Taking a Stand Against Crime

National Night Out

By Bill Ludwig

The 30th annual National Night Out (NNO) against crime will be held on Tuesday,
Aug. 6th.

The 47th Precinct will be holding NNO activities from 4-8 p.m. at Granada Place
between Ely Avenue and Laconia Avenue, across the street from the 47th
Precinct.

This year’s theme is “Respect Your Neighbors - Think Quality of Life!” The opening ceremony will be at 5 p.m. The event is being co-sponsored by the 47th Precinct and the 47th Precinct Community Council. Deputy Inspector Brian Mullen and Community Affairs Officers David Belle and Jason Soto and the 47th Precinct Community Council have planned an enjoyable afternoon and evening for children and adults. Our elected officials have been invited. The 47th Precinct Clergy Coalition will have a prayer march in the vicinity of the 47th precinct starting at 4:45 p.m. before the opening ceremony.

There will be representatives at tables from New York City agencies and other
organizations who will be giving out valuable free information. The League, which is
celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, will have a table and will be distributing
McGruff “Take a Bite Out of Crime” 48 page memo pads. Food and refreshments
will be served. For children’s activities there will be rides and games. There will
also be entertainment for the community to enjoy. Bring the family out, learn about crime prevention, and have fun at the same time.

The slogans this year is: “Get Involved, Help Unite Our Community, Say No to
Drugs, No All Night Parties, Talk to Your Neighbors, Love Your Block, Do Not Block
Your Neighbor’s Driveway, No Loud Music, and A Quiet Neighborhood is a Good
Neighborhood.”

So, what exactly is NNO? It is a unique crime/drug prevention event sponsored
by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW). The NATW is a nationwide organization dedicated to the development, maintenance, and promotion of community-bases, law enforcement-affiliated crime prevention activities. NNO is designed to (1) Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness; (2) Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs; (3) Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and (4) Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Along with the traditional display of outdoor lights and front door porch vigils, cities, towns and neighborhoods “celebrate” NNO with a variety of events and activities such as: block parties, cookouts, visits from local police, parades, flashlight walks, contests, and youth programs. An event doesn’t have to be big or elaborate. It can be as simple as having a conversation in a neighbor’s backyard.

The important thing is to talk to your neighbors and plan to get together. NNO has
proven to be an effective, inexpensive, and enjoyable program to promote neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships in our fight for a safer
nation. More than 37 million people are expected to participate in various anti-
crime programs and activities this year. The event involves 15,000 communities
from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities, and military bases worldwide.

Remember, the key to participating in NNO is: turn your outside lights on, come
outside to meet your neighbors, and participate in your neighborhood’s special
events. This way you can be a part of the nation’s largest annual crime/drug
prevention event on Tuesday evening, August 6th.

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Push-in robbers attack elderly woman

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Push-in robbers attack elderly woman: By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 18- Police are on the lookout for a pair of women who pushed their way into an elderly Baychester wo...

Baychester News: Push-in robbers attack elderly woman

Baychester News: Push-in robbers attack elderly woman: By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 18- Police are on the lookout for a pair of women who pushed their way into an elderly Baychester wo...

Push-in robbers attack elderly woman

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 18- Police are on the lookout for a pair of women who pushed their way into an elderly Baychester woman's home.

Cops released surveillance video of the suspects wanted in connection with he robbery. At around 3:10 p.m. On June 27, two women broke the lock to the front door to the house on Burke Avenue and Eastchester Road. The women pushed their way inside and waved a handgun at the 78-year-old victim. The thieves rummaged through the senior's belongings. The pair grabbed the victim's purse and fled in a two-door silver sedan.

The elderly victim was not injured during he stickup.

The robbers are described as black women between the ages of 20 and 25, 170 to 180 pounds and are around 5 foot 10.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS.The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

Baychester News: White Plains Road will rise again!

Baychester News: White Plains Road will rise again!: COMMUNITY BOARD NEWS N’ VIEWS By Father Richard F. Gorman Chairman Community Board #12 (The Bronx) BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE...

White Plains Road will rise again!

COMMUNITY BOARD

NEWS N’ VIEWS

By Father Richard F. Gorman

Chairman

Community Board #12 (The Bronx)

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- I am unhappy to begin my column again this week with sad news. On Thursday, 6 June 2013, Mary Lauro, the decades-long President of The Wakefield Taxpayers Association, died. As many of us knew, Mary was battling for the past several months with lung cancer. Her Funeral Mass was celebrated on this Monday morning past in her longtime Parish of Saint Frances of Rome.

Never one to candy-coat the truth or to cover-up the facts, I am not going to detract from Mary’s memory by doing such at this point in time. Aficionados of the local press are only too well aware that “YOURS TRULY” was one of the most frequent targets --  if not the most recurrent one  -- of Ms. Lauro’s criticism in her weekly column. Such stemmed from a misunderstanding of over 20 years ago when, in my second year as Chairman of Community Board #12 (The Bronx), I did not appoint Mary as the Chair of the Community Board’s Standing Committee on Public Safety, which, for some reason utterly unbeknownst to me, Mary was expecting me to do. Nevertheless, at last being able to leave in the past what should have been long ago left there, there is no denying that the contribution of Mary Lauro to her beloved neighborhood of Wakefield and to all of Bronx Community District #12 was unique and exceptional.

In what she oftentimes labeled the “WILD WEST” days of the 1990’s in the Forty-Seventh Precinct, Mary was a tireless and dogged advocate for better Police protection and for a greater number of Police Officers in our area. She religiously secured and publicly commented month after month on the local crime statistics, undermining the claims of the so-called “powers-that-be” down at One Police Plaza that our Precinct was being assigned an appropriate and adequate number of cops in light of the incidence of crime in our District. She revived a moribund Precinct Council and was a principal, driving force in its many subsequent successes. Mary also took on the issue of public safety in the schools and, hopefully, the annual McGruff “TAKE A BITE OUT OF CRIME” Poster Contest sponsored by the Wakefield Taxpayers will continue to go on in her memory.

However, public safety, despite ranking as her first and most ardent passion, was not the only challenge to be assumed by Mary Lauro. Group homes, clean streets, illegal conversions, Government lethargy in responding to local needs, the maintenance of our White Plains Road commercial strip, and homeless shelters were among the cornucopia of concerns to which Mary addressed her criticisms and complaints, usually in rather unforgettable fashion and colorful verbiage.

At our Stated Meeting for the month of June, I shall request that my colleagues on Community Board #12 (The Bronx) propose that the name “MARY LAURO WAY” be added to that block on Matilda Avenue on which she lived. While this is a most apropos manner in which to honor and to remember Mary Lauro, I trust that we shall all truly do so by carrying on her unparalleled commitment to the quality of life in our neighborhood and to the well-being of all of its residents. As it says in Sacred Scripture in the Book of Revelation, Chapter XIII, verse 14:

“Let her rest from her labors, for her works follow her.”

In the meanwhile, Community Board #12 (The Bronx) is continuing to monitor the recovery from the latest catastrophe to befall White Plains Road. On Wednesday, 15 May 2013 at Community Board #12 Headquarters in Town Hall, just up a block or two up White Plains Road from the scene of the recent devastating fire, a meeting was convened in order to get the rebuilding of a vital portion of our commercial strip underway. Those business owners and entrepreneurs afflicted by the conflagration, accompanied by ministers from the area’s Islamic

community, joined our local public officials or their staff representatives, District Manager Carmen L. Rosa and me, and leaders in both the public and the private sectors in order to determine the needs of the impacted entities and the resources available to them.

Uppermost in the minds of all present was the desire to remain in the District and to get started without further delay on the daunting task of getting all back on their feet. Our elected officials, including Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie  --  who literally drove all the way from Albany on the morning of the meeting in order to attend  --  Council Member Andy King, and Mr. Gerard C. Savage, the Chief of Staff to State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, committed themselves to advocating for the needs of those present in order to get them the help that they require to re-build.  The representatives of various municipal agencies of Government  --  the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (C.A.U.), the Office of the Borough President of The Bronx, the New York City Fire Department (F.D.N.Y.), the New York City Department of Buildings (N.Y.C.D.O.B.), the New York City Department of Small Business Services (N.Y.C.D.S.B.S.), the Bronx Overall Economic Development Agency (B.O.E.D.C.), and the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Agency (“SOBRO”)  --  informed attendees of prudent and wise steps needed to be taken and various pitfalls that should be avoided. The Legal Aid Society sent several representatives who were ready to offer free legal advice to those with questions pertaining to law.

There is absolutely no doubt that undertaking to repair the hole in the heart of our White Plains Road commercial strip will entail numerous difficulties and delays. However, the enthusiasm of those present at Town Hall on the morning of 15 May 2013 and the solid determination to move forward exhibited by them provides true hope for better days ahead. In the meantime, all in Community Board #12 (The Bronx) can do their share to help the impacted enterprises  --  and, indeed, all of the businesses on White Plains Road  -- to grow ever stronger. Whenever possible, BUY LOCAL! Patronage is the most potent

prescription for a healthy commercial and business sector. To keep White Plains Road alive economically, no one can do everything but everyone can do something. This is the time for our neighborhood to “put its money where its mouth is” and into the cash registers of the stores on White Plains Road.  On this point, I pray that we all agree. 

I conclude by making particular mention of and extending singular praise to the Clergy Coalition of the Forty-seventh Police Precinct and, in particular, to its energetic and dedicated President, The Reverend Dr. Edward Chambers, for its endeavors “above and beyond the call of duty” in aiding our local Islamic community find another appropriate worship space. “Rev,” here is hoping that all of your sisters and brothers in Bronx Community District #12 exhibit the same sort of good neighborliness that your good example is teaching us.

Until next time, that is it for this time!

Baychester News: Spellman Honors Student Athletes

Baychester News: Spellman Honors Student Athletes: BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 10- Cardinal Spellman High School recognized the contributions of over 325 student athletes at the Block &quot...