After early media reports that hundreds of youths trashed Kings Plaza — with video of the event — police say there were no arrests, no robberies and no riot — and now it looks like “No news is good news” seems to be the official policy
So why were the NYC Police patrolling Kings Plaza afterwards ?
Something isn’t adding up here. The Eleven O’clock news on Thursday night described and showed video of a riot at one of Brooklyn’s biggest and most recognized commercial venues, Kings Plaza Mall (See “Flash Mob Of Teens Causes Disturbance At Brooklyn’s Kings Plaza Mall – New Policy: Anyone Under 18 Banned, Unless Accompanied By An Adult” by CBS News Reporters, 12/27/13, CBS New York [http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/27/mob-of-teens-cause-disturbance-at-kings-plaza-mall/]). The next day in the Friday editions, there were lurid reports in the New York Post and the New York Daily News of 300-400 people having been called to the scene of the melee by messages put up on social media (See “Hundreds of teens trash mall in wild flash mob” by Kevin Sheehan, Natasha Velez & Natalie O'Neill, 12/27/13, NY Post
[http://nypost.com/2013/12/27/hundreds-of-teens-trash-mall-in-wild-flash-mob/]; “VIDEO: Facebook post to put Kings Plaza Mall 'on tilt' incites flash mob, fighting at Brooklyn shopping center – A mob of about 300 kids starting fighting, yelling and running wild in the Mill Basin shopping center Friday, cops said, prompting an increased police presence” by Joey Scarborough, TomTracy, Rocco Parascandola & Corinne Lestch, 12/27/13, NY Daily News
[http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/video-teens-brawl-kings-plaza-mall-brooklyn-article-1.1559582]).
Since Friday, nothing new to report and there has been a virtual news blackout and no followup coverage; even though there is a sort of lockdown in place with heavy police presence in and around the mall .
This follows an apparent pattern of minimizing the event by the NYPD and others that began almost immediately following the events of last Thursday. CBS 2's Tony Aiello reported on Friday that the 63rd Precinct Community Affairs office, denied that there was any riot, and asserted that there were no arrests, injuries, or significant damage. That was reiterated by the official line out of 1 PPL — “Despite online evidence of the mall melee, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said no one filed a complaint about being assaulted or robbed. *** Deputy Chief Kim Royster said cops were called about 9 p.m. Thursday to disperse the crowd of rascals, who caused more of a ruckus than a crime. *** ‘They weren’t stealing anything,’ said the NYPD spokeswoman. ‘They weren’t assaulting anyone. They were going through the mall, making loud noises. Some were fighting with each other’.”
That’s not what the initial on the scene reports from the News, Post and CBS News clearly indicated.
It looks like the NYC version of George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth has decided to “Memory Hole” this story ASAP. It’s a very bad story to hit during the 11th hour of the Bloomberg Administration and the closing days of the regime of PC Ray Kelly; and it’s also bad for business in Kings Plaza and the surrounding areas of Mill Basin and Marine Park.
13 comments:
UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “YES, WE’VE SEEN THIS SONG BEFORE” EDITION
SHARPTON’S NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK SHOWS UP — SECURITY AT KINGS PLAZA REDUCED
Just like in the bygone Dinkins days, and the Korean Boycotts and picketing of “non-community” merchants in Harlem, the latest “Al Sharpton clone,” Tony Herbert, an activist with the National Action Network, has weighed in on last week’s disturbances at Kings Plaza; and low and behold, the increased security that was put into place at the large mall in the Mill Basin-Marine Park area has been "reduced" ( See “Kings Plaza Mall Drops Policy Restricting Minors From Entry” by CBS News, 12/29/13
[http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/29/activists-denounce-kings-plaza-mall-brawl/]; see also
“Community Leaders Hold Protest After Violent Kings Plaza Mall Flash Mob”
by Lindsay Armstrong 12/29/13, DNA info New York [http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131229/mill-basin/community-leaders-stage-protest-of-violence-at-kings-plaza-mall]).
Among other things in the CBS report, National Action Network spokesman Herbert indicated that “A lot of parents had been embarrassed because their teenage children ‘can’t go to Kings Plaza Mall without being escorted because they’re under the age of 18. That’s an issue because they should be able to be mature enough to understand the detriment of their actions,’ Herbert added.*** Herbert said the National Action Network is also working with police to establish a mentoring program in public schools to prevent future similar incidents.”
I have looked through several other reports of the Thursday night event(s) at Kings Plaza, and it appears from multiple reports that there were several incidents of significant criminal activity that took place. However, to date, there has not been any indication that police and/or any prosecutors’ investigations are aimed at prosecuting any such criminal activity.
300 teens running wild?
No assaults, complaints, injuries or arrests
Story is not adding up.
I think the story in Daily News has legs.
Morgenthau had prosecutors pimping out hookers for two years with a bag of $100,000 in cash.
Than prosecutor handling case leaves and evidence falls through cracks.
Hynes is starting to look better than the "Dean".
Morgy was a pimp.
He never could have out fought Santino.
Keep making jokes guys.
You people never take anything serious
What is this all about ?
I know, I know.....
You're smart. You got ideas ....
Thats right Gale. I got ideas. I'm not stupid like everyone says. Fredo go pick someone up at the airport. Fredo go run some Mickey Mouse nightclub.
I'm smart and I want respect !!
You sound like most of the people in politics.
You must know a lot of people here and there.
You must get around, you're here, you're there.... You know, you're leading the life of a bachelor, aren't you ... ?
BACKFILL: THE “VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE” EDITION — EARLY LOCAL COVERAGE PROVIDES VARYING DETAILS — AUDIO OF RUCKUS SELF-DESCRIBES IT AS “WILDING”
Some of the early coverage of the Kings Plaza incident last Thursday is quite interesting.
Ned Berke of Sheepshead Bay Bites reported that there were about 500 people involved, that the incident started at around 5:30 PM, that Kings Plaza was shut down for about two hours and reopened at around 8:30 PM (See “Rowdy Teens Take Over Kings Plaza Mall, Spurring Police Response” by Ned Berke, 12/27/13, Sheepshead Bay Bites [http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2013/12/rowdy-teens-take-over-kings-plaza-mall-spurring-police-response/]). That's a different timeline than what was presented in most of the other reports.
John Del Signore did a feature that focused on the available video of the event posted on social media, as well as some of the captions to the videos (See “Videos: Hundreds Of Rowdy Teens Cause Pandemonium In Brooklyn Mall” by John Del Signore, 12/27/13, Gothamist [http://gothamist.com/2013/12/27/videos_teens_run_amok_in_brooklyn_m.php]). The transcription of some of the audio indicated that the participants were describing the activities in the videos as “wilding.” or “walin’.”
Ned Berke's timeline might be right. If you look at his comments to the Sheepshead Bay Bites post, Ned Berke seemed to stand very strong behind his report, especially when he was confronted with some details out of the Daily News version. This ties into some reports that police were on the scene when the trouble started, some other reports that there were multiple incidents or waves of troublemakers at Kings Plaza on 12/26/13, and that many of the troublemakers, who were ejected, were able to find ways to get back in.
UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “NOT IN THE GOLDEN EYE” EDITION
A REVIEW OF GOLDEN’S PRESS RELEASES AND SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWED NO INTEREST IN WHAT WENT ON AT KINGS PLAZA MALL RIGHT AFTER CHRISTMAS
State Senator Martin Golden apparently has not taken any notice, and he has certainly not expressed himself concerning the post-Christmas flash mob that descended on Kings Plaza more than a week ago.
This is especially perplexing because Kings Plaza is prominently perched on the edge of the State Senator’s 22nd Senatorial District, and his key staff operator in the area, Anthony Testaverde is active in community groups that have expressed some interest and concern about the goings on at the Mall, which is the largest commercial venue in the neighborhood. It wasn’t that long ago in 2013 that Mr. Testaverde was running for the NY City Council in a district that has the Kings Plaza Mall right in the middle of it.
The disinterest on the part of Golden and Testaverde in the recent post-Christmas incident disturbingly follows a similar pattern of response to another similar incident of mob violence that occurred in October 2013 very near where the flash mob showed up last week. On the evening of October 14th, a neighborhood couple Ronald and Allana Russo were dragged from their car and beaten on the street very near Kings Plaza. The intersection where that violent occurrence took place is also very near the edge of Golden’s district, and is clearly in a neighborhood that Golden’s staffer, Testaverde is supposed to keep an eye on for the State Senator.
UPDATE: THE “IT’S BILL DEBLASIO’S PROBLEM NOW” EDITION
BROOKLYN COLUMNIST TAKES NEW MAYOR TO TASK FOR NOT ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF KINGS PLAZA FLASH MOB
Virtually paralleling my complaints about State Senator Martin Golden and his local staffer Anthony Testaverde, a regular columnist for the Courier Life papers criticized Mayor DeBlasio for not addressing the mayhem on Twitter or returning calls for comment, adding: “What could be more important than addressing a terrifying act that traumatized hundreds of innocent shoppers on the eve of his watch?” (See ““Bill’s DeBlah over Kings Plaza flash mob” by Shavana Abruzzo, 1/3/14, Courier Life/ Brooklyn Daily
[http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2014/1/all-britviewkingsplazaflashmob-2014-01-03-bd_2014_1.html]).
Courier Life’s Brooklyn Daily article spoke ominously of “knock-out attacks” and “planned social assault, advertised on social media” as being and indicator that “we are a heartbeat away from returning to the loathsome times of 20 years ago, when coddling law enforcement policies emboldened criminals, crumbled communities, inflamed neighborhood race wars, prompted the middle class to pack up and leave, wrecked tourism, and left the city a stinking rat hole where louts lorded over the law-abiding.”
According to writer Shavana Abruzzu, “Mayor DeBlasio won a landslide victory because he promised to protect vulnerable populations, and create a city where middle-class families could live, work, and raise their children. Yet he blew his very first opportunity to call for good citizenship and show he cared about the rights of law-abiding civilians. *** The city’s new top official should have addressed the mall melee because of its enormity, and its capacity to inspire copycats attacks — or worse — if left unchecked.”
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