The aftermath of the attack.
A man dining outside at Pappardella on 75th Street and Columbus Avenue on Wednesday night was randomly attacked by a stranger during his meal.
The incident occurred around 8:10 p.m. outside the Italian restaurant, which has been serving customers at a sidewalk cafe. “A 56-year-old male victim was having dinner with his wife when approached by an unidentified individual and punched in the face,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “No provocation. Refused medical attention at the scene.” No arrests were made in the case, a spokesperson said.
Update, 1 p.m.: Capt. Neil Zuber of the 20th precinct tells us the man was arrested. That information may have been delayed if he was sent for a medical/psychiatric evaluation. Zuber said the man listed his address as a homeless shelter in Queens.
2nd update, 6:55 p.m.: Capt. Zuber contacted us to say that the victim declined to press charges and thus the man was not arrested. “While the officers were collecting witness statements and video of the assault, with the perpetrator in handcuffs, the victim told them he refused to press charges. Therefore, he was taken to the hospital as an involuntary EDP, and no charges were filed. Before I left the scene I determined he was under arrest, and it never occurred to me the victim wouldn’t cooperate. I apologize for the confusion.”
The assailant appeared to be “impaired/unstable,” according to a witness who had been bicycling nearby when she heard screams. She said she biked after the assailant until he turned around and walked into police. Another witness said the man was “clearly deranged.”
“It was scary because it came out of nowhere without any argument or contact beforehand. In passing. We couldn’t have avoided it,” wrote Pappardella general manager Marion Maur in response to our questions. “The guest recovered and stayed for dinner. Lots of police.”
“All guests stayed and lots of discussion about our changing neighborhood ensued,” she added.
Sad, I ate there recently and had a nice time.
Per the citizen app (admittedly a lot of junk on there), someone was attacked w a baseball bat on
93/bway and shots fired at 91/Amsterdam, both late last night.
What is the citizen app?
Citizen app is to alert you of incidents in your neighborhood. It’s trash. A bunch of ignorant hate filled people spewing garbage.
The app is good – it’s the comments from the idiots trolls that is sewage. But you don’t have to partake or read those.
It’s an app that shows things that have happened in your area (or all over the city if you scroll around on the map). It shows things like traffic accidents, bike accidents, and crimes or incidents that are reported.
I would stay out of the comment sections for the most part, but its a useful tool to keep yourself informed. Like I said, sometimes you have to wade through some junk, but I find it as a useful resource from time to time.
I have that app and didn’t see either of those….
wow – and as we speak, victim reported stabbed at 72nd/Bway train station an hour ago, confirmed by police. This is on the citizen app as of 8 minutes ago.
Just looked again and they’re still there. They appear as white squares because they didn’t happen in the last few hours (newer events are yellow).
“Report of Person Hit with Baseball Bat” (Broadway & 93rd St – 12 hours ago)
“Shots Fired”
(Amsterdam & 91st St – 13 hours ago)
I see – those weren’t in my Notifications section, but I see the dots.
Thanks.
That’s very odd, because I get alerts for Hells Kitchen up through Northern Manhattan, and did not get those. Weird….
I wish we could return to a time when “drunk (or high) and disorderly conduct” and “disturbing the peace” were criminal offenses. I am tired of the rights of other people to do what they want are prioritized over my right to live peacefully. It really isn’t that hard.
And please don’t tell me that this is how it used to be and it gives the city character.
These are different kinds of “rights.” The right to live peacefully is a conceptual, societal right that is not a matter of law. The “rights” of individuals to be drunk, or disorderly, are a matter of law, either local or constitutional. In other words, you can pass a law against disorderly conduct (assuming it passes constitutional muster) and decide to what degree to enforce it, but you can’t pass a law entitling someone to be able to live peacefully. The latter is a matter of measuring the degree to which to want to pass and enforce laws limiting individual behavior of others to the extent that they prevent us from having that peaceful existence.
Hi EdNY, I don’t know if you were responding to me, but my query was based on the following assertion by Juan, at the top of this thread. (It seems like you, too, might be responding to Juan.)
Juan said:
“I wish we could return to a time when “drunk (or high) and disorderly conduct” and “disturbing the peace” were criminal offenses. I am tired of the rights of other people to do what they want are prioritized over my right to live peacefully.”
This implies that the NY State Penal Code for Disorderly Conduct and Disturbing the Peace have been changed. I could find no evidence of this, as far as I can see they are both in the Penal Code, thus criminal offenses.
I am not a criminal code expert, thus my question.
Yes – I was responsing to Juan. There is a never-ending argument about the “broken windows” philosophy of law enforcement (which I personally support), and that’s all well and good. The problem I have is when people pit legal rights (which deal with individual behavior) against moral or societal rights or norms. As I said, no one has the legal right to live in a peaceful environment. There are laws, however, that, depending upon degree of enforcement, can create that peaceful environment. How peaceful, of course, is what makes the whole thing interesting.
have any laws been changed in NY State regarding either “Disorderly conduct” and/or “disturbing the peace”? I just did a web search and they both seem to be criminal offenses.
Admittedly, i am not an expert in NY State Penal codes, so maybe i missed some changes. However, if someone wants to assert there have been recent changes, i would appreciate some documentation, at least a link to the source.
there are an awful lot of sensationalist claims made on WSR lately that are not true.
I agree with you, Juan
You know, this is why the 2nd Amendment exists: it cements the people’s right to protect themselves.
Just before the NY lockdown began we’ve moved from the UWS to a much less densely populated area in Florida. Our sheriff’s department is small, and their area of responsibility is quite large. If I were to call 911 right now, I don’t expect to see red & blue lights outside my house for at least 15 minutes, perhaps more. Thankfully, my 2nd Amendment rights are fully available to me here, and I’m confident that I can take care of the problem myself. I’ll call the sheriffs after I’ve achieved a sense of safety for myself and my family.
NYC has taken away your 2nd Amendment rights on the thesis that you’re a civilized society, but this has never been the case. Your peace, such as it was, was being held together by the police, who put themselves on the firing line every single day in order to keep you and your kids safe. Even the slightest reduction in the vigor with which police enforce the law has led to a spike in crime unseen since the bad old pre-Rudy days. I expect that the 2A crowd will be out in force to remind y’all that this is the social experiment you’ve all been craving for, and its results are quite obvious.
Either bring back the police, or restore the citizenry’s right to protect themselves. Your city is doomed without at least one of those.
A crowded city is no place to be playing cowboy.
Oye
Even money says you’ve never read the second amendment in your life. just something you heard on fox.
I for one am glad you are in Florida. I don’t want to live in a society where everyone is armed and paranoid.
agree! no desire to see NYC become an armed camp with self appointed vigilantes running around and a “stand your ground” mentality – that is not what I call “living”….
Good riddance, Pork Chop!
You belong in Floridumb with the rest
of your gun-loving ilk.
So you’d shoot a man in the street? Hope you stay in Florida.
You are delusional. If the dinner had pulled a gun there would have been deaths.
We need a serious resolution to the violently mentally roaming the street homeless.
Sadly agree ! or The police protects you or you protect yourself ! No third option !
the 2nd Amendment was/is right to bear arms as MILITIA not as private citizen and certainly not as vigilante or with military-grade assault weaponry. of COURSE one has a right & responsibility to defend and protect oneself. those protections are defined and enabled through the bill of rights and protected for legal process under the penal code and local jurisdictions. there is zero legislation of liberals “taking away 2nd amendment rights“. keep to the facts.
Wow. Really glad you’re no longer in NYC.
Glad you moved to Florida. The 2nd amendment was for a militia during the Revolutionary War., hardly what we need today.
Good riddance.
False. In no universe is this why the 2nd Amendment exists.
Actually a perfect example of why is the unlawful attack by the federal government on citizens in Portland.
This sounds like a late-night infomercial for gun rights.
I think you need to read up on why 2nd Amendment exists before lecturing others
Are you really saying that it should be allowed for someone to shoot (and perhaps to kill) a disturbed person by gunshot following a minor physical assault? Don’t you think that would have been out of proportion in this case?
Apparently, the “sucker punch” didn’t cause very much harm to the restaurant patron because the customer denied medical attention and even finished eating his meal! And it was obvious to all onlookers that the perpetrator was not in his right mind.
Oh, then it’s all okay, I guess. No harm, no foul. But the next time I go out for dinner, I’ll wear a catcher’s mask just in case some passer-by decides to punch me in the face.
Pork Chop, sounds like you belong in Florida if you think carrying a weapon on the streets (or in a restaurant) and shooting anyone that causes you a a non-deadly issue is the way to solve problems. Good riddance! BTW- NYers have a second ammendment right, it is just subject to common-sense gun control.
Pork Chop, we haven’t taken away the police, they’ve just decided to stop doing their jobs because they’re angry New Yorkers don’t trust them after years of abuse.
Are you saying that if the person who was punched had been carrying a gun, it would have been a better result if he had shot the man, and all that woudld entail? Is anyone justified in shooting someone who punches them? Do you think that a law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons in NY would reduce these kinds of incidents?
I’m glad you don’t live in NYC anymore
I’m glad you are in FL. Please be sure to stay there.
I was about to say the same thing and then scrolled down! Well said.
Agreed!
Oh, Manhattan Girl, you are so right on! What line of reasoning makes these people think that if someone randomly punches you in the face on the street, pulling out a gun and shooting them in the face will make everything okey-dokey? Or maybe he’s thinking that if guns were allowed in NYC, instead of being ‘sucker punched’, that poor fellow would just have been shot and died like a man, like they do in FL? Honestly….
Why were no arrests made? At the very least, this guy meets the criteria for being a danger to himself or others and should be taken to Bellevue for a psych evaluation. I find it outrageous that someone can assault someone with impunity. Trust me, he’ll do it again. And then everybody will be so sad when he pushes somebody in front of a train.
“Changing neighborhood,” indeed. Thank you, DeBlasio.
This is unbelievable. Random attacks appear to be increasing, along other instances of reprehensible behavior affecting the tax-paying citizens of the UWS. Hello Mayor DeBlasio! Are you here?
What a surprise – the responding police officers aren’t wearing masks.
Snowflakes falling in August.
Geez, science deniers and selfish people in pandemic times. If you think masks are for the weak, then you are a true mental weakling.
THAT’S your concern? A deranged lunatic is walking around our neighborhood sucker punching strangers and you’re upset that the police aren’t wearing masks???
This may shock you, but it is possible to have more than one concern at the same time. Wearing a mask and arresting lunatics are not mutually-exclusive — they should do both.
Well-said!
Covid CAN kill you, sucker punches don’t.
Sucker punches can kill. That may not be the intent but a punch in the face with a fall or if the victim is on blood thinners or is otherwise frail, the result can be fatal. Whether or not it is moral is another issue, but shooting someone who is punching you in the face MAY be legal self defense. I don’t buy into the argument that if you dislike being physically attacked you don’t belong in this city.
The lawlessness has gotten out of control. There is no simply no fear on the part of the criminals that they will be apprehended and brought to justice, because, they will not be apprehended, and they will not be brought to justice. “Bail reform” is directly to blame, along with an utter lack of morale in the NYPD because of no support from the Mayor. #leavethecity
Dont forget II Duce Cuomo , he signed bail reform into law, amongst other despicable things
Oh, Helen. Where do you get your misinformation? The state legislature enacted bail reform, not the mayor. DeBlasio has gone on record that he thinks it should be dialed back. Just google it and you’ll see for yourself. But I’m guessing you prefer to keep making things up.
“The guest recovered and stayed for dinner.”
Maybe instead of a discussion about your changing neighborhood, you should have a discussion about why so many cops were dispatched to address someone being punched (likely by someone with mental illness) who is stable enough finish their orecchiette. Or perhaps have a discussion about the criminalization of mental illness and rapid escalation of police response in situations involving those with mental health issues who are not able to receive the help they need.
I’m sorry, I get that volatile and unexpected incidents are scary and concerning. But I’m getting so disgusted with the NIMBY comments I keep seeing on this site; it mirrors almost exactly the tone of the Nextdoor app and it reveals that, despite the self-proclaimed “progressive” badges of this neighborhood, many longtime residents are first and foremost concerned with keeping their worlds pristine and free of any considerations for those whose lives are more challenging and desperate, and have less good fortune and access to the resources they need.
After confirming the safety and wellbeing of the victim, it would be great if—for once—instead of the “this neighborhood has gone to the dogs” commentary, people would start asking “How can we provide better support and create productive community mechanisms for those struggling with mental illness? How can we lessen the desperation and lack of resources that often lead people to violent acts?”
That’s the kind of neighborhood *I* want to live in. Those are the conversation I’m interested in having.
To Kathryn- the only person that I see in this scenario that needs immediate mental health counseling is you. To think that it is perfectly acceptable to put up with being punched in the head unprovoked is nothing short of perverse & warped thinking at its finest. You demonstrate no empathy nor sympathy for the poor victim in this case. There is something seriously wrong with your values, or lack there of.
I’m a leftist. I want to live in a neighborhood where I won’t get chased with my dog, where my 12 year old son can go back to walking to the basketball court on his own, and where my street isn’t taken over by a squatter who abuses women verbally. These ideas are not mutually exclusive. Based on your comment about a restaurant that is hardly some chi chi Italian joint, I’m going to venture a guess that you haven’t lived her long.
Couldn’t agree more, Kathryn.
Also, as a live-long NYer, I suspect many of the alt-right commenters on this site are trolls.
Janice wrote,
What alt-right commenters?
Believe it or not, most of us “alt-right” people are actually moderate Democrats who will also be voting for Biden (I hope you are voting for Biden). Wanting enforcement of basic quality of life laws doesn’t make you alt-right. And we are not saying those who need help shouldn’t be helped – I am all for supportive services. But if you hit someone in the face, there are penalties for that behavior.
If you vote for Biden you are nowhere near alt-right/right, as you are not voting for Biden, but his VP (Rice or Harris). #TRUMP2020
This is no longer the democratic party of the JFK era. We are now engrossed with an extreme left agenda and it’s supporters have lost touch with reality. Bottom line is we need another Giuliani to systematically bring our city back. Many of you voted for deblasio again and again…and expect different results…and this is insanity. Moving out of the city will not help you, because where ever you go, there you are…remember that.
Thank you for this. We have a systemic racism problem in this country; we also have systemic neglect of those who struggle with mental illness and addiction (often an outgrowth of racism and poverty). All citizens of NYC and this country should be pressing our legislators to care for these people in settings where they don’t harm themselves or others.
Systemic racism is a Democratic talking point to divide the country. I grew up in the projects and now live in an apartment over looking CPW. I did not assault people because I lived in poverty. I worked hard and struggled to make something of myself. Anyone white should not even be Talking about systemic racism
Obviously you don’t live in this neighborhood or even in NYC. If you did, you would know that millions of our tax dollars are wasted on Mayor De Blasio’s wife’s pet project helping (not helping) the city’s mentally ill. Funny how mental illness has become so much more prevalent on the streets and in our subways – crime, grime and the skunk stench of marijuana has increased since De Blasio became mayor. He used to brag that crime decreased, but it’s only because he keeps a different set of books and decriminalized so many acts. I lived in Battery Park city in the early 90s and used to only come uptown for ballet class at Steps. It felt safe here, especially after Giuliani and Bloomberg. The city is going to pot now. Friends – veteran New Yorkers – are moving to LA and Texas. Now I live in the UWS and am scared to go outside for a walk after the sun goes down. I’m thinking of moving to Hawaii.
Maybe the time and place for examining the life story of someone less fortunate and taking their side isn’t right after they violently and randomly attacked and traumatized a stranger, but you do you.
Agree with you, Kathryn.
Compassion and seeking to understand should be the baseline, not suspicion and belligerent prejudice.
When you can’t have dinner without worrying about a mentally ill person punching you, then it is a problem for the neighborhood. And why so many are leaving it.
Who are these many people that are leaving? Aside from those that left temporarily for COVID reasons, I’m not seeing this mass exodus that you and others are touting.
Do you even live on the Upper West Side? It sounds like you don’t, or you don’t leave your home. Everyone who lives here, like I do, have seen moving trucks every day, on almost every block, for the last few months. In the last two weeks, the amount of trucks I’ve seen has nearly doubled.
I can only speak from personal experience.
I live in a building with 20 floors and 7 apartments per floor. Pre covid we were at about 85% capacity while now we’re at about 40%. Of my 10 or so friends who had families, 7 left the city and only 1 plans on returning.
You can say people are not leaving until your face turns blue but I’m my experience, and the experiences of many others, say differently
Take a walk up and down Central Park West, see those trucks on CPW and when you look up at blocks towards Columbus Ave? Those are people MOVING OUT. 300,000 have left in the last few months, with more every day. Moving companies from Manhattan to elsewhere are doing the most business in their history as a company.
So, you’ve got nothing, @UWSHebrew? Thought so.
All good points. I think it’s about time we start our block associations up again. A few already exist in our neighborhoods. That would be a good start in getting this conversation going.
Had a GREAT block association about 4 decades ago. Evolved into Black Parties and the 1st UWS mixed gender volleyball in RSD.
It appears that things are reversing: 1st: establish a block association. 2nd block watch
Getting mental health support for people is an important priority, but no-one should be allowed to physically harm someone else unprovoked and there can be 0 tolerance for dangerous people. That doesn’t mean they should be imprisoned, but they cannot be allowed to pose risk to others. Violence, unless stopped, begets violence.
Good lord! I don’t even know where to begin with this rant.
Unless it were you. Don’t think you’d be so cavalier about the consequences of crime at that point.
And what if it had been more than a glancing blow? Or only matters if the victim was seriously hurt? Since when did crime get politicized.
Pathetic mentality
Thank you, Kathryn. Many people in this country are unemployed, facing eviction, with increasingly bleak prospects of ever getting jobs again. And others are enjoying a pricy pasta dinner outside on a Thursday night on the UWS. I feel crazy just thinking about it, and I have a place to stay, food to eat, and a job.
That man is not an aberration, he is a *symptom* of the disease of inequality in this country. And symptoms, by nature, hurt. That’s the only way we start treating the disease.
[Word-count less text quoted for context from comment I was replying-to is well under limit. And even /with/ quoted-text, 114]
And many more will face unemployment, eviction and increasingly bleak prospects if we do not provide comfortable and welcoming opportunities for those who can afford to enjoy a “pricy pasta dinner” to continue to do so. Chastising and making feel guilty those who inject the life-blood of money into the economy may make one feel morally superior and assuage one’s own feelings of guilt, but does nothing to help society. Total equality of outcome is a Utopian fantasy that attempting to achieve ultimately results in only more misery.
To Kathryn and Valerie: I think perhaps you have indeed gone crazy while thinking about economic inequality. You know absolutely nothing about the assailant or the victim. Instead of sneering disregard for the well being of a 56 year old man who was having dinner in an unpretentious neighborhood cafe, how about some compassion for him as a victim of sudden, random violence? The fact that he wasn’t seriously injured is pure chance…a real impact to him and all who witnessed this incident…and all who think about it…is the diminished sense of safety and comfort to simply exist outside our homes.
An unstable and frightened city will be highly unlikely to care about the less fortunate. Charity in good will and deed will not thrive in a frightened, violence prone community. There must be a sense of balance and proportion which values fairness, compassion and safety for all
You hit the nail on the head. What has been destroyed is the community’s safety and peace of mind. A sense of well-being and relative security is displaced by a fear of attack. While the actual attacks directly involve only a small number of residents, the resulting general fear affects everyone.
The expansion of misery is not the solution to inequity.
You ask — “How can we provide better support and create productive community mechanisms for those struggling with mental illness? How can we lessen the desperation and lack of resources that often lead people to violent acts?” Good questions. Do you see the answers as resting with individual citizens and not the government agencies charged with this responsibility and given billions to execute it?
Whether or not the assailant has mental issues or not, is immaterial. An assault (still a crime) occurred, therefore police should be involved.
Address the issues of mental health all you want. Others would like random acts of violence to cease. Why can’t we have both?
Not wanting to get punched in the face is “NIMBY”?!?!!
No wonder anyone reasonably sane is moving out of NYC as fast as possible.
As the esteemed actor Michael Gerard Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” What’s your plan when you get punched in the face? Are you going to hug the offender, share a nosh at Zabar’s and offer the name of a mental health counselor?
Enforcing the law and providing help to those who have issues are not mutually exclusive. I’m not sure why you think they are. If someone breaks the law (punching someone in the face is breaking the law), they should be arrested. End of story. And yes, we should also be devoting resources to helping people.
reply to Leon:
re the arrest: your beef is with the guy who got punched. the assaulter WAS under arrest, but the victim refused to press charges, for whatever reasons.
Fully agree! The old “I pat myself on the back because I donate to charities, but don’t want to see it in real life” is rampant on the “liberal” UWS. Please
Then I suggest you move to Portland, Kathryn.
So, wait a minute, according to this story, “No arrests were made in the case.”
But yet, a cyclist said that “she biked after the assailant until he turned around and walked into police.”
How is it that the assailant wasn’t arrested if he walked into police?
There’s been an overall uptick in violently disturbed individuals on the streets of the UWS this summer. What will it take for arrests to be made?
Lots of homeless people spotted sleeping on benches along Broadway Malls. Verdi Square is starting to get that old 1970’s shabbiness during some evenings. And with hotels starting to convert into Homeless Shelters (Eg: The Lucerne on W. 79 & Amsterdam Ave.) …what will the Upper West Side be like if tens of thousands of its residents who fled the City decide not to return?
Unfortunately it’s likely going to take something horrific (and avoidable) to happen for this to be addressed or at least garner more attention.
We were there. The man was pacing up and down Columbus bt 75th and 76th. The original altercation took place in front of Da Capo, with him going after multiple people, including chasing a woman and her dog. I called the cops–as did multiple people–and it took them more than 15 minutes to arrive (with two cars, so not tons of cops, considering how many calls were placed). He was definitely handcuffed. Scary–and I hope the man receives treatment for his mental health issues.
Thanks for posting your information. I hope everyone sees this.
This was no “altercation”. This was an assault
Kathryn, I’m sorry…but if someone who is severely mentally ill randomly and violently attacks someone in the street for no reason, my sympathy is for the victim of random violence and not the perpetrator, whether they are mentally ill or not. What if this person attacked that man with a knife or broken beer bottle? What a woman had been raped by a mentally ill person? Would still feel sympathy if either happened to someone you cared about? As to “keeping our worlds pristine” well, why should’t one want to feel safe in their own neighborhoods?
Last Friday I had to pay a homeless person $5 to leave us alone while we ate outside at a restaurant on Amsterdam Ave. I am not naming it, because it is not the restaurant’s fault and its staff were too busy running food and drink orders from inside out in to the street.
Paying extortion only encourages it.
But hey, it’s every person for her/himself, so we got what we got.
Paying people is the last thing you want to do in this situation. It only encourages people to do that more.
Give your $5 to one of the many non-profits that try to help homeless folks get back on their feet.
This article is missing a lot of information. I was eating across the street at ASSET when this all happened. It all started across the street. The man was first heard yelling closer to De Campo. Pushed a young women and her dog. Then yelling began. He started spitting at a bunch of people near De Campo. He kept leaving and coming back. And one point someone got hit with a chair. Then he went across the street to the Italian restaurant. The incident just begin at the Italian restaurant.
I can vouch for that. He’d been beating up and getting beaten up by people and raging around the area for a solid ten minutes. Clearly mentally ill and semi-uncomprehending. The police took a long time to show up.
https://twitter.com/savetheuws
#savetheuws
Somebody who is going around randomly assaulting people, regardless of the severity of injuries inflicted or not inflicted, is not fit to be living in the community in general. This was not a quarrel that erupted and ended in an assault, but an unprovoked attack. I hope the individual was brought to the ER to be placed under observation or evaluated for hospitalization. They may have a treatment team that needs to be notified. There are mechanisms in place to treat individuals like this and support them in living successfully in the community. This is a failure of the system.
Intoxicated black man about 6’2” with dreads wearing no shirt was randomly attacking passing pedestrians and moving cars on the corner of 70th and West End yesterday, Tuesday, August 5th at 4:30pm.
He was yelling incoherently, hitting passing cars with his open hand, and attempting to strike multiple passerbys and did strike a glancing blow to a white male about 60 years old.
This occurred about 300 feet from P.S. 199 on a corner where hundreds of elementary kids would be crossing throughout the day during the school year.
I’ve lived in this location for 7 years and a total of 15 in the UWS. I’ve walked my kids to P.S. 199 for 5 years. I’ve never witnessed anything like this until yesterday.
Two data points don’t make a trend, but their existence in the absence of prior observations does raise questions.
Tell Governor Cuomo this is why rich people are not returning to the City from their vacation homes. One of the reasons.
Another is Covid-19, lest we forget.
Covid-19 is not unique to the UWS
Its a backwards world, people get arrested immediately if they deface the BLM mural on 5th avenue, But here we have an entire neighborhood being defaced in broad daylight every day and nothing is getting done. The community needs to organize and not be placated by meaningless statements from worthless politicians.
Why was there no arrest if the assailant “walked into police?” That seems to be an integral fact in this story and yet it is not addressed.
This happened to my 3yr old granddaughter while eating
with her parents and myself in San Francisco in January. She was unprovoked harassed by a homeless person who came into the restaurant and than also threw water ( off the table ) into another child’s face . The only difference here is that thank god in NYC we are talking about it and the police came. In San Francisco everyone acted as if it’s normal and barely received and apology from restaurant .
I walked by right after it happened. The man he hit was bleeding from the back of the head. He was violently attacking people on the sidewalk and kicking dogs, as others describe. He was held in the back of a police van, so maybe was in fact arrested or hospitalized. As for the “NIMBY” issue: A few weeks ago I was outside Black Press, and a homeless white guy with light-colored dreads threatened an elderly man with violence if he didn’t give him $5. I’ve seen this guy hanging out on Amsterdam, so probably the same person the other posted encountered. As for mental illness, a lot of these people are addicts / alcoholics, not mentally ill. I know the struggles personally–and the recovery rate from drug addiction/ alcoholism is very low under the best of circumstances. If you’re expecting “treatment” to help someone who even with the best resources can be violent, you’re living in a fairyland. And as a female, I won’t apologize for not wanting to be afraid of rape or assault when I walk home at night, or wanting to enjoy a moment on a bench without being harassed. I have compassion and have helped personally a number of elderly and female homeless in the neighborhood. I’ve bought cold medication and tea and food for an elderly homeless woman; I’ve bought blankets and food for a female who clearly had dementia and called an ambulance. I enjoy speaking with and trying to help people who have fallen on hard times, because I’ve been there (and may be again). But there’s a big difference between the homeless–and violent offenders who happen to be homeless. There should not be so many men’s shelters in the neighborhood, especially with drug addicts and sex offenders. Not everyone responds to treatment, and they should be in a less populated neighborhood where they won’t be affecting the quality of life. And yes–I have a right to my quality of life. Someone’s violent tendencies do not take precedence over my right to walk without fear of assault or harassment. And I am a Democrat, and support BLM. I also am glad I saw the cops there last night. You really can hold both viewpoints.
I agree with most of what you say Wicki, however, addiction and substance abuse are mental illnesses. And regardless of the efficacy of the American medical system’s treatments of addiction, better they receive treatment than be left on the streets.
I’m sorry, that is way too reasonable. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. That was refreshing to read. Thank you for sharing your view.
NYC has gone to the dogs.
Don’t insult the dogs.
Assault, they have the guy, but no arrests. The victim needed to ask for an arrest. Later, charges can be dropped, but get the perp off the street.
The law says you can’t institutionalize someone unless there is evidence they are a danger to themself or others. Clearly someone so deranged they wander the streets punching random strangers is a danger to others.
A similar incident happened in front of Pappardella last Wednesday (7/29) too. It seemed a man had stolen something and was being chased down the block by a fellow UWSer trying to get his possessions back.
This is exactly why change is needed. How can we support local businesses when our neighborhood isnt safe and there are deranged individuals walking around.
Exactly. We can’t have outdoor dining if we are in fear of being assaulted. We are TRYING to support the local businesses, but it will fail if there is no law & order. And just because you are eating at a UWS restaurant doesn’t mean you are a MILLIONAIRE. Maybe I shouldn’t support my local restaurant but buy some weed instead. I can get it right on my corner.
You can even get it right to your door 😉
This may have been the same individual that my wife and I saw at 76th and Columbus. We were on the opposite side of the street. He was shouting obscenities and then pursued a woman walking her dog. She ran and he gave chase. Others on that side tried to help and there were punches thrown and a chair from a restaurant used as a weapon. We called 911 and were given a runaround. What’s with the police? We saw no response. The man was then headed south on Columbus. He really needed to be stopped, and that the police did not respond quickly may have resulted in further injuries.
Just a question – was the assailant part of the group
of men newly housed in our local hotels?
Captain Neil Zuber “said the man listed his address as a homeless shelter in Queens.”
He was actually placed in handcuffs, by police and was sent to the hospital via ambulance.
Perhaps unrelated. Perhaps not. About 500 homeless drug addicted and/or mentally ill men relocated to 3 hotels between West 77th and 86th (predominantly 283 at the Lucerne 79th and Amsterdam) on July 27th. I’ve already noticed myriad problems. Just saying, 500 men with difficulties in such a concentrated area of a residential neighborhood might be a tad, well, words fail me. 500.
Who knew? This is breaking news.
We have a systemic racism problem in this country; we also have systemic neglect of those who struggle with mental illness and addiction (often an outgrowth of racism and poverty). All citizens of NYC and this country should be pressing our legislators to provide funding to care for these people in settings where they don’t harm themselves or others.
What does racism have to do with this? Yes, racism is a major problem, but it has nothing to do with this situation. Unless the criminal was white and hit a black restaurant patron solely because of his race. Which could be the case, but I don’t think that is what you are getting at and there is nothing to lead us to believe that.
Seems like you are pulling a Trump and distracting us from the real issue at hand.
1960s deinstitutionalizations to save money were not well managed for decades.
Didnt Deblasio fund a billion to hiscdear wife for that worthless Thrive organization?? How much more should be wasted??
we pay in NYC 50% tax and have the highest property tax in the world. Other states with much less taxes has much less of this problems , so maybe the issue is who is mayor and governor ?? !!
Nobody to blame but those who keep voting for all the “progressives” that work so hard to to destroy this once-great city.
The man got punched in the face because in the last 2 weeks they have moved over 700 homeless ppl into the hotels within 2 blocks of there. I got harassed the other day for no reason. That is not helping Covid packing ppl in hotels when they are congregating all over the streets..especially 79th street.Paramedics in NYC can’t get hotel rooms after doing 16 hour shifts and driving hours to work ! BTW..I support helping homeless families but these are all men living together and the majority have mental illness and drug problems. They are NOT families or ppl affected by losing their homes from Covid.
Being a true West Sider he apologized to his assailant for the presence of the police, gave him five dollars and invited him to dinner.
Ha, ha! It’s funny because it’s true-ish. The victim didn’t press charges.
Did you notice that the police were called? So, do you believe in “ Law and Order,” after all? Mayor DeBlasio’s wife was given money to handle the situation with the homeless and mentally challenged but it only got worse and the people who came to help were the police.
I will be 70 yrs old soon.I grew up on 67th and Amsterdam Ave.That was the old NYC.
This incident would never haver happened back then.Just by chance if it did the attacker would have never made it out of the area.The neighborhood guys would have “taken care of bussiness”.
I MISS THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
Show the cops some love.You may see more of them.
Just Sayin………………………….
I KNOW,BELIEVE ME…………
If I have to “show more love” to the police to get them to their jobs, they should not think of themselves as a “professional force.”
It’s a difficult, often impossible job, and they have been criticized, both fairly and unfairly. Still, I wish I had the kind of job that would let me sulk for a few months, build a barricade around my desk, as on West 82nd, and reduce my effort and my output.
Time for many on the force to snap out of it and step up.
We have spent billions to deal with the homeless under DeBlasio so to say that we as tax payers don’t care or it’s NIMBY being upset at random attacks is misguided, misinformed and this is why we have the NYC that we have today. Why didn’t we have these problems under Giuliani and Bloomberg? And why do we now that we are paying literally billions for the support that Kathryn espouses. I wanted to help the homeless but I’d this is what my tax payer dollars buy them me and the homeless population then count me out.
Can’t wait for all those who fled during the pandemic to their second home to come back and save the rest of us still here in the city.
Welcome to the new UWS. You all got what you voted for and support. It will not change until hopefully we get Ray Kelly as mayor.
Do we know if the homeless men moved into three UWS hotels have case workers if they have behavioral problems including former drug users in danger of relapsing?
People die all the time after being sucker punched. A punch to the head can do permanent damage, and often can knock the person out, leading them to smash their heads on the sidewalk. Would love to see all the people here minimizing the effect of a sucker punch, saying it’s no big deal, to volunteer to have a thug take a full swing at their head when they don’t expect it. I bet they’d have a different opinion then.
Wow. Reading all this makes me miss/not-miss living on the UWS. I grew up on 99th between Broadway and Amsterdam.
I left NYC to escape the street violence back in 1966. Now it’s deja vu all over again.
Now live in Worcester, MA. Not heaven, but not the hell that the UWS is.
Here’s a story: look at the history of the assailant and note all the times our 1.25bn Thrive program made helpful interventions to help him and protect the public.
Whilst the homeless issues and the number of people with significant mental health issues has undoubtably got way way worse on the UWS over recent months this is a city wide epidemic brought on but the massive failings of the Democratic ‘leaders’ (I say that in the loosest sense of the word). Cuomo bit especially that complete clown DeBlasio are destroying this city day by day. It is nigh on impossible to sit and have dinner on the sidewalk without people begging, abusing and in this instance assaulting people. It is an absolute disgrace but their policies and failings to assist those needing help have led to this lawlessness. They are a disgrace and should be thoroughly ashamed.
This and an unprovoked stabbing at the nearby subway station today by another deranged vagrant.
This will keep happening until either new leadership is elected. We had none of these problems before our neighborhood became an unsupervised dumping ground for the city’s problems.
If we don’t want to have homeless sprawled on our sidewalks, leaving their garbage all over, smoking pot with their dogs etc. etc. there is a quick and easy solution: STOP GIVING BEGGARS MONEY. Know why you don’t see panhandlers in bad neighborhoods? Because people there have their number.
Lisa, you are exactly right. I told my husband the same thing – I refuse to hand out money to homeless in our neighborhood otherwise they’ll think the UWS is a juicy generous area. Today was the first day in 2 weeks that we decided not to go for a walk after work. Over the last week we noticed so many more homeless in Amsterdam and Broadway lurking on the street corners in twos, trying to approach us to sell illicit substances and handing something to each other. Another guy waked by us yelling angrily at everyone and then punched a boarded up window. It was nerve-wracking. I think the victim who was sucker-punched at Parapadella restaurant should have pressed charges and allowed the attacker to be arrested. If the attacker comes back to the UWS and punches someone else’s mom, dad or grandparent on the street, they might hit their head on concrete or asphalt and not be so lucky to get up with minor injury. People have died from being sucker-punched and falling on the street..
Why are comments permitted on this story while they appear to have been disabled for “Woman Stabbed at Subway Station; Assailant at Large?”
hope the dinners were comped!
why should they be? not the fault of the restaurant.
raff: “Hope the dinners were comped!”
UWSHebrew: “why should they be? not the fault of the restaurant.”
Perhaps the politicians responsible for the policies that have resulted in this breakdown in quality-of-life and civilization we are witnessing should be made to compensate their constituents, the ones who pay their salaries. Pappardella incident is but one of countless travesties, many reported in WSR comments– one of which advertises new Twitter #savetheuws. Find there shocking accounts and photos documenting the abject squalor and degeneracy (including men, on the streets in broad daylight, brazenly indulging in very public, wantonly lewd behavior.)
These events are deeply troubling and we should express our sympathy for the victims and concern for our safety, but the vitriol, hysteria and fearmongering expressed by some will only encourage more rational people to flee our beloved community.
Violence and abuse should not be tolerated by anyone, from anyone and that includes wanton destruction of the environment, poisoning our communities with toxins, financial abuse from greedy individuals and institutions, violence by “authorities” and violence by individuals. We as a society must identify and call out all forms of violence and abuse. We must identify the root causes and take collective action to end it. it’s insanity to think some forms of violence and abuse are tolerable and some are not.
Decades ago, public institutions that treated mentally ill people were privatized or shut down, forcing sick people onto the streets. While funding for public services was slashed to the bone, budgets for police and prisons skyrocketed. Police officers who are not mental health professionals are now expected to deal with all of the problems caused by austerity, injustice, brutality and economic exploitation, in addition to theft and violence. While cities across the country slash budgets for education and parks, police budgets continue to grow by the billions (https://popularresistance.org/police-budgets-are-ballooning-as-social-programs-crumble/).
We must immediately reinvest our scarce resources in public services that serve the needs of the community to ensure the health and well-being of every New Yorker. Only public services are accountable to the people, giving everyone a voice in how they are managed.
Daniel, what you are advocating is the San Francisco plan. They spend a billion dollars a year on social services and the problems just get worse and worser.
Maybe it’s the wrong idea.