Description
Someone was mugged at around 11:45 pm by two men, one on a bike and one on foot. We called police and it took 1/2 hour to respond. After they mugged someone, they recircled Olive. This street is too dark! We need more lights and more police presence in Wooster Square.
44 Comments
Thomas Brady (Guest)
Janna (Guest)
Erin (Guest)
Janna- I couldn't agree more. I live on lower Court St and am watching this issue so if you can get a meeting scheduled, please post it here. We also need the victims to make police reports, so I hope people will spread the word to anyone they know who was mugged. It sounds like these incidents might involve the same boys and it's time those boys learned that we're watching, and that we will catch them.
Thomas- I've seen the same officer "watching" Wooster Square, but he is definitely not regularly on patrol, and when he is there it's only from 5-7pm that I can tell. And yes, he simply stands still on at the corner Greene St and Academy and stops drivers he thinks haven't come to a full and complete stop at Wooster Place and Greene St. Has anyone else had to hear his "tortoise and hare" story he's telling drivers (quote: "doesn't matter how fast or slow you roll through the intersection, it's still not a complete stop")?? Honestly! We're paying through tax dollars for him to stand there to give the appearance to neighbors that they are being protected, and we now see that he isn't capable of protecting the victims from his sweet spot at Greene and Academy. Time to move him to Olive and Court, and place plain clothes officers at Court and Artizan for daily patrols until these boys are arrested. This must STOP!
joey (Guest)
This clik fix site has threads two miles long about motorists not stopping for stop signs ,which is downright terrifying if one is trying to cross..Berate a violator of the offense and one can have a violent incident on their hand..but placing a cardboard cutout cop on the corner is only going to place the little crows on his shoulder
Luke (Guest)
Mark Green (Guest)
Is the cop there on OT ? Posing , prancing, pretending to scribble on a pad , surfing the web for on-line comments about them while-ing away the hours in lots.
BETTY SMITH (Guest)
Community Neighbor (Guest)
The Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team is a great forum for these issues, a good way to receive the monthly crime stats, and a way to speak with the district manager each month.
The meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6pm in a meeting room at city hall.
join us online here:
http://groups.google.com/group/dwscmt
I will pass this and the other thread (http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/7714) to Lt. Sweeney and see what information can be found.
Best,
Doug Hausladen
Vice-Chair
DWSCMT@gmail.com
Community Neighbor (Guest)
Resident (Guest)
Reporting lighting outages, and adding lighting where it is insufficient, is essential.
This section of Court Street could use more lighting. I don't live in the immediate area, but have walked across the Court bridge several times around 9-10PM at night over the past few months. The street did not feel particularly safe, and I heard of several muggings, so I now prefer the Grove-Olive route.
I agree that additional police enforcement could help, particularly if the suspects were caught. Citizens should organize and call in any suspicious activity.
Additionally, improving the condition of the pedestrian crossings along State Street (e.g., with raised crosswalks and bump-outs) would help bring more pedestrians to the area. Currently, the width and speeds along State Street discourages pedestrian activity between Downtown and Wooster Square. The more comfortable people feel walking, the more pedestrian activity there will be, which helps improve safety (at least until a particular hour of the night).
Finally, improving the conditions and appearance of the grounds along Court would help. There are some overgrown bushes and rusty fences along the Smoothie apartments. The blue housing complex is not well maintained either. There is also rubbish and graffiti on the street at times. Many studies have proven the "broken glass" theory -- when physical space is kept in good condition, crime drops dramatically. Individuals should report any issues related to public space on this website, so they can be fixed by the appropriate authority.
For the time being, it seems advisable to not walk alone here late at night, and to be very aware of your surroundings on this street at all hours. Visually scan the streets for several blocks in each direction for signs of trouble, avoid walking too close to alleyways or doorways, and do not be afraid to turn around and walk or jog in another direction if you sense potential danger. Walking very quickly and/or bicycling is also a great way to reduce the chance of a mugging or purse snatching. Of course, there are many residents who do not have the ability to do these things as well, so personal safety can only go so far.
This is a serious quality of life issue that must be addressed.
Ben (Guest)
This street it too dark.
Local (Guest)
Community Neighbor (Guest)
I was informed by the NHPD that there have been 3 robberies reported in the Court St area and that they are working on solid leads in the 3 cases.
I will let you know if there's any more information from the management team
Community Neighbor (Guest)
Resident (Guest)
Community Neighbor (Guest)
I have posted some documents to the DWSCMT google group concerning how to report street light outages, July and August crime stats, as well as a flyer for our September 15th meeting which is a meet & greet of NHPD officers - which may be of interest to those on this thread.
The latest message sent out:
http://groups.google.com/group/dwscmt/browse_thread/thread/054da8afef3c7655#
Olive/Court (Guest)
Thomas Brady (Guest)
Thomas Brady (Guest)
joe a.h. (Guest)
Oh yeah a block watch, make sure you invite everyone from your community not just those who you feel will buy the pizza , and don't just invite the residents who you feel (feel) are not guilty,
Ben (Guest)
Hey Joe,
I fully agree in regards to being all encompassing with the invites.
I think you find with any of these groups that your perceived enemies are sometimes your greatest allies.
Resident (Guest)
Resident (Guest)
A 25-year-old man was robbed of his backpack while walking at Chapel and Union Streets at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. He told police three men came up to him. One punched him in the forehead, causing him to fall down. The trio stole his bag, which contained a laptop computer.
From NHI, http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/08/crime_roundup_28.php
KAREN (Guest)
Abominable (Guest)
yeah move ! Some should , some should stay and make a difference, but more should confer and touch bases with your neighbor .Make a difference. Find out just who owns your home and just how they acquired 40 of those homes . Oh that you know
Yeah move but keep your New Haven home as rental property. Move but sell it yourself. Stay and call 911 until the police get it right. Stay and get involved with politics,maybe you will find out more about who is robbing your empty eyeglass case (see crackbabys) from your car. Stay and find out the baseheads are all in the employ of the community management team. Stay and have a nice conversation with the welfare mother next door who had 9 kids but don't know where one of them is. But can remember all of her boyfriends prison id numbers.
Mike (Guest)
Karen... Thank you for your amazingly articulate insight. It really helps the discussion. Your nuanced, and highly intelligent responses are a big help in solving the problems.
On another note, last night on Court Street, I walked out and saw a woman talking to police about a purse snatching.
I'm afraid things are going to get worse while the economy in in the toilet. So we have two choices, either run away from things and lock yourself behind the false security of the suburbs like a coward, or make smart moves, like not going out at night alone, organize, and take back our neighborhoods.
Thomas Brady (Guest)
Mike I completely agree with you on all counts - that is why, and you may or may not be aware - and if you are I apologize for repeating myself but it is worth repeating here - that on September 9th, 2009 at 7:00pm at the Conte School in the Library (that is the school in Wooster Square) will be the first official meeting of the Court Street/Wooster Square Neighborhood Block Watch. We will be organizing and establishing a strategy with Officer Joe Avery from the NHPD's Neighboorhood Services Department and the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team. As of this afternoon we have 45 people confirmed to attend. I urge you to get involved, invite your friends and neighbors and Karen as well. This will not stand in our neighborhood and we are doing something about it - please RSVP to Karri.brady@yale.edu or T.brady@yale.edu that you can attend and any other people's email address you think may be interested.
Many thanks.
Michael Illian (Registered User)
KAREN (Guest)
Mike (Guest)
Karen,
Personally, I think it's pretty obvious that when there are more jobs to be had, the crime rates go down and when jobs are scarce, crime rates go up. I believe that there have been more than one study showing this to be the case. As far as your overtly xenophobic and classist statements about welfare and "free" health care being the sole cause of crime, it's frankly quite offensive, and really doesn't help solve the issue.
Personally, I think the lack of leadership from the mayor's office is ruining New Haven far more than petty, little thugs. If the mayor isn't going to do anything about it, then it is up to us as denizens of the city to do something.
And please, for the love of all things good and respectable, learn how to turn off the caps lock on your computer.
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Joe Richards (Guest)
The main problem (for years) is the leaders of the City of New Haven do not want to have community policing or beat cops. Each call from a mugged or robbery victim is prioritized by the dispatcher according to the dispatcher's understanding of the crime. Once the call is prioritized, it goes into a que (like a taxi) and eventually the police will arrive unless a priority call comes in. The Mayor and the police chief could do something appropriate but will not because they do not see this as important. A city as important as New haven should have police walking the beat, have triple the number of oficers out there and be making a REAL effort to PREVENT crime by police presence and knowing who the bad guys are so that those bad guys leave or straighten out. The residents of New Haven should willingly pay more to have this protection. I tried New Haven for 7 years, lived in Wooster Square and left because of the crime problems which are accepted by everyone in that neighborhood, every one is robbed, beaten, mugged and cars broken into but the residents, the police and th Mayor continue to be lazy about this and not interested to improve the quality and safety of their community.
New Haven needs a new Mayor and an experienced police chief who will step up and improve the capabilities of the police to walk the beat and be known in the neighborhoods (triple the numbers)!
Joe Richards (Guest)
Anonymous (Guest)
I would appreciate more cops out on foot. I see an overwhelming police presence every time I visit Fair Haven, the Hill, or Newhallville. I find all of the patrol cars rather intimidating, like I'm entering an occupied territory. All the patrol cars everywhere make me feel like I must be doing something illegal. I'd feel much more willing to trust the police and feel like they were on my side if they actually got out of their cars and walked around a bit rather than only getting out to arrest people or supervise roadwork.
(By the way, why is it necessary for police to supervise every bit of roadwork or utility work in this town? Perhaps there's some essential function they are fulfilling, but I have trouble seeing why this is necessary. I've always assumed that it must be some union deal to get more overtime for cops.)
joe richards (Guest)
There should be more activity by the residents!
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Joe Richards:
Would you be willing to help brainstorm a list of concrete actions that can be taken to address this situation? There are a couple other threads about public safety around Wooster Square (including one posted recently by Janna) and they all have very concrete suggestions for improving it.
I see that "more foot patrols" keeps coming up here and on the other threads as one potential fix.
On a related note, I'm not sure that you have a basis for connecting homelessness to other violent crimes like muggings and murders -- if so, please post your rationale here. Are you arguing that the presence of homeless people make other citizens feel less comfortable to be outside at night, which thereby increases opportunity for criminal activity?
It sounds like if large numbers of homeless are living under the highway overpasses in other parts of Wooster Square, that should be reported on a separate "ticket" on SeeClickFix so that the community can organize for action on that as well. It would be helpful to point out the specific locations and times of day. New Haven has a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness, if that is what you are talking about.
I'm sure that someone from the city homelessness collaboratives would be willing to weigh in and work with neighbors on potential fixes to this if you report a separate "ticket" and forward it along as public documentation.
I know that the Downtown-Wooster Square Management Team is trying to work on mobilizing the neighborhood around problems like these, and that they pay attention to all the ideas posted here.
Want to start a list of specific suggestions and next steps?
Joe Richards (Guest)
To Mark (who has requested that I provide concrete actions). I only have One concrete action which is necessary before all of the other ideas will work. It is related to the operating philosophy of the NH police department being centralized rather than community based. Concrete action is to get community based policemen assigned to each neighborhood including beat cops.
I admire the initiative to get all of the neighborhood involved so that more eyes, ears and vocal chords will report more crimes and activities....the problem you will observe eventually is that when anyone makes that telephone call to prevent or report a crime...that call goes into a dispatcher who is working under procedures that are not community based but central police based concept so that telephone call will be prioritized according to life threatening (top priority) or placed in a que which basically goes unresponded to until the policeman is freed up. This operating system by New Haven Police is what works for the budget they have. Go to other cities who are more serious about preventing crime and you will see that community based systems which dedicate police in each neighborhood, they walk the beat, they ride the bicycles, but they stay in the neighborhood they are assigned and they know and listen to the residents and when someone calls the police, the dispatcher knows which policemen to contact for that area. This costs more but it works better than what goes on year after year in New Haven and the leaders there are not motivated to change anything or they would have by now. If you tackle this core problem to change the operating systems of the NH police department, then your second level programs for community watch groups will succeed.
I may respond later to the homeless situation which is yet another symptom of poor leadership in NH.
joe h (Guest)
The suburbs were supposed to be paying some sort of fair share to the city for their residents who use the shelters and other many services available to them. A good percentage of the homeless are from the surrounding communities. You can see some ladling te schlop (mmm but warm and hearty)
to the folks. But boy do they toot their horn about that
joe richards (Guest)
Again, I am hopeful that all of this great community effort can be focused first to demand changes in the New Haven Police Department's operating systems towards a community based policing and no more centralized system which obviously is not working. After so many years of excuses, the Mayor should be ousted because his crime prevention failed and will never work as long as the police department continues to be dysfunctional.
There should be hundreds more policemen in New Haven, assigned to the neighbors and downtown and the residents paying for it. Residents should know by name the policemen for their area and then community watch program will be effective.
Wooster Sq Watch (Guest)
At 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, four men mugged someone at the corner of Court and
Olive Streets. Two of the muggers had handguns. They took a cellphone and a
black wallet with $25. Please FIX!!!!!!!!!!
Jason Stockmann (Registered User)
Joe Richards (Guest)
My crystal ball predicts that there will be murders on Court Street soon. Enough mugging, the bad guys will take it to the next step and use their guns...whay not, there are no efforts by the police to catch these criminals. Residents should ask themselves why it has taken so long.
Ahhhh... yessss...maybe another crime watch meeting will make everyone feel good. That always works, bring in the spokesperson for the New Haven Police and let him say nice comforting words....over and over and over.
New Haven residents voted for the same mayor so they do not have to expect change. This Destafano will not budget the resources to "prevent" crime, he knows the residents of New Haven do not expect him to improve the living conditions and safety of its residents.
With Destafano as mayor, no reason to believe the Police Chief intends to "prevent" crime, he is working with the budget he has and either does not have the eggs to push for bigger budget or is satisfied that the statistics are not high enough (statistics come from reporting crime).
As long as the residents do not report crime, the statistics cannot justify remedial measures and city management will focus on other than policing and crime prevention.
When there are more police in New Haven, more police walking or cycling "the beat" in these troubled areas, the criminals will be caught and the residents and children will be safe in New Haven.
Until such time as the criminals move to a difrferent "feeding ground", I suggest that all persons walking on Court street should wear a bullet proof vest and carry a pistol with 2 clips. Also, when you get mugged, report it to the police and state that you heard a gun shot (so that your call will become prioritized and police will come in 45 minutes)
resident (Guest)
Any progress on the code enforcement issue, AKA, the property managers at Smoothie not giving a rat about the neighborhood?
Good to hear there has been some forward movement on the lighting, but that's not enough.
Closed CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
We had a terrific response from the NHPD. We have installed a camera and lights are coming on the Court Street Bridge. Also, the law office and the Smoothie Building got their parking lot lights on which has helped tremendously. We have not had an incident since Christmas Eve."