It's Official Crime is on the Rise - Bring Back the Beat

There have been a couple incidents on our block recently, so please be careful and consider the request below to help deal with the issue of increased crime in the neighborhood.

 

Reprinted from the Fort Greene Association blog

 

Fort Greeners,
The 88th precinct has finally admitted to what community leaders have been saying for over two years, that crime is on the rise in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.  Fort Greeners don't take issues like this sitting down, they take action.  Last night at the FGA November Meeting a SRO crowd began to take action  by demanding the return of Beat Cops to Fort Greene and Clinton Hill by signing and sending letters to Commission Kelly as part of our "Bring Back the Beat" campaign.

Now it's time for you to do your part.  Either use the letter as a starting point for your own personalized version or download the letter and mail it to the Commissioner today.  While social media and email have their place they do not replace the old analog form of the good old letter.

I ask you to take the time today to protect your neighborhood, your family, your children by participating in our Bring Back the Beat campaign.

Paul Palazzo
FGA Chair

Download the letter to print or copy and paste from below.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
NYC Police Department Headquarters
One Police Plaza
New York, NY 10038

November 18, 2010

Re: Bring Back Street Patrols to Fort Greene Clinton Hill

Dear Commissioner Kelly:

I am writing to you to ask support in protecting something you helped to create, the current day neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.  Back in the early nineties you and then Mayor Dinkins initiated the Safe Streets program which initiated a precipitous decline in crime and fostered the renaissance of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.  Thank you for helping to create such a vibrant neighborhood.

Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are now destination locations for both tourists and native New Yorkers.  Our streets are alive with scenes of shoppers, sightseers, and increasingly young families enjoying my great neighborhood.  I want these scenes to continue but they and my family are being threatened.

Crime is now on the rise in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and the time has come again to bring back the successes of Safe Streets.  What I am speaking of specifically are neighborhood foot patrols, more commonly known as the neighborhood Beat Cop.

You have been attentive to my neighborhood and I appreciate your recent additional emphasis in apprehending perpetrators of crime. As a proactive force you demonstrated the Beat Cop of the Safe Streets program was highly effective in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Beat Cops in the early nineties not only provided a visible deterrent to crime but also became part of our neighborhood fabric. I would like to see the Police as part of my neighborhood again.

So please Commissioner Kelly help protect and strengthen what you started decades ago.  Let's bring back Beat Cops to Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

Sincerely,