Witnesses Point to Inept Police

By COLlive reporter

An account of unprofessional conduct on behalf of the New York Police Department was related to COLlive by two Crown Heights residents.

The incident concerning yet another break-in attempt into homes on Friday night, when Jewish families are at rest, adds to the local frustration of rising crime.

The following eye-witness account is based on a phone interview with two Jewish neighbors who said they were appalled by how the event played out:

“We were sitting eating at the Shabbos table, and we heard something outside in the back,” related Yosef, a married man and father of one. “We go outside and we see a black guy trying to get into the back of Dovid Malka’s place, which is behind my house.”

Chaim, another neighbor who is an EMS and has served in the past in the local Shmira volunteer security patrol, related the following:

As soon as I heard the noise, I ran outside to check because it sounded suspicious. When the man saw us, he ducked out of sight.

We went back in and then heard another noise. We go outside and saw the same individual rattling doorknobs in a couple of houses along the alley. He then disappeared again.

A few minutes later we hear him again, we go outside in time to see him carrying two boxes out of a garage, which we see him putting into a car. It was either a gold or beige Nissan Sentra or Altima.

At this point we called 911. The time was 11:45 pm.

I gave the dispatcher a clear description of the situation, that someone was attempting to break into homes and garages in the alley by Crown and Carroll Streets between Troy and Schenectady Avenues.

I also gave a full description of the man we saw: 6 ft. tall, approximately 180 lbs, wearing a light colored puffy jacket and a floppy military style hat, dark pants, small beard. And I gave the car description.

We waited outside for about 10 minutes, during which time we saw him come out of a different garage and back to his car again.

Still, no cops showed up.

We waited for 45 minutes, and finally a police car drove up. The officer was really uninterested in the situation and wanted to get away as soon as he could. He barely even looked around.

We told him that anyways the guy was long gone, since we had waited over 40 minutes for him.

The officer said that he had only then received the call to come to this location, saying it was called in as a “suspicious character” when actually we had called in about a breaking and entering.

After 15 minutes of arguing with us, he said “Why didn’t call your own people?” 

We asked what he meant and he said, “The Shmira or Shomrim. They’re your guys, you should call them!”

We were shocked. “So you are saying we should’ve called unarmed, unprepared and unprofessional people instead of the police?” we asked him in amazement.

“Well, you know they have a much better response time than us,” he replied.

When we asked him to at least look at the area we witnessed him attempting to break into homes and garages, he quickly looked and then said, “I’ve got more important things to do,” and left.

A little while later a Sergeant knocked on my door, to get information from us. When we asked him why it took 40 minutes for the police to show up, he said, we only have 8 officers on duty tonight in this area, and there were other things going on at the time so we couldn’t spare them.

Response to COLlive from the NYPD 71st Precinct:

“The reason there were only 8 cops on duty was because all of the Hate Crime Task Force patrols end at 9:00 pm. Also, the block this occurred on was not included in the extra patrol area, since none of the hate crime incidents occurred past Albany Avenue, so that’s where the extra patrol ends.”

COLlive asked if this is the same individual that has been terrorizing the neighborhood since the summer?

Police officer’s response: “I don’t know unless there is an identification made, but that individual is, in fact, out there. He was arrested recently but the judge released him on his own recognizance, since there was not enough evidence to keep him. He is out there on the streets again.”