Graffiti, Burglaries Head List Of 108th Precinct Complaints

The 108th Police Precinct Community Council opened a new season of monthly meetings after a two-month summer break. After the standard question-andanswer part of the meeting had begun, Council President Diane Ballek suggested to 108th Precinct Commander Deputy Inspector Thomas Kavanagh that he present the crime picture of the past month and then hear and reply to community complaints. The commander agreed, then began his report by calling the summer "uneventful"—which might have been soothing to several of his listeners but did nothing to discourage the men and women who subsequently came to the front of the meeting at the Sunnyside Community Services Center to describe an abundance of events.

The commander confined his report to September up-to-date, comparing it with August. During the month, there were no murders in the precinct. There were three rapes, all of them involving couples familiar with each other according to the reports, and in one case there was an arrest. There were eight robberies during the latest period, down from 12; five felony assaults, down from nine. Burglaries were the one index crime showing an increase, to 31; 13 of them were commercial, Kavanagh said. The number of grand larcenies, 35, compared with 44 in the previous month, was in decline. There were fewer thefts of items from parked cars, and even grand larceny auto, or car theft, was down from 22 to 20 incidents. The commander noted that favorite cars among auto thieves are models from the 1990s that can be sold for hundreds of dollars apiece to car crushing businesses: cash from crushers. For the year, he said, all index crimes are down.

The first person to speak during the question-and-answer period was a woman from Woodside who said the blocks from 60th to 62nd Streets, between Queens Boulevard and 43rd Avenue (she is a 60th street resident) have been "ruined" by graffiti scrawlers. The second was Sam Vargas, legislative assistant to Assemblymember Michael DenDekker, who said that cars and houses on 39th Street between 50th Avenue and the Long Island Expressway have been subject to break-ins. One suspect was described as wearing a baseball cap and riding a yellow bicycle. Kavanagh said that block is in what the police classify as Section Henry, where several car break-ins have been reported, global positioning satellite (GPS) devices therein being highly desirable items for thieves.

A woman from 58th Lane between 47th and 48th Avenues said she noticed that men in strange cars on her street seem on occasion to be dealing in drugs. The commander brought the conversation to a halt and said he would talk to the woman later. Allegations of drug dealing are no longer discussed publicly at the meetings, since the discovery that men assumed to be drug dealers had come to the meeting one month to hear what the police knew about them.

A man who is head of the tenant board of an apartment house at 65-15 38th Ave. said his neighborhood is having trouble with day laborers and prostitutes. Kavanagh said that day laborers may cause problems by clustering in places such as the corner near the paint store at Roosevelt Avenue and 65th Street, and are occasionally arrested if they loiter in parks where no one is allowed if not accompanying children. But, he said, they are "not a source of crime in the 108th". He added that laborers near the paint store are regularly fed by the Salvation Army. Are the police expected to complain about that, he asked rhetorically. As for prostitutes, the commander said he would keep after them.

A Long Island City woman said that burglaries and vandalism were on the increase on Vernon Boulevard, and the basketball courts on 48th Avenue were sites of juvenile delinquency and public indecency. The commander said he was aware of her reports. He had to remind her that the basketball courts are a state park and are policed by state officers. Juan Toro, the precinct's public affairs officer, said he is constantly after the state cops to monitor the courts better. He also told the woman that the walls that separate the courts from several backyards are easily and often climbed. Putting chicken wire on them would not be a good idea, especially since alleged delinquents injured by the wire might sue.

A woman from 48th Street in Sunnyside Gardens asked if there is a special narcotics enforcement, or SNEU, unit in the 108th. The commander said there was not; realizing she had something to report about possible drug activity, he took it in private. Another 48th Street woman made an all-too-common complaint about tractor/trailers illegally using that wide thoroughfare; she then surprised the commander by saying that lately some automobile drivers had been drag racing there also. The commander could only assure her that his men would take a look at the situation.