Oh What a Night

While a third of New York goes "home" for the holidays, I wish I was going somewhere for the holidays, but alas, here I am, at home (no sarcastic quotes), and on top of that terrible realization, I came down with one of those nose colds that spews a whole lot of gunk and makes a very sore, pink nose before you have a chance to say "buy me those Puffs Plus with Lotion please."

So, two sleepness nights of waking up screaming sporadically through the night because I thought I was dead when I couldn't breathe through my nose, when there was loud  noise on the roof. One thunk was so dramatic I got out of bed and so did my son. We met in the kitchen. I was ready to put on shoes and go upstairs to shut those darn kids up, but Max wouldn't go with me and at 5:30am I thought maybe I shouldn't go up there myself because any yahoo could take me on pretty handily, even without a nose cold.

So back to bed we went, when a few minutes later, I opened my eyes to see a man facing me in my bedroom window, scurrying across the ledge TOWARD the fire escape. Not sure if I was seeing some bizarre shadow, thinking I've been waiting my whole life for this scary home invasion, I found out exactly what I would do in such a situation. Scream, is the answer. I waited until I saw him in the living room window (next window over), then shouted and got on the phone to 911. I am an excellent blind dialler, by the way. I got it on the first try with no light.

Apparently I was unintelligible because the operator kept asking me the address even though I am certain I was saying it very loud and very clearly. 27th floor? No! Top floor! Brooklyn? No! Manhattan! Etc. Plus, I was blocking the husband's glasses and didn't understand his gesticulations, thinking he was looking for a hidden weapon somewhere in the loft (they are scattered around and I'm never sure exactly where they are socked away) so it took him some time to get his eyes on and down to the window.

By then there were ten thousand cops on the roofs all around and above, and shortly after they had a man cuffed and face down on the cop car. I thought he was wearing something darker, but I now think I'm wrong.  After piecing together the story, all I could get was that this guy was trying to break into apartments when the cops started chasing him all over the rooftops and up and down the fire escapes. When I saw him, he had jumped from our roof to the next door roof 1 story lower, and then proceeded to run to the EDGE of the roof and jump onto a 6 inch ledge and shimmy across (6 flights up) to the fire escape, where he went down and tried to get into a window, but was chased away by the tenant (who says insurance lawyers aren't tough?). He must have continued down after that because that was about the time for him it took to get caught.

So no sleep last night either, it was way too exciting.

And how about all those deaths? More on that later, but the list is very long this year.

Happy and merry to all. And PLEASE install gates on your windows.

Precinct Meeting

Tonight's monthly community precinct meeting was well attended, standing room only, but only five people signed up to speak, which makes it easy for me to summarize for those interested in the goings on in the 9th precinct. I encourage all to attend because there are free donuts.

1. The "press" was in attendance, so speakers would be called upon by initials, not names.

2. The "press" was actually the NYU student bloggers for the NY Times.

3. We were reprimanded for not attending the annual festivities thanking the police for their hard work, which was held on October 14, and commemorated in an extra large magnet.
4. The cop in charge of the domestic violence unit gave a brief update on what she does, in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness month. She said she responds to calls and refers women to shelters or agencies that can help them. Even though she was very vague, I participated in the only applause of the evening.

5. There was a complaint about Diablo Royale, the crowds, noise and violations of their agreement to not use the backyard after 11pm.

6. There was discussion about the bike lanes on 1st and 2nd Avenues. The police explained that they are distributing pamphlets and issuing summons to everybody who isn't following the rules.

7. There was a plea by residents who live next to Campos Plaza to find a way to get cameras installed due to the impression that youth crime is on the rise. The police said crime is down. Scott Stringer's office said they are working to end the moratorium on cameras in NYCHA.

8. I tried to tie together several disjointed thoughts I've been having that didn't quite come together in a cohesive statement. I tried to thread together these ideas: a cabaret unit in the precinct would better serve the community's nightlife issues, there is an upswell of emergency room visits by NYU students on weekend nights from alcohol poisoning (which I have no facts about, just hearsay from an emergency room doctor) which is a preventable emergency potentially clogging up our hospitals that can't handle it due to the closing of St. Vincent's, and a cop telling me to call 911 for a noise complaint that I made about excruciating amplified music coming from a rooftop party at 2am.

9. A guy from Avenue C went on and on about traffic patterns that create utter chaos. I think his point was that it all results in a lot of disturbing horn honking.

9th Precinct Community Council

Overcoming my fear and loathing of the police is something I should spend some time considering more rationally, and my first step in this personal growth process was going into the precinct for the monthly council meeting and leaving my hostility at the door. Actually, it wasn't difficult as everyone was on their best behavior, saying all the things that police are supposed to say, like on TV and in the movies, but never in real life.

My first ever memory of police contact was sometime in high school when a friend and I were in Port Authority heading toward a bus to the Meadowlands to see a concert. I wish I remember who was playing, but what I recall most clearly was being stopped by police who thought we were runaways. In retrospect they were doing their jobs protecting teenagers, but at the time I felt picked on and my privacy invaded when I had to show them ID though I had done nothing wrong.

Most of my other interactions were based on car-related offenses such as speeding tickets, parking tickets, towing and, most egregiously, an incorrect police report that was not in my favor after a car accident that they refused to even call me back about. I was also never able to get a police report from the esteemed 9th precinct after a tree fell on my car and I needed the report for insurance purposes. Again, never a return phone call. You can read my accounts of that here and here if you are truly interested in my feelings on the subject.

What I liked most about the meeting was that it was short. There were also donuts, which I didn't know about until after they were gone, and that was probably a good thing because how can you eat a donut in a police station and not make at least one joke? I might find that impossible.

Each resident got up, said their piece, the police said they'd look into it (mostly Lt Ferguson) and the next one was up. It was over in under an hour.

The topics of complaint were:

- homeless people

- bar noise

- street crowds

- rude pedestrians

- garbage

- bicycle vandalism