Crime Drop Continues In 108th Pct.
BY THOMAS COGAN 1
08th Police Precinct Commander Captain Matthew Whelan was unable to attend the February meeting of the 108th Police Precinct Community Council but 1was spoken of favorably in his absence, as someone

deserving of higher rank. Precinct Executive Officer Captain William McBride substituted for Whelan and read the crime report, which was again positive. Several in the audience aired complaints, particularly about a house in Woodside that may be generating trouble; and attendees heard from a former precinct officer who told them what should be done to eradicate graffiti from the neighborhood. Cops of the Month plaques went to a pair of officers who rounded up a quartet of perpetrators.

McBride reported that rapes, robberies, assaults and auto theft were all lower in frequency in the past month, and for the first two months of the year, crime is off by a striking 37 percent. The two Cops of the Month, Sergeant Teodoro Polanco and Patrol Officer Samir Gonsalves, then received their awards. They were cited for quick and efficient response to an incident at 38th Street and 47th Avenue on the evening of Friday, February 17. At about 8 p.m., they saw what looked to be a scuffle involving several persons wanting to get into a car, and went to investigate. It appeared on closer inspection to be a robbery in progress, so they ordered the participants to cease and desist, and promptly lined up and arrested four of them.

The captain asked if anyone in the audience had anything to ask or declare. The first to respond was Woodside resident Jim Condes, who said he had informed two local businesses that they were obligated under a new law to remove graffiti on their outside walls. One did and one didn't, he said, so he telephoned 311 about it and did not get a satisfactory response. Those responding didn't seem to know about the law, he said. McBride said the law does not actually go into effect until the end of March, so in the next few weeks his community affairs officers will be informing store owners and other affected parties about it. The subject of graffiti was covered extensively during the rest of the evening, but not before several people living near a house on 41st Drive and 58th Street asked the captain to take a look at it, since it appears to be a hangout for teenagers ("they come and go at all hours"), who have noisy parties and presumably consume drugs. One man said the whole block has become over-occupied and warned that if it became a trend, the precinct's sinking crime rate could turn sharply upward. After that, "you'll be Fort Apache or Fort Comanche or something."

Detective Glenn Yule said that a graffiti vandal was actually caught in the act recently, at 40th Street and 48th Avenue. He is a young teenager whose tag is NEFO. When he was taken in and his mother was informed, she was shocked, Yule said. The meeting was then turned over to Officer Keith Gaskin of Patrol Borough Queens North, who spoke about graffiti and passed around a book of tags and random scrawlings. His motto for fighting graffiti is "Record it, report it, remove it", and do it repeatedly if necessary, until the tagger, seeing his tag removed repeatedly, tries another territory where people may also be ready to take any tags down as fast as they are put up. He said the police are assigning groups of concerned activists to cleaning areas in the precinct and keeping them clean. Gaskin, assigned to the 108th Precinct throughout the 1990s, called graffiti a "gateway crime", since it often encourages those getting away with it, particularly such young persons as the boy described by Yule, to see if they can try anything more daring. Parents and grandparents have to be persuaded to look after their children more closely, he added, "the way my grandmother looked after me", lest they wind up as shocked as the arrested boy's mother.

One woman complained to Gaskin that the graffitiand illustration-covered Phun Factory buildings at Crane Street and Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, in sight of anyone traveling in either direction on a No. 7 train, are not only an eyesore but a visual incentive to apply graffiti all along the train line, as indeed it has been applied. Yule, sensing the suggestion that graffiti vandals are coming from afar to loose the contents of their spray cans on Sunnyside and environs, reminded the audience that the arrested youth he talked about is a local resident. Condes brought up an old lament: that he can't persuade anyone of the efficacy of the Chicago plan. In that city, cans of spray paint cannot be sold to minors, he said, and as a result, Chicago's graffiti problem is not nearly as bad as New York's. Gaskin didn't take him up on it either, but reminded the audience that if you see a graffiti crime in progress, phone 911; but if you discover graffiti after the perpetrator has struck, phone 311. Do not in any circumstances try to interfere with anyone defacing any surface with graffiti, since that would be dangerous, he said.

The good word for the missing Capt. Whelan was put in by Community Council President Diane Ballek, who said he should be a deputy inspector, as are the commanders in other precincts such as the 114th and 115th. She said that Whelan is the sixth commander she has worked with in 10 years with the council. The other five were all advanced to deputy inspector, but only after leaving the precinct for further assignments, Ballek said. She added that it's time the 108th Precinct had a deputy inspector in place.

Some 19 so-called Sugar Plum Rose awards were on display at the meeting prior to their being distributed to local businesses and institutions in recognition of meritorious service and contributions during the past year. All are designed by the community council's Pat Dorfman and consist of four large framed awards and 14 smaller ones. The four big-award winners are Police Officers' Quarterly; Skyline Credit Ridging; Waterfront Crabhouse (a representative of which was the only recipient present at the meeting to receive it); and White Castle. The other awards went to April Glass; Citibank; Dutch Kills Civic Association; Empire State Development Corporation; Friends of Cathy Nolan; Good Stuff Corp.; Lynch Funeral Home; Marc N. Savino; Sidetracks; Steamfitters' Local 638; Sterling Bank; Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce; Sunnyside Kiwanis, and the Woodside Herald.