Occupy Sandy working with NYPD to prevent crime
NYPD and NY Post giving Occupy credit.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/rage_with_hook_machine_nypd_crime_CF276NUbDkzRFRgdw3sXkI
A surprising alliance of cops and activists in Red Hook pulverized crime and saved lives in the weeks after Superstorm Sandy devastated the waterfront Brooklyn neighborhood.
In the first two weeks after Sandy, residents in Red Hook didn’t have power or electricity -- but they didn’t have to worry about lootings at their businesses, being mugged for their smartphones, or an attack by a sexual predator in the darkness of the blackout.
Despite desperate conditions in the Red Hook housing development and residences nearby, there was virtually no crime -- and no storm-related deaths. Other neighborhoods like Breezy Point and Coney Island haven’t been as lucky.
Police sources have credited the drop in crime to an unlikely coalition that included the NYPD, Occupy Wall Street activists, and local nonprofits working together to keep storm victims safe.
“This crisis allowed us all to remove the politics and differences we had to do our job, and come to the aid of the people,” said a police source yesterday. “We all rose to the occasion.”
In Coffey Park, cops worked with Occupiers who set up tents to distribute food, clothes and medicine-- and happily went home at the end of the day, rather than camping out. The NYPD blanketed Red Hook with cops, using their patrol cars to light up the powerless neighborhood at night.
