Street Crime in Forest Hills

A reader passed along a letter to me about a neighborhood watch being started in Forest Hills Gardens after a chilling robbery there late on Saturday, June 29th. Some of the language in the letter is a bit, how should I say, ahem, dated, as you'll see—I felt like it was written by someone circa 1970 and found it personally offensive at points—but anyway, here are some excerpts:

"We were walking each other home from having dinner on Austin Street. We all live within a 10 block radius or less from Austin Street, and have lived in the neighborhood for more than 17 years. Our children have grown up together. We get together three or four times a year to catch up and spend time together. We had dinner at the new restaurant, the Flying Pig.
"At about 11:20pm we left the restaurant. We walked another friend home to Yellowstone, and the three of us walked back via Austin Street, got onto 71st Continental and walked across Station Square, up Greenway Terrace and then turned onto the street, where one of the three of us lives. We were saying goodbye to each other, and out of nowhere, like magic…two Afro-American six foot males appeared on either side of the three of us! They each were pointing semiautomatic guns at us, and instructed us not to say a word and to turn over our bags. They took all our bags, my wedding band, my anniversary band and a necklace with a miraculous metal that I have been wearing since I was fifteen years old. One of the men just ripped it off my chest. As soon as we had handed everything over to them, the men disappeared in the same way they had first appeared….without a sign or warning. We were all in shocked and terrified. We went to a neighbor’s house and called the police.
"Our lives have never been the same since that night and never will again. I will never walk home again in the dark those 10 blocks from Austin Street. It doesn’t matter whether you are with a group of women or men. When faced with a gun….all opportunities to protect yourself fall by the wayside.
"We learned later that week that two more robberies had taken place after ours. On Wednesday, July 3rd at about midnight on 70th Avenue and Fleet Street a second gun-point robbery took place this time of a man. On July 2nd another man was robbed on 63rd Avenue and Alderton in Rego Park by two Afro-American women brandishing a knife.
"It is important for me to share all this with you because what these men took from the three of us….that was so valuable, more valuable than even my childhood miraculous metal, was our sense of Safety and Peace in our neighborhood. WE NOW, ALL HAVE LOST THAT. We need to be vigilant, more cautious. We need to watch out for each other and be alert to any strangers in our neighborhood. We need to share this information with each other and share it with the police. We need to add more street lights from Burns to Manse. We need more patrol cars in the area-especially at night. We need to consider placing video cameras outside our homes facing the streets. So that the criminals who are targeting our neighborhood know we are ALL watching.
"If you agree, please email me at foresthillswatch2013@gmail.com and let’s come together as community to protect our neighborhood, our homes, our families... and our right to walk home in the dark without fear our lives are in danger."

Personally, I don't know how in New York City you can be alert to "any strangers in our neighborhood," since just about every other person is a stranger. That's what's so great about living in New York City! But, whatever. I feel for this person. I've had my share of run-ins with nutjobs on the streets—nothing as bad as this thankfully—and experiences like these can leave you very shaken. So I can only imagine the suffering this caused this person. I hope they catch the perpetrators very soon, and in the meantime, be a little extra careful out there....