The NYPD is ramping up its presence in Central Park after a spate of robberies and a sexual assault in the park over the past few days. NY1 reports that officers will be in uniform and in plainclothes.
“There will be more officers both inside the park and around the perimeter,” said NYPD Chief Carlos Gomez. “The precincts that border the park are also giving it extra attention and extra patrols. You’ll see more officers in uniform. There will be plainclothes officers patrolling the parking, as well as officers on scooters.”
Police say the robberies have contributed to an uptick in park crimes this month, but overall, crime has been down 17 percent in Central Park this year.
File photo by Wilson Santos.
Fast response. This can ease everyone’s mind.
Any word on the situation with broken streetlights in Central Park? Lights have been out sporadically all over the park for months, with a particularly bad stretch between East 83rd and East 90th.
Great news but Central Park needs to make sure all the lights are working. Even at 8pm, main areas of the part on the east side(engineers gate) are pitch black because the lights are not working.
How about better lighting for runners?
Why is this being done? This is the anti cop pro blm UWS. Youre getting what you voted for and deserve. The Ferguson/YouTube effect ensures crime increases in NYC. A female cop in Chicago got her head slammed intonthe sidewalk and told her bosses she didn’t shoot the guy because she didnt want her family to have to deal with the backlash. She didnt want to be on CNN. The same thing is happening here. The fact that some of you want more cops is ridiculous. Liberals complaining about crime and asking for cops.Pathetic. Dont worry. The cops will drive around and go home safe and preserve their salaries, health care, pensions, and reputations. You wanted a less aggressive force. You got it.
I agree, but you’ll never get liberals to…remember there is their view and the wrong view.
We who pay our taxes pay for the police and other municipal public servant’s services.
They are expected to do their job
including protecting liberals.
How many UWS liberals pay the same amount in taxes as Donald Trump? Mitt Romney was right about Russia and all the non taxpayers. Half at least probably pay no taxes so please stop with that.
Well, I pay taxes. I’m a liberal. I want to see an end of shootings of unarmed black men. And I respect, admire and support police – but do expect them to do their job, and to help deal with problems when they arise. Doesn’t seem inconsistent to me.
What a crock of shit. Being Pro-BLM does not automatically mean Anti-Cop. You can’t seem to distinguish the two, which is unfortunate. Can you provide sources regarding the Chicago police officer? Or is it anecdotal?
Siddhartha- The story regarding the female cop in Chicago- which happened a week ago- was covered by ABC 7 Chicago/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Sun Times etc. Her supervisor relayed the story about her not wanting to shoot and the incident was captured on video by a local business. Have you read any of blm’s demands and statements? They are anti cop. Most people shot by cops are white. Can you name one? The NYT had a an article about this on 7/12/16. The truth can be awfully inconvenient.
Is there not a middle ground between stop & frisk (and associated police intimidation including, in limited cases, police brutality) and cops sitting in their cruisers all day?
Why would any sane person go into the park after it becomes dark? There is no reason to be in the park at night unless you are looking for trouble. I have lived in the city for 2 decades and I would never enter the park at night and I live on CPW.
A group of three people tried to mug me in Central Park during the day at 4pm on a weekday. And I did not have a cellphone on me but they thought I did. I have not felt safe since.
And no I didn’t vote for DeBlasio either.
As have stated repeatedly on this forum one goes biking in CP “after dark” all the time. That and or either on bike or foot crisscross the thing to get from one side of town to another. However common “NYC street sense prevails.
You do also realize that now that Fall has arrived it is “dark” in CP by 7PM.
I don’t flash my Iphone, nor have earbuds in with volume turned way up. In short am constantly aware of my surroundings and that includes those within or entering my immediate space.
The young woman who was attacked (and am not blaming her), apparently (according to published news reports), upon entering CP put in her earphones and put up her hoodie. Well that is not a very healthy thing to do.
That being said the stretch of East Drive from about 84th to 92nd streets has been “dark” for months now. Several street lights have been broken and despite complaints/reports nothing has been done.
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160929/park-slope/runners-lights-prospect-park-central-park
Money to “improve” West Meadow the Central Park Conservancy group has; repairing street lights seems not to be on their agenda.
It’s dark at 5pm during the winter. I know you live your privileged CPW life but some of us need to walk pets, exercise etc after that late (eye roll) hour. What’s i can’t comprehend is how you’ve apparently given up on access to one of the world’s great parks for such a large amount of time out of fear and, apparently, defeatism. I hope I don’t get this way as I get old
“What’s i can’t comprehend is how you’ve apparently given up on access to one of the world’s great parks for such a large amount of time out of fear and, apparently, defeatism. I hope I don’t get this way as I get old”
me too
Perhaps groups could be organized to watch over runners in a designated area? Each person equipped with a cell phone, flashlight and whistle.
I work during the day and the only time I am able to get outside to run or bike is at night. I imagine the same is true of many of the other people I see in the park at those times.
Um, good for you? Many of us are marathon training and need to run before it gets light or once it’s already dark. We don’t deserve to be sexually assaulted for that.
The park is very busy with athletic clubs until 10pm year round.
Insane people who work and are training for the NYC Marathon. I guess it would be normal to you that all of us runners get in our training before the time of year when it gets dark at 6:45. That would be “insane”
Good for you. Maybe sometime when I’m not working from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., I’ll do the same thing. Until then, I’ll go out and run before 6 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. because that’s when I can do it. And no, the treadmill at the gym doesn’t cut it.
I’ve lived in New York for over 20 years and have never seen the light situation as bad as it is now.
This is what happened in CP when I moved here
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/24/nyregion/2-teen-agers-held-in-stabbing-death-of-man-found-in-park.html?_r=0
Scary. De Blasio was mayor then, right?
I remember that case vividly. Both ‘kids’ only served 6 years in jail after butchering their drinking buddy. Not exactly a random CP killing. As for the lighting at the Engineers Gate on the UES, that’s a prime area for muggings because everyone on 5th Avenue walk their dogs there at night. I just assumed there were perpetrators intentionally knocking out those lights.
Insane people who work and are training for the NYC Marathon. I guess it would be normal to you that all of us runners get in our training in before the time of year when it gets dark earlier. That would be “insane”
Yes, all hobbies have upsides and downsides… some are expensive, some are time consuming, some are dangerous, etc.
We all make our own decisions in life and we are all responsible for the consequences.
Good luck out there and be careful.
There never should have been a reduction in patrols in the first place. There is an NYPD Precinct assigned just for Central Park with an enormous budget. Where were the patrols prior to this?
“When it’s dark, don’t go in a park”. If you’re a woman and insist on doing so, you are delusional. Women don’t realize how easy a target they are for any man, you’re so physically weak compared to any male aged 14 and up. It is too tempting for a criminal who wants to rob or rape you to go for it if they think they will not get caught. WAKE UP.
Yeah, and all you defenseless women, hurry up and get married so that your husbands can defend you and your honor. Just common sense. WAKE UP!
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@roz just because I’m not a left-wing liberal Jew like you Roz, it means I’m gross? Go watch Sarah Silverman and cackle to yourself.
UWSHebrew, you’re gross because you keep blaming the victim.
How about we start blaming people for using soap in their tubs when they fall and break their hip. I mean, everybody knows that soap gets slippery when wet and they must be delusional to think that their brittle hips can take such a fall. Shame for using soap, shame! They should’ve known better.
Again, the moral responsibility of not getting sexually attacked should never be placed upon the victim. By doing so you’re in fact blaming the victim by implying that the victim had a part in this. It sends the wrong message and further alienates the victim which is surely shocked and traumatized from such a heinous crime.
I think people do it because it makes them feel safer. They tell themselves: “that will never happen to me because I’m smarter than that!” But that’s BS, and it’s damaging language like this that hurts deeply and prevents victims from healing and also tends to create a rape culture within society as a whole.
There is a difference between blaming the victim and having common sense. Women are a target. Senior citizens are a target. Children are a target. If saying that a woman in a park after dark is at risk for being raped and beaten makes me “gross”, I feel bad for insistence of this characterization.
Perhaps a “meet-up” board could be established to arrange groups that could jog (or exercise, walk, etc) together.
That would be a good use of social media.
Wow, the cops must be reading WSR!
now to get the guy who is responsible for the lighting to join the conversation.
Need more unbreakable lighting.
If you are going to run during hours when it is still dark, why not join a running group or start one? There quite a few groups that run in the evening in preparation for the marathon.
And if you are ever in the park alone DO NOT listen to your portable devices. Be alert!
Being in CP in the dark alone IS dangerous.
I’m a 2nd generation NYer and I’m always aware of my surroundings. That’s something native NYers learn from childhood. How about you newbies listening to us?
I don’t understand why so many of you poo-poo that. It’s and big city and the are plenty of people who will take advantage of someone who is careless.
NY is much safer than it has been in at least half a century, but it isn’t that safe everywhere and at all times.
There were a lot of NYPD patrols in Central Park tonight while I was out running. It was a great comfort to see them out there.
That is the problem, there is always a show of force after an event and or surge in crime. It will last a few weeks, then quietly numbers of LE are reduced to normal levels.
NYPD needs more feet walking the beat and or on bikes and that includes the parks. Driving around the drives in patrol car or on motor bike isn’t the same.
Bingo. Our method of policing is ineffective at reducing this type of crime in generally good areas. All they do is react afterwards for a short while to make people believe they’re actually accomplishing something for their safety but they’re too late already. I doubt many people would become cops if it meant having to walk a beat; they just drive around pulling cars over for traffic violations and keep themselves safe, not the public.
I vote for dannyboy as president of the group to watch over the runners—I’ll supply the “whistles”…..
Light up another fattie…
I second that….and pass it down here next please.:)
One Love!
there is no chance of you playing a responsible part.
thanks for the reminder
bring your piece
Yes A woman jogging with an AR-15 would be completely safe even after midnight and a new I-phone 7 in her hand
…and put out that fattie. This is work for responsible people.
For much of the past 20 years, I’ve lived on the West Side and worked on the East Side. Public transport being what it is, I can get to and from work in about the same time by bus, subway, or walking on a diagonal through Central Park. When I walk, my carbon footprint is zero, and if enough people do it, the park stays safe simply because of the traffic. I’m also more likely to do a little shopping on my way home.
Spending a little money to keep the park safe at night is a good investment for the city. Letting it become a scary, dark breeding ground for crime every night seems like a bad idea.
Hey Bronx Boy we got a lot in common.
I’ve been riding my bike in the park at 4:15 AM 3-4 times / week for the past 4 years. CP is an amazing amenity that I feel very lucky to have access to. This is one of the safest places and times to ride a bike in the city, no vehicular traffic, almost no pedestrian traffic, well maintained rode surface and (mostly) well illuminated. In the last 4 years, the police have kicked me out 3 x for being in the park during off hours. I’m willing to take the risk as it’s still very safe relatively speaking. Would really think the cops would spend their time more wisely other than chasing me out. I’m in my office by 7:00AM and this is really the only time that works for me. Hoping they fix the lights and the that the cops exercise common sense. That’s all I’m asking for
Sad to say, I don’t think they’re effective. On CPW yesterday, I saw the same gang of rowdy teens on bikes that I witnessed assaulting an older couple in Riverside park 2 months ago. Mid-day for both. As an aside, I met Curtis Sliwa in the 86th 1 station recently, and am glad to report his group is still active. Stay alert & safe!