FINEST EFFORT
Officers hit nabes around city to build ties
Cops had a busy summer night in the city Tuesday — and that was a good thing.
National Night Out brought cops and communities together in every corner of the five boroughs with an array of events to promote police and neighborhood cooperation.
At barbecues in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and facepainting parties in Flushing, Queens, residents got to spend time with the men and women who patrol their neighborhoods — without dialing 911.
"It's a great event," said Police Commissioner James O'Neill. "It's a great opportunity for the people in the community to come to the precinct. It's not always at the precinct. Sometimes it's off-site. Sometimes in a park or another venue. It's an opportunity for them to meet the police officers that serve them every day."
He said National Night Out fits in perfectly with the NYPD's neighborhood policing model.
Among the stops on O'Neill's beat Tuesday was the 48th Precinct in the Bronx, where 15-year-old Lesandro (Junior) Guzman-Feliz was killed in June outside a bodega, allegedly by machete-wielding gang members.
“It's important that we come up here thank the police department, thank the district attorney's office and more importantly to thank the community,” the commissioner said. “Thank you for your help on this case. Without your help and immediate response, justice for Junior would have taken a while longer. I think everybody in New York City needs to know what happened. I think everyone in this country needs to know what happened. This can't be.”
O'Neill visited the neighborhood with Mayor de Blasio, but did not stop by the bodega.
“National Night Out was once an act of defiance in communities that did not feel safe at all,” de Blasio said. “Now National Night Out is an example of strength, people taking charge and making their communities safer every single year.”
Hours earlier, activists aligned with the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network camped out overnight near the bodega, part of a 10-night series of sleepover protests to raise awareness of violence on New York's streets.
Minister Kirsten John Foy and the Rev. Kevin McCall, who organized the sleepovers, were planning to pitch tents Tuesday night in the Bronx at the corner of Castle Hill Ave. and Randal Ave., where two men and an apparent bystander were gunned down outside a strip mall in June.
The morning shooting on June 20 claimed the lives of Mustafa (Moody) Tarver, 33, and Christopher (Butter) Alleyne, 33. A third victim, Arileida Jimenez, 45, was shot and killed while distributing insurance pamphlets outside a diner, and was likely hit by a stray bullet, sources said.
“I don't know what else to do in the face of a massive presence of guns,” Foy said. “This is not a time for fear. This is a time for courage. This is a time to reclaim our streets.”
National Night Out is a coast-to-coast communitybuilding campaign that promotes police-community partnerships from Memphis to Minneapolis. It began in 1984, and is held the first Tuesday of every August.
Not everyone was preaching solidarity with police on Tuesday. A rally in Brooklyn's Linden Park was interrupted by protesters calling for the indictment of Sgt. Ritchard Blake, who shot an unarmed man believed to be a romantic rival.
The family of the injured man, Santana Thavone, and City Councilwoman Inez Barron insisted the police were trying to hid something.
“To the family of Thavone: We're gonna be with you and your family through the duration,” Barron said. “We want this police officer fired.”