Crime, Crime, Everywhere; Nor Any Cop to Fink
It's the 4th of July. That's bigger than Christmas in my neighborhood. Flags. Bagpipes. More Ben Franklins than you can shake a kite at. The streets are teeming with tourists, redcoats, and revolutionaries. Police everywhere.
There was a mass shooting last night up on 56th and Chester. I lived on 47th as a kid. Seven casualties; Five people dead. It was a guy from the neighborhood. He shot a 2-year-old with one of those It's Not an Assault Rifles™. Two years old. That doesn't feel like freedom.
In other news, the 6th district PD released video of a suspected burglar in my neighborhood. It's a bird's-eye view of a brick sidewalk and some steps. My next-door neighbor's steps, as a matter of fact. Reportedly, on June 24th, the crook made off with over $100,000 in jewelry.[1] The cops didn't think to mention it until yesterday, over a week after the fact.
And someone vandalized the Museum of the American Revolution a few days ago. They say he painted something on the bronzes and smashed a few windows. I'm not sure. When I checked out the scene for myself, any damage had already been repaired. There's excellent "nothing at all suspicious going on here" security cam footage of the suspect. I easily identified him earlier this afternoon. He was on a bench by the northeast entrance of Washington Square Park, three blocks from the crime scene.[2] In a few days, I'll tell the cops where I saw him. See how they like it.