70^th Precinct Community Council 

SEPTEMBER 2018 Meeting Minutes

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Wednesday, October, 25^th 2018

7:30 PM

United Cerebral Palsey Center 

                   175 Lawrence Street, Brooklyn, New York 

 Officers 

Ed Powell, President

Mary McRae, Vice President

Maria Hazelwood, Treasurer

Nathan Thompson, Secretary

Giselle Nakhid, Sergeant-at-Arms

NYPD, Elected Officials & Other Guests

DI James Palumbo, Commanding Officer 

Captain Joseph Taylor, Executive Officer 

Detective Scott Nuzzi, Community Affairs

Det. Kim Walker, Community Affairs

Shawn Campbell for Community Board 14

Bob Moskowitz for Flatbush Shomrim

Ernest Skinner for Council Member Jumaane Williams

Ramona Cabreja and Somaya Carabi for Council Member Mathieu Eugene

Robert Agyemane for Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte

Reverend Jean F. Beaulieu, Mohommad Nazir, Rabbi Perlstein, and Yahuda Eps Clergy Liaisons

Abjulah Butto for Pakistani Merchants Assoc

Bob Moskowitz Flatbush Shomrim

John Williams  New Creations Ministries Inc.

Josephar Elector for Assemblymember Diana Richardson

The regular monthly meeting of the 70th Precinct Community Council was called to order.  PCC President Ed Powell greeted all and invited everyone to join him in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.  

He then acknowledged the various representatives of public officials and other distinguished guests present at the meeting (see above).  Ed also highlighted his happiness at being back in the UCPC space (now called Adapt Community Network).  The PCC meetings had been moved around a lot this year.  

1. Rabbi Perlstein opens.

     The Rabbi opened the meeting with an old Jewish phrase “the smaller the crowd, the bigger”.  It was a statement about how smaller groups can mean more intimacy. He was referring to the small turnout for this evening. He gave a small blessing and noted he hoped the Deputy Inspector would be an Inspector soon.   Ed concurred.

2. Commander Palumbo goes over Announcements.

     He began by reminding us that next month they continue the annual Dylan Stewart Blood Drive the day before Thanksgiving.  The event was so successful last year that they are doubling the truck presence.

     Sunday Nov 4 will be the NY Marathon.  Our precinct will not be directly affected.  But it will be complicated for anyone going through park slope.  The CO commented briefly on the suspicious packages delivered across the country.  None were delivered in our precinct.  You can check the NYPD news site for updates at NYPDnews.com.

     It is domestic violence awareness month. On Monday October 29th  from 5-8pm there will be a domestic violence outreach event done in conjunction with Safe Horizon and CAMBA. It will be held at Flatbush Junction at Flatbush and Ocean Ave.

     Our NCO Build the Block Meeting for Sector A(dam) will be held on November 14th at 6325 Ocean Avenue at 7pm.  The next Sector C(Charlie) meeting will be on October 29th at the Pakistani American Youth Society, 1001 Newkirk Avenue at 7pm.  

3.  Commander Palumbo goes over the crime stats.

        He began by acknowledging a “serious and significant” increase in auto theft.  In particular, Air Bags are the target. The area of interest is very specific.  It goes from Caton Ave to Beverly and from Argyle to Westminster Road.  The crimes are almost all on 2017/2018 Honda Accords.  The criminal smashes the driver side window and takes the airbag. 

        On the Southern side of the precinct, late model Hondas are also the target, but tires and rims are the objective.  We have had 20 incidents in Brooklyn South. The 63rd precinct and the 62 and 68th have been hit harder than the 70th.  Usually this happens between 2 and 5 AM in the morning.   You may get a door knock by NYPD to ask if you have a camera that works at night.  There are 175 Honda Accords in the 70th precinct right now.  

       Motorcycles are also getting stolen right now.  Many motorcycles are not insured.  They are going missing between midnight and 8am if left out on the street for long periods of time.  This happens in the colder months.  

       The CO’s last ongoing issue is phishing.  This is the process in which a criminal takes a wire with adhesive on it and lowers it into a mailbox hoping to grab checks.  Unfortunately, it works.  They are working with the postal inspector at replacing the old fashioned mailboxes with newer ones harder to get into.  The phishers take a check you might have written to pay your rent, and take it to a bank and cash it.  Unfortunately, the banks are cashing these checks.  This month in the 70th, 10 checks were cashed.

   We had a single homicide in the 70th this month.  It was on Nostrand Ave.  It appears to have been a dispute the turned ugly. There is video surveillance of a single shot being fired.   They have not made an arrest and would appreciate a call to crime stoppers with any information.

         4. Commander takes questions

    The small group had only a couple of questions.  The first was whether if (as had been mentioned by the Rabbi and Ed) the CO gets promoted to Inspector, he would leave.  He explained that the two do not go hand in hand.  So hopefully he will stick around.  Commander Palumbo has been with us almost 3 years.  

    A citizen complained about the Sanitation Service waking his neighborhood at 3am.  The CO shared that he has the same problem.  This is not something the NYPD has juristiction over. 

 5.  Ernest Skinner representing Councilmember Williams

     He began by thanking the people for supporting him in Williams unsuccessful run for Lt. Governor.   He next stressed the Councilmembers biggest message of the day was about how low the voter turnout was in New York City.  Mr. Skinner had looked up the voting turnout for his own neighborhood.  It was a shockingly low 22.5%     This contrasted even the citywide low turnout of 23% registered voters turning out.  These are compared to a 59% citywide turnout for a presidential election.    He reminded us that elected officials pay attention to who votes and to encourage your neighbors to vote.

     Mr. Skinner also brought up an important note about the upcoming ballot on November 6th.  Three new propositions are being voted on.  But there has been little discussion of them in public.  Unfortunately, they all appear on the back page of the ballot.  So you must know to flip the ballot over or you will miss them.  Some might say, this is not a mistake.  People who want these subjects discussed have created a website called flipyourballot.nyc.  There you will find information about all three of the new propositions.  

     One has to do with campaign finance, one has to do with term limits on the Community Board, and the third has to do with a new Civic Engagement Commission being proposed. Go to the website to read about them in more detail.  

      Mr. Skinner was clear that he felt the city has done a “poor” job of letting the community know about these propositions.  As always, if you have questions for him, you can write him at ESkinner@councilnyc.gov.  

  6.  Local hero  

       Ed Powell and Secretary Nathan Thompson explained that fellow PCC member Benjamin Sheaffer was being acknowledged for having emptied a subway train full of passengers in a timely manner when an unstable person was pouring gasoline in the subway cars.  Benjamin was featured on NBC and the print news covered it as well.

  7.  Josephar Elector on Behalf of Assemblymember Diana Richardson. 

   Josephar just wanted to alert us to the Assemblymember’s months Civic Minded meetings. The Civic Minded meetings are held every 4th Saturday of the month.  The next one, this coming Saturday the 27th, is at 400 Empire Blvd (middle school) 7pm.  

8.  Next meeting

   November 28th at the (newly named) Adapt Community Network at 7:30pm. 

Respectfully submitted,

Nathan Thompson

Minutes of October 2018

70 Pct. Community Council, NYPD