Barrage Of Woes Greets 108th Precinct Commander
BY THOMAS COGAN

The 108th Police Precinct Community Council resumed its series of meetings in September, hearing from an audience determined to unload a lot of summer woes that had gone unexpressed in the two months the council was on vacation. Before entertaining questions from local residents at Sunnyside Community Center, Precinct Commander Captain Thomas Kavanagh read a crime report that again characterized most index crimes as being in decline- nearly 10 percent from last September's report, he said. He made an exception for burglaries, though: their rate had doubled. When questions and comments were permitted, he couldn't have been surprised to hear about burglaries, as he did. Three months' worth of other offenses were brought up too.

Joe Rusalka, who lives on 46th Street near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, said that a burglary at 51-09 46th St. in early September was only the latest in that block during the past few months. He said that the police responded well to the burglary victim's call. But the main problem, he said, is that the residents are incorrigibly careless and neglectful when it comes to protecting their property from burglars. Kavanagh said a succession of burglaries in a close locality indicates a single burglar. He described a series of burglaries on streets in the 40s on either side of Queens Boulevard, early this year. In what proved to be the last of them, the burglar was caught in the act. He fled to the street, where the police arrested him. With his arrest, the burglaries ceased.

The captain admitted that most burglary cases are not so easily solved; indeed, the clearance rate is only 10 percent. Nevertheless, he said, "We're pushing our guys."

A Sunnyside Gardens man was hardly satisfied by that. His house, at 48-15 39th Ave., was burglarized Sunday, September 9. He said reporting it to 911 got him a slow response, and follow-up was also frustrating. The persistence of his complaint got him a consultation with the captain after the meeting was over. A persistent woman did not fare so well, her strong complaint about criminal conditions south of Queens Boulevard leading only to raised voices between her and Kavanagh. She said that on 39th Place between 47th and 48th Avenues, there had been several car robberies and slashed tire incidents and the police had done nothing about them, nor had they done anything about groups of youths who hang out in the vicinity and smoke dope.

The captain asked if she had reported any of these incidents in particular, and deduced from her reply that she was making general complaints that he couldn't deal with. He asked her to report incidents as she saw them. Diane Ballek, president of the Community Council, finding that the woman was new to the monthly meetings, encouraged her to come back to the next one in October.

Another woman from 39th Place deplored the traffic situation where that street and Queens Boulevard meet on the north side of the boulevard. She said that drivers often back up their vehicles from the side street into the main one, with inevitable mishaps. She asked why the police are not dealing with the situation. Traffic Officer Sergeant Tom Larson said that the police must prioritize traffic incidents, however arbitrarily: if no personal injuries occur, they are not of first importance. The woman said she has never seen the sergeant on the boulevard, but Larson assured her, "I'm out there every day." Kavanagh said his traffic force covers Queens Boulevard closely between 33rd and 46th Streets each day, mainly owing to the presence of schools and students on the boulevard or nearby streets on either side.

"Feeling trapped in your own neighborhood" might have been the theme of two complaints. One was from a Woodside man living on 41st Avenue near 58th Street, who found his driveway blocked one day by another vehicle. He couldn't get his car out, and calling both 311 and the precinct repeatedly got him nowhere. Inability to drive his car to his workplace led him to lose a day's pay, he said. Larson gave the man his phone number (646-258-6555) and told him to call any time. The other came from Sunnyside Gardens resident Rose Tebaldi, whose house is in a corridor between 48th and 49th Streets. She said that children living in The Colonnades, an apartment house at 40-39 48th St., use the corridor as a play space and nighttime hangout. She said further that she has requested that the apartment house's owner inform the children and their parents that the corridor is private property and off limits to them, but the owner said he took no responsibility for the kids' actions. She asked the police to look at her situation, since she finds the kids not only disruptive, but threatening as well.