owls head park

Summary of last night's meeting with Inspector Rodriguez and Vincent Gentile at the 68 Precinct. (Man, could Inspector Rodriguez do double work for Joe Pesci or what? He even SOUNDS like him.)

The meeting was intended to be about the Owls Head Park gang situation, primarily about the shooting two weeks ago, but it touched on a lot of park issues, from illegal barbecuing to large groups of 25 and more taking over big chunks of the park for private parties without permits.

On the shooting deal, here's what Rodriguez said. The two gangs in question are YFL (Yemeni For Life), an Arab group from Eastern Parkway, and a Latino, primarily Mexican, gang (whose name I didn't catch) from Sunset Park. A couple of punks from both gangs go to Fort Hamilton HS, where the friction started last year. It's escalated steadily since, resulting in one of the Latino kids getting knifed on 86th St earlier this year. Two YFL were arrested but the Mexican kids wouldn't cooperate with police nor the DA so the assailants went free.

After that YFL started to increase its presence in Bay Ridge. A few of the YFL were at a hooka bar on 69th St and saw some of the Mexican kids. They got bats and followed them to Owls Head Park. A brawl began and one of the Mexicans pulled a gun. At least one wild shot was fired inside the park in close proximity to children playing there.

In response to this, Rodriguez said that the 68 has beefed up its anti-gang unit and appointed a deputy inspector to run it. He said the gang issue has gotten problematic because these kids used to hang out in groups of 5 and 10 so all the cops had to do is break them up and send them in opposite directions. But now they're showing up in groups of 30, 50 even 100. Breaking them up is a bad solution because that just sends several pissed off groups of 10+ into the side streets, making it even harder for cops to keep an eye on them.