that same time. the neighborhood used to be one of the worst for crime in north america. a retired man i knew saw assault rifle battles in apartment building hallways, etc. on broadway and berry in the 80’s. by ’03 or so, additional tons of newer young people moved in and were mostly completely oblivious to this place’s history and were completely conspicuous and careless. i fear that it won’t take much to tip the scales back toward the way it used to be. how to fight it?
21 e // Jun 13, 2008 at 7:10 pm
maybe there should be some kinda neighborhood watch thing in addition to the cops on corners. i mean honestly, im out and about almost every night and i only see the cops once in a while, and usually, like i said before, once you cross over bedford towards the water i dont see any cops.
i dont know exactly how neighborhood watches work…but something could probably be done to help. maybe even like printing out this article and posting it at local delis and shops and etc.
i dont know….something.
22 matt // Jun 13, 2008 at 9:31 pm
it’s not just w’burg that’s seen a rise in muggings and attacks lately. there’s been a few along the BQE/Meeker in northern Greenpoint, too. My neighbor was jumped last week as he turned onto Hausman by four dudes. if you’re familiar with Hausman st., its the street with american flags in front of every house and it’s a super close-knit community. this shouldn’t be happening no this street.
23 matty S2nd // Jun 14, 2008 at 3:12 am
I’ve read every comment here, and all I see is a string of unrelated, possibly fabricated, personal accounts. I think this is a new localized urban leagend played on the fact that our area has become a summer camp for rookie cops. The muggings I believe, I was jumped on roebling and n4th at 3am, hey, welcome to Brooklyn, and having lived in the Stuy for a year I check over my shoulder anyway… but random stabbings I have seen no evidence of, and believe me I’m out and about very often. Also, Not that I swear by the news, but I am unable to find a news report of any such attempted murder incidences. WTF is the brooklynpaper.com? If you find one on a legitimate news source, please post.
The only truth to be taken from all of this is that, yes, hipsters are targets. There will be the occasional miscreants wandering into our neighborhood causing trouble, but no more than there were when you moved here from like… wisconsin. I’m not shooting these stories down, I am just asking for a little bit of fact, which is not difficult to site in this internet age.
You could always move to bushwick where the murder rate is an exponent higher. (3 vs. 29 in 2007)
Let’s go Mets.
24 matty S2nd // Jun 14, 2008 at 3:17 am
oh and btw, the new teenage police presence chased away the drug dealers that kept our block safe. These little kids in uniforms won’t be able to help for SShhhhh.
25 Barrio // Jun 15, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I spoke with the cops the other day after reading this shit. They said that they had both read reports of stabbings, a slasher, and other reports of a serial stabber in williamsburg… they said it was kind of ‘funny’ how rumors like this get started, in spite of credible reports by news authority, or police warnings (ie. posters with profile sketches of rapists, etc)… They said of course there have been stabbings in general, being that it is new york city, but there is no serial stabber running loose in williamsburg.
something to take from this however, is that you never know, anyway. protect yourself, and be aware of your surroundings.
26 masondixon // Jun 16, 2008 at 12:41 pm
i have lived in nyc ten years now and all i can say is it is imperative to exercise safety and caution at every turn. use your head. for example, i take a car home from the restaurant in which i work every night because i simply refuse to WALK home to south 3rd and union late night. i factor safety into my urban lifetstyle budget. when i lived in the LES i walked home ALL the time at all hours but the vibe was different. energetically, south williamsburg has some real local shit going on and there are drugs too–junkies, crackheads, etc. now that it is hot, the crime rate can be expected to go up as it is a documented fact that crime rates escalate in warmer months. also, keep your rooftop access doors locked so that people cannot cat burglar into your building. if you work in service and walk home at night, you are carrying cash and you are a target so $6 to your homies at Northside is no big deal. and lastly, and this may sound weird, compassion. people who exercise violence are worthy of our compassion. our desire to live here is pushing people out of their homes and maybe this is how they push back? just a thought…and a very valid one from what i have seen. the “politics” of change that does not necessarily benefit all can get heavy and anger can lead people to do many things. regardless, it’s not cool to feel unsafe (and i do) and so there is another option. move.
27 chuck // Jun 23, 2008 at 9:42 am
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=82959
Just saw this on the TV news this morning. Same thing – ride up, stab, ride away with nothing taken.
28 flower face // Jun 23, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I live on the south side and can confirm that the Fillmore Place stabbing actually happened. It happened in front of my friends house, I was over there and saw the bloodstains on the sidewalk. The victim of that stabbing was a lifelong resident of the neighborhood, a man in his 50’s, not a hipster at all.
I have no idea why this wasn’t covered by the media, but I know for sure that it happened. The police are pretending that there isn’t a stabber, and now another person has been attacked, a woman in Queens.
29 newyorkshitty.com » Blog Archive » Urban Gravestones: L’il Rich // Jul 23, 2008 at 11:05 am
[…] of violence to blight the Southside? Perhaps. What people (myself included) tend to forget while reading about the latest shooting or stabbing is the human cost. While the victims may be nameless and faceless to you and me, they are and will […]
30 yo // Aug 20, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Guys, the gang working in South Williamsburg are the “Trinitarios.” Anyone with basic knowledge of Dominican history will know it’s a reference to the founding fathers of the country. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for those of us that have lived and gone to the DR, and most unfortunately for them, it is a messy country. Feverish. OMG, it’s a disaster! This is largely because of two reasons: extremely lazy and disorganized people, OK, with exceptions.
Do we really think that once they come into contact with anglos they become as organized as to have working gangs?!!?! Please don’t flatter urselves.
31 Nothing New // Aug 27, 2008 at 11:04 am
As someone who lived here my whole life I can say that there is nothing new going on here. The new people moving in are just a little clueless about the area. You should have lived here in the 70’s and 80’s when this sort of thing was a daily occurrence.
It got better for a while and now it’s slipping back to how it was partly due to attitudes like the one above who called for compassion towards your attacker. It got better because the people who lived here became fed up and started fighting back, not feeling sorry for the poor criminal who thinks it fun to stab some random person.
32 byebye // Aug 29, 2008 at 12:51 am
I lived in South Williamsburg for 10 years. I didn’t feel scared to walk at night until 2006. I moved.