The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Beware the Jostlers

As iPhone muggings become positively epidemic throughout the City, and anecdotes abound of them in Caledonia, a piece on DNAInfo caught the Q's attention. From the story:

FLATBUSH — Cops nabbed three alleged iPhone bandits on a B train at Newkirk Plaza station on Thursday afternoon, police said. The teenage trio allegedly targeted an undercover transit officer with the MTA's "decoy unit" who was posing as a straphanger with an iPhone tucked into his backpack, police said.The three suspected thieves surrounded the undercover cop about 3:52 p.m., jostled him to create a distraction, and snatched the phone, police said. Other officers in the decoy unit witnessed the theft, and the three were arrested without incident, police said.

Police arrested a 17-year-old and two 16-year-olds, all Brooklyn residents, in connection with the crime. All three were charged with grand larceny and jostling. The 17-year-old was also charged with possession of stolen property.
I'm not familiar with the crime of "jostling," and it doesn't show up in crime statistics. And yet, it's safe to say, that with the spike in phone snatchings there must be a concurrent rise in jostling incidents. Once was a day an innocent jostling got you no more than a nasty stare. But in today's topsy turvy world it can land in you in the can.

Does that mean that a game of Twister is now tantamount to armed robbery?

2 comments:

Bob Marvin said...

From the NY State Courts website:

"Under our lawa person is guilty of Jostling when, in a public place, that person intentionally and unnecessarily jostles or crowds another person at a time when a third person's hand is in the proximity of another person's pocket [or handbag]".

It's still safe to play Twister.

Alex said...

Interesting news, and I suppose it's good, but it's really frustrating that decoys are not being used to bust drug dealers!