Clayton’s Corner: A Crisis of Crime on the LES
Photo: Clayton Patterson
A crisis is happening in our community. I am sure most of you are aware of how dangerous our neighborhood has become. Little news.
Not sure what we can do except tell each other to be careful. At night, I tend not to wander the streets as much anymore, but sometimes head to crime scenes. When I went to document the shooting of a 16-year-old just off the Williamsburg Bridge a few weeks ago, I noticed how close it was to the road rage shooting that left a 75-year-old woman injured on Clinton Street last February. Every night, it is either a knife robbery, stabbing, gunshots, and on and on.
Delancey is very dangerous after dark, too. My whole block of Essex Street is a crime zone. The restaurant sheds block cameras, and create dark places to hide. No cops. And a wild time goes on. Criminals act in teams; some sit in the community and spot for the robbers down the block. Or some are in cars and instruct robbers what they see, and so on.
Case in point. I was sitting in my window one night, and saw a guy with a bike right in front of my door; the other guy near him. Both white, wearing hoodies, and faces covered. The one guy went up to the window of a parked SUV, smashed it, grabbed the backpack within, and both fled.
The crime took less than a minute.
I am writing this because this is our community, and to show what is going on in this city. Cops seem to have disengaged.
Photo: Clayton Patterson
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