New York City used to be Gotham City, so lawless that parents gave their children “mug money” to hand out to avoid a beating. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the New York City Subway had a crime rate higher than that of any other mass transit system in the world.
The city was synonymous with famous crimes:
•Three members of the domestic terrorist group the Weathermen blow selves up;
•Black Liberation Army members ambush and kill two police officers;
•Mafiosi “Crazy Joe” Gallo gunned down on his 43rd birthday;
•Dog Day Afternoon bank holdup to finance sex change operation;
•French Connection bust heroin stolen by police;
•Puerto Rican FALN terrorist kill four in bar bombing;
•TWA bomb kills 11, to this day no one knows why;
•Son of Sam;
•Sid Vicious murders girlfriend Nancy Spungen, dies of heroin overdose;
•$6,000,000 Lufthansa heist memorialized in GoodFellas;
•Etan Patz vanishes;
•John Lennon murdered;
•Bernhard Goetz shoots four muggers;
•John Gotti has Paul Castellano murdered, takes over mob;
•Jennifer Levin murdered in Central Park by preppie Robert Chambers;
•Dan Rather is assaulted by two men, one of whom asks him “Kenneth, what’s the frequency?”
•Larry Davis shoots six policemen and flees, becoming a folkhero to some;
•White mob in Howard Beach, Queens, attacks three black stranded motorists, one is struck by a car and killed as he attempts to flee;
•Joel Steinberg and lover Hedda Nussbaum beat daughter to death;
•Central Park jogger Trisha Meili is raped and beaten savagely in what police say one of five jailed suspects termed a “wilding” attack. Years later DNA evidence proves all were innocent;
•16 year old African-American Yusuf Hawkins is murdered by a white mob in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
That was the 70s and 80s. Thanks to a number of factors, including the advent of Raymond Kelly’s community policing in 92, New York is now a far, far kinder, gentler place.
Self-defense is often thought of as a one on one or one vs. many circumstance, but the best defense against a mugger is a community.
Last year a massive mugger robbed a woman in broad daylight on 35th street in Midtown Manhattan. Immediately 10-12 good citizens subdued the mugger, while another group went to the aid of the woman, whose belongings were spread across the road.
As one good samaritan maintained back mount and a loose choke, the group urged the mugger to give back the money he had stolen, which he did.
“Are you going to press charges?” a member of the helpful group asked the victim.
“Yes, he’s an a$$#@7*,” she replied accurately.
There was a time when New Yorkers prided themselves on being a$$#@7*s. Now they are more likely to be heroes. Now the city that watched Kitty Genovese get stabbed to death without a single call to the police leaps to the aid of the defenseless by the dozens.
Congratulations New York, you’ve come a long way baby.
