79th Precinct Community Council Meets

Wednesday, June 22, was the final community council meeting of the 79^th Precinct before the summer session. The precinct will not meet again until September.

The meeting was well attended, and the mood was upbeat, as the much of the time was spent presenting awards to students, police officers and other community members for their work and accomplishments over the months since the council meetings convened in November 2010.

--Community Council President Dr. Kim Best chaired the meeting. Her first announcement was that council would reconvene again in September, instead of November. The board decided to begin meeting two months earlier, upon the request of the community for increased opportunities to discuss crime and other neighborhood safety issues.

--Sadia Adosa from the office of D.A. Charles Hynes invited the community out to a Caribbean Heritage Month celebration, honoring the accomplishments of Caribbean Americans in Brooklyn. The event is sponsored by the D.A.’s office, and will take place on Thursday, June 30, 5:30pm at Restoration Plaza. For more information, visit www.BrooklynDA.org.

--Kenneth Mbonu of the Bridge Street Development Corporation invited the community to participate in the “Buy in Bed Stuy” Challenge, in an effort to increase consumerism in the neighborhood, particularly on Tompkins Avenue. Many of the stores along the Tompkins corridor will participate in card-stamp campaign whereby patrons at participating business can get their card stamped after each purchase. After four stamps, the patron is eligible to enter their card in a raffle to win a prize.

--Six offers were honored for their exemplary work on the 79^th Precinct Anti-Crime Team:

• Angelis Rodriguez
• Elijah Austin
• Samuel Carrion
• James Miles
• Hameda Fattah
• Sergeant Paul Scocca

The six are undercover plainclothes officers that have been working together successfully over the past year. According to Deputy Inspector Peter Bartoszek, the six work all hours of the night, in the past year, have made 15 gun arrests, seven arrests since May 1. They also broke through a burglary pattern on Fulton Street over the past several months.

“These guys are the best of the best in the 79,” said Bartoszek. He pointed out that the anti-crime team was responsible for breaking a recent burglary pattern on Fulton Street of cell phone stores. “They caught the guy doing a live burglary. And since his apprehension, there has not been one additional burglary. This team has put in a great effort to make this community safe, and they are a phenomenal representation of the 79.”

--Dr. Best presented a Student of the Month Award to Marion T. Jones of P.S. 23, (The Carter G. Woodson School) for her work in school. Also, Dr. Best presented an award of recognition to Claude Sutton “for his role in improving the community for more than 50 years,” said Best.

--Council Treasurer Demetrice A. Mills presented the end-of-the-year college scholarships to two lucky recipients: Maya Williams and Joseph Brescia. Maya is a graduating senior at Bedford Academy; she is graduating #3 in her class and will be attending Old Westbury State University. Joseph Brescia recently graduated as salutatorian from Science Skills Center High School; he will be attending Rochester Institute of Technology.

The Council raised $1,397 in scholarship money over the monthly meetings. However, at today’s meeting, D.I. Bartoszek contributed $500, and another $300 from meeting participants, bringing the total to $2,200. Each student will receive $1,100 in scholarship assistance.

--Commanding Officer Peter Bartoszek’s Monthly Address:

On a positive note, if we’re talking about statistics, and sometimes I am judged on that, we do have an 11 percent crime decrease in the 79 precinct overall for the year so far. We’re only one of two precincts in Brooklyn North that is showing a crime decrease. So I’m proud of that. It is a testament to the work that’s being done by the officers on the street day-in and day-out.

There will be a crime prevention unit from One Police Plaza coming into the 79^th Pct tomorrow providing community affairs officers to flood the areas of Northeast end of our precinct where we’re getting inundated with robberies – From Vernon Avenue to Flushing Avenues between Tompkins and Marcus Garvey. In and around that area is the Marcy Sumner Tompkins Housing Development, tomorrow we’re having a big crime prevention [campaign]; we will hand out flyers, give tips, do home visits to victims.

One big issue that is going on right now is larcenies and robberies of electronics, aka cell phones. It’s not just a problem in the 79^th Pct.; it’s really a citywide phenomenon. A couple of things I want to talk about as far as crime prevention. Robberies are hot right now. A lot of them are happening between 1:00am and 5:00am. When you’re burying your hand into a phone, you’re not cognizant of what’s going on around you. Please pay attention. Do not text and walk. And do not drive and text.

On a positive note, we did actually catch two robbers in the act, and it was by the midnight patrol officers. They put the victims in the car, they did a canvass, there was a foot chase, and they caught two people—a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old. They had robbed someone at 4:30 in the morning. We caught them. Hopefully that will put an end to this trend we’ve had going on. The summer is here. I love the summer, I want everyone to have a safe summer.

But this doesn’t mean we can’t communicate. My door is open, come meet the officers, and address a roll call. Open communication is important to me. I want to know what’s going on. So if you have a problem, let me know about it. It’s my job to make sure we address it.

--Sophia Durall was presented an award for achieving valedictorian in her JPAC class for older adults. Also, she was presented an “Outstanding Seniors in Service” award by the office of the Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.