Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

GL Exclusive: Cops in 76th Precinct Smashing Into Parked Cars

February 11th, 2009 · 19 Comments


[Photo courtesy of jag9889/flickr]

At some point today, we can picture some comanding officers at the 76th Precinct in Carroll Gardens turning red and cursing. Very red and a lot. This is because a GL tipster sent us some very interesting information that does not bode well for community-police relations. How to put this? Officers from the 76th have hit a few parked cars in the neighborhood, and for some very interesting reasons. We’ll let our tipster explain:

It seems that the 76th pct has a problem with their officers and their driving skills or lack of. Three residents of Sackett Street between Hicks & Henry have had their cars damaged by patrol cars driving down the block in the early morning hours. Could it be that the officers are falling asleep behind the wheel. In the first accident which happened in Dec, two of the officers in a patrol car fell asleep behind the wheel causing the accident. Three parked cars were damage at that time. The second accident happened on Monday night when yet another patrol car smashed right into a parked car. According to sources, the 76th reported that the officer was looking for a flash light he dropped on the floor. What was he doing looking for a flashlight when his eyes should of been on the road. There seem to be a problem here and we need to address it. Bring it to the public’s attention is the first step>

Well, the first step has now been taken. God, we’ll bet the F Bomb is going to be dropped at a lot at the 76th in coming days. Accidents happen, no?

Tags: Carroll Gardens

19 responses so far ↓

  • 1 sean chanson // Feb 11, 2009 at 5:09 pm

    I also noticed last week those orange tire clamps placed on 3 different vehicles on the south side of Union St. directly across from the precint. They were not in front of the fire hydrant and as far as I could tell were legally parked. And I’ve never heard of a tire clamp going on for alternate side violations. I mean, their tow trucks are right across the street. Pure craziness

  • 2 dave // Feb 11, 2009 at 8:55 pm

    they should be driving around the red hook projects in the middle night, bet they’d stay awake atleast.

  • 3 James Jackson // Feb 11, 2009 at 9:50 pm

    You people should work on your spelling and grammar before monday morning quarterbacking the police. Do you think those orange things on the cars could be something else on the precinct block???? Check your facts before you say anything.

  • 4 bob // Feb 11, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Can you people find something more useful to complain about? Geez, not that i condone any sort of careless driving but accidents happen. Are cops to be PERFECT in every aspect of life? You people have unrealistic expectations of cops.

    How about we go to your job and see how perfect you are. Should cops recommend on accident reports that certain drivers, who get into numerous accidents, not be allowed to have a license?

    Furthermore, you freakin yuppies always complain about something you see the cops doing but in actuality know half the story. Sean, for your information those clamps are not for alternate side parking…they are on the cars of DWI drivers….genius know it all.

    If you hate cops so much don’t call them…trust me they would rather not deal with people who disrepect them too.

  • 5 sara t. // Feb 11, 2009 at 9:57 pm

    I agree. You out of town yuppies need to get a life. Complete hypocrisy when it comes to cops. Lets see how careless most of you and your family members are with accidents.

    skanks

  • 6 Rico // Feb 12, 2009 at 12:02 am

    Yo bob , what are you a friekin jerk , this is a serious issue, they are damaging the personal property of people who work hard to have a car. Is it going to take someone to get hurt or killed for you to think its something worth while to address , they fell asleep behind the wheel jerkoff ” THAT”S SERIOUS “. Wake up bob ,.!!!

  • 7 Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines // Feb 12, 2009 at 9:11 am

    […] Cops Caught Driving All Over the Street in the 76th, Smashing Into Parked Cars (Gowanus Lounge) […]

  • 8 D // Feb 12, 2009 at 9:15 am

    Sorry to burst your blue bubble but FALLING ASLEEP BEHIND THE WHEEL IS NOT AN ACCIDENT, THEY’RE ON DUTY!!! Maybe if they’re asleep they won’t have to deal with a suspicious public, they can dream about loving caring citizens.

  • 9 Kaja // Feb 12, 2009 at 9:36 am

    No, on the contrary, I’d love an officer (with no enforcement power) to sit at my work all day, and be completely floored by how complex, hard, and flat-out inconceivable my job was to his mind.

    Then I’d like to follow him around for anther day, but _with_ enforcement power, and I’d make a list of everything that the cop did that I’d have been ticketed or arrested for – blowing red lights, parking by hydrants, falsifying charges, lying in court.

    And at the end of the day, I’d either charge him with the litany, or cuff him, strip his pants off, and sodomize him with an old plunger.

    Fuck the 5-0, and with good reason.

  • 10 Kaja // Feb 12, 2009 at 9:40 am

    > If you hate cops so much don’t call them…trust me they would rather not deal with people who disrepect them too.

    You misunderstand the problem with the police.

    The police’s job is not to show up when you call them.

    It is to ticket or arrest you for breaking the laws.

    Also, not calling the police (in the event of a crime) IS a crime.

    My disdain for the police would dissipate if we’d fire all these suburban imports, hire locally, and pay them well enough that they wouldn’t feel some deep psychological need to crap on the locals.

    AFAICT, you can’t live in NYC on a police officer’s salary; so we’re policed by dudes from Nassau and Suffolk, whose lives aren’t anything like ours.

    It’s a structural problem, it manifests in the cops being huge dicks, and the citizens getting screwed.

    I blame Albany, but also the cops.

  • 11 David // Feb 12, 2009 at 10:13 am

    Bob and sara t.:
    Do you know what cops’ job is? I don’t think you do.

    Cops should be exemplars of adherence to law and good citizenship. Incidents like this are not acceptable.

  • 12 manny // Feb 12, 2009 at 10:50 am

    Bob= cop

    Sara t.=wife of cop

  • 13 Josh // Feb 12, 2009 at 10:54 am

    “Should cops recommend on accident reports that certain drivers, who get into numerous accidents, not be allowed to have a license?”

    Yes.

    And people wouldn’t disrespect cops if they didn’t pull stuff like drink and drive and run people over on West Street.

  • 14 CarrollGardens67 // Feb 12, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    I think this is now getting out of hand here. No one is down playing the police here. They have to deal with all kinds of sh*t on the street and they do work their butts off. What I trying to do here is bring it to everyone’s attention that there may or may not be a problem here. It needs to be addressed. Yes accidents do happend, but crashing into a parked cars twice in a 3 month period. Something doesn’t seem right. Are these officers being over work or are they just being careless ? The question is are they falling asleep?? That was a question and not a statement. U have to ask yourself that when something like this happens in the 3 month period. It’s a question that needs to be asked. No one stated that they hate cops or that the 76th is not doing a good job protecting our area. Accidents do and yes no one is prefect and for the record I’m not a yuppie who just moved here. I’ve lived in this area for over 50++ years. How long have you lived here???

  • 15 Bob // Feb 12, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    No Rico, you appear to be the idiot. How do you know the cops fell asleep? What if it was simply an accident, which happens to hundreds of other drivers per day.

    Are they to be perfect and not get into any accidents you moron. Consider how many police cars are on the road and how often they are actually on the road driving. Proportionately, I doubt they have many accidents compared to the ratio of other people driving and getting into accidents. Additionally, perhaps they should take their sweet time when responding to any jobs or emergency to make sure they don’t get into any accidents and have to listen to a fool like you complaining.

  • 16 Jennife // Feb 12, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    Kaja, on behalf of my cop friends….for people like you who say ‘Fu(K the cops”….trust me, they wanna say “FU(K YOU TOO).

    Ok a cop was arrested for DWI on west street…is that sufficient for you to paint the entire group with the same brush? There exist good and bad apples in all professions and I am sure including yours. There are doctors, lawyers, politicians, etc who get arrested…do you have that small a brain to think all in those professions are crooks? Some of you posters are stupid.

    Oh yea and Kaja…again, those cops wanna tell you: F you too

  • 17 Bob // Feb 12, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    Carrollgardens, ive been here 47 years. Ok, if it did not apply to you then it applied to the other out of town people who move here and tend to focus on petty and hypocritical issues.

    You may not have insinuated that they fell asleep, but other posters did. So my comment on them being human and allowed to make mistakes is directed to those other posters. Other posters have cursed out the cops so they have said they hate the cops.

    As many police cars are on the streets, i don’t think 2 police car accidents into parked cars require any abnormal investigation, considering the amount of police cars on the road.

    Josh, trust me i wish cops had the authority to recommend certain drivers who get into NUMEROUS ACCIDENTS not be able to have a license. It would wipe out half of cars on road….but they are accidents.

    David, incidents like ‘accidents’ are not acceptable by cops? Are you that stupid. They are allowed to have accidents. How do you know they fell asleep?

    Ha, I’m not a cop…but i can care less what you think.

  • 18 YPR // Feb 12, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    Now Bob I have a couple of questions for you. Where in the tipster’s statement did it state that they hated cops?? No once was that stated.

    Secondly how do you know the person who gave the tip is a yuppie?? What gives you the right to call people names?

    My next question is this do you own a car?? How would you feel waking up in the morning and finding your car crashed up?

    Now a couple of statements for your.

    As mentioned in one of the postings there are good and bad apples. Trust me there are many and I mean many nasty cops that work in the 76th. But there are also the good ones that also work there. Sadly the bad over power the good here, but that’s another topic. You see the posting wasn’t about the good or the bad. It’s simply about private property being damaged.

    Accidents do happened. But when they happen 2x in the matter of 3 months then it needs to be looked into. Now maybe they’re felling asleep or maybe they are just being reckless.

    U see Rico is not the idiot, I think you are. Based on you remarks I can bet that you are the following:

    *A old timer who was born and raised in the area.
    * A cop but not from the 76th.
    * Someone who lives right across the street from the 76th.

    I agree with you that there are numerous people who shouldn’t be allowed to have a have a license. That’s the only smart thing you had to say in this posting. All your other remarks were not called for and were out of lien. Stick to the subject.

    BTY- Rico is not the idiot you are

  • 19 Bob // Feb 13, 2009 at 10:54 am

    YPR, your are the other MORON to pair with Rico. Learn hwo to read. I did not state the tipster claimed to hate police. I said other posters such as “D” and “Dave” who posted anti cop comments without much evidence backing them.

    I don’t know the tipster is a yuppie but I bet that most of the posters are and that many yuppies do come here with an arrogance surrounding them and make issues of many trivial things.

    So YPR, yes i own a car and yes its been struck. And you know what, it’s an accident. Part of living in NYC, unless there are other circumstances involved.

    YPR do not go in the assumpption making business because you ABSOLUTELY SUCK, IDIOT.