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I'm not talking about Long Island as a whole, because you obviously cannot live on the entire island. You choose an area and move there. I chose PJ because the schools were supposed to be up there and as close to private as you can get in a public school situation.
And I think it is ridiculous to say that someone is hiding out in their home and shouldn't be afraid. That quaint little ice cream shop in the village? Three of the family members who own it were attacked by those thugs who are somehow allowed to loiter in red and black and yellow clothing. ALL of Long Island isn't like this. Never had a problem in Wantagh or Stony Brook. Is there the occasional bad egg? Sure thing, that's anywhere. But when you have Constable Chief telling me it is not safe to walk through the village past 9pm without my husband, that says a LOT. The rise in gang activity is increasing, all you have to do is go to the playground and look at the tags sprayed all over. You're damned straight I'm not going to turn a blind eye to KNOWN evening activity and risk my life or that of my children, especially when PJ is telling me to stay away. As sad as it was to hear, I'm just really appreciative that the guy even told me as much.
Suffolk PD is a joke. I once drove up to a female officer who was in her patrol car in the Credit Union parking lot on Rt 112 to inform her of teen gang members loitering in the playground. She told me that PJ and PJS wasn't normally her patrol and she would call it in. ??? They've basically acknowledged that this is now a problem area and go on with their lives. Why we pay taxes to have PD Gang Units is beyond me. But to have a quaint little village completely infiltrated at night within a 3-5 year period is almost unheard of. And, once again, I must stress that the PJ residents need to get their heads out of their rear ends and get vocal.
I have always despised the widespread apathy that you talk about. It may sound corny, but united we stand, divided we fall. If only 10% of PJ residents were like you, there would be no gang problem. The police could not ignore that many people. I would love to have neighbors like you. People never realize how much they can accomplish if they stand together.
Our teachers and police are amoung the highest paid in the nation. I think I want my money back!
Even I cant believe this gang crap has hit the village as well. I remember plenty of times going to Port Jeff in th 90s as a teenager and remember what a nice place it used to be. It was busy with alot of tourists and it was one of my favorite places on Long Island to go, loved Danfords. But last time I was there, a couple of years ago, I noticed some bums hanging out in the village, and alot more closed stores in that mini-mall and Danfords.
Last summer I was riding the bus through there and was shocked to see some grafitti and illegals hanging around, and riding through town recklessly on bikes. The area by the train tracks (both north and south) has gotten considerably worse, to the point I really just avoid waiting for the bus or train there. There's illegals hanging out everywhere, and they sleep behind that bodega on the NW side of the tracks (next to the Army-Navy store). Strange ppl are always walking around begging for money. Now a Bravo is coming where the old Thrift Store was, setting the stage for a complete takeover of the town by these aliens.
It's got to be frustrating seeing all the hard work put in to living in PJ go to waste as a bunch of gangs and invaders takeover, and our highly paid police force does nothing about it and would rather be catching folks going through stop signs. And most people are too into themselves to see the island crumbling around them. Or they dont want to mow their own lawn.
I've loved on Long Island my entire life, 34 years so far. I was born in Shirley, raised in North Wantagh, and spent the past 8 or so years here in Westbury.
I've seen town by town fall to decay. It's usually the villages that go first. Long Island is being invaded by gangs, many are from south of the border. They recruit your kids in schools. The police are completely unprepared and ill adapted for the problem. Everyone is in denial that Long Island has serious problems. It seems compared to the other NYC suburbs, Long Island is having the biggest decline. I do not see as much gang actvity in Westchester and New Jersey. There's a few ghettos but the trash pretty much stays in them.
If you want to still be close to NY but want to be in a safer place, more like the LI of the 80s and 90s, you're best bet is going to be the southern half of NJ. Gangs and illegals are hard to come by in towns like Brick, Egg Harbor City, and Ocean Acres. There's alot more forests and open space there, unfortunately NY state never bothered to preserve huge tracts of land into state forests on Long Island, whereas Southern NJ has several huge state forests of well over 50,000 acres. In fact, there's so much forest down there you can fit Long Island right inside it with room to spare.
Anyway that's the area I plan on going to. No illegals with their stupid gangs, most ppl mow their own lawn, and there's acres of pinelands to explore. Long island is the LA of the East Coast now.
Last edited by Johninwestbury; 06-26-2010 at 06:04 PM..
There is crime everywhere. But when you have 3 specific gangs steadily infiltrating a particular town within a 3 year period,and I have the Village Constable telling me to never go into the village past 9pm alone with my children, there is reason to panic and get the hell out. It's getting worse.
The Village Constable is a joke. What's he getting paid for?
Everybody is afraid of these guys, even the cops. WTF?
There is no "Port Jefferson Village Police", there are Port Jefferson Village constables who are unarmed hence they won't be of much value. Let's face it, I wouldent go after some gangmembers if I was unarmed and only paid a part time salary either.
The Suffolk County Police won't do jack about the gang problem in Suffolk County. Never have, never will. They just want the paychecks.
Wow, OP, you have given me my Saturday morning surprise. I am really stunned. I too thought PJ was a really nice area. To have your husband walk into that situation when out with the kids is just frightening. What a shame, as you say, that other residents are not speaking up. It's hard to think that SPD would just allow these guys, with their colors, to take over a park like that. My heart really goes out to you. Unforunately it's the least thing you need, but you have my sympathy.
They are taking over alot of the towns on LI, and walk around with impunity with a big grin on their face. I wish it was legal to shoot 'em.
We've gone to the Village Police and called Suffolk PD, but the problem is getting WORSE.
Cannot even take the children to Rocketship Playground anymore. Hubby was there 2 weeks ago and saw 10-12 kids ALL dressed in red (Bloods) hanging around the playground. He picked took the kids and got out at the same time Suffolk PD showed up to clear the gang members. From what my friends tell me, we have the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings in the village in the evenings. Drugs are sold in the public restrooms that are right next to the tennis courts and Rocketship playground. There was a big gang fight by the ice cream shop.
My husband and I feel like we're the only PJ residents who seem to notice that this is a big problem that is only going to get worse. The lifelong "Port" residents seemed to have their heads buried in the sand, or their rear ends on the golf courses. Why we pay village police is beyond me, they can't do a damned thing. Suffolk PD has assigned one more P.O in the evenings to patrol. You'd think Suffolk Gang Unit would be on this like white on rice. Kills me to think of the crap my hubby went through working in the city for his salary and we have almost no help (unless it's to arrest) from Suffolk.
The mayor here is a joke as well. She doesn't address these issues. It's all about re-beautification and the like. These die-hard "Port" (if you are an outsider like me who moved to PJ you call it Port Jeff, the lifelongs simply call it Port--ahhhhhh, how lovely) residents only talk about, "What are we going to do about Upper Port?" Are they blind? Do they think these kids walking around in the same colors is the glee club or something? I swear, you cannot even mention the violence topic to lifelongs, it's like talking to the Stepford crew!
We're out of here. I grew up in Wantagh, lived in Stony Brook, and never once had to worry about taking my children for ice cream when I lived in these two towns. Yeah, I love the schools, but at what cost??? I'd rather mediocre schools and quality of life than this way of living. We had been considering moving south for a long time, but I was afraid of the culture change. I realize now that the culture change might be a good thing for my kids. Yes, it's a red state, not blue. But maybe it's that liberal way of thinking that has PJ in the state it is in.
Sorry about my rant, but it's not like I can talk about it with my neighbors here.
Don't kid yourself! Gangbangers are VERY PREVALENT in the South ... more prevalent than on LI. Watch the TV show "Gangland."
Here are some areas gullible LI'ers are fleeing to that have major gang problems, worse than anything on LI:
Membership in MS-13 has grown rapidly. In Charlotte, North Carolina, membership is estimated to be 200+. Police have implicated MS-13 in at least 11 murders in the Charlotte area in 2000 alone. In northern Virginia and southern Maryland, around the Washington DC area, local authorities estimate MS-13 membership to be between 5,000 and 6,000 members - by far the largest gang in the area. In July of 2003, the Washington DC area encountered three murders attributed to MS-13. The first was the murder of a federal informant. The second was the shooting death of a 17 year old boy. The third was the death of a 16 year old boy who had both of his hands completely chopped off.
Gangster Killer Bloods a.k.a. G-Shine of South Carolina
Besides Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 70 gangs, Wake County, NC is also home to gangs:
Quote:
According to a recent study, there are 13 recognized gangs in Wake County, with the Bloods being the most prominent.
And if you think the cops are idiots HERE, you haven't gotten a load of the Sheriff Roscoe's and Deputy Enos' and Cletus' down there!
PS: Have you complained to Steve Levy's office? Light a fire under his butt and perhaps something will be done.
PPS: You know, people cannot be arrested just for the clothing they wear. They have to actually DO something criminal. What did these kids in the park DO besides stand there? There are also a lot of faux gangbangers out there that want to look "tough."
Last edited by I_Love_LI_but; 06-26-2010 at 07:46 PM..
First of all, LaGrange is not considered one of the nicer Chicago suburbs. Secondly, how many homicides has Long Island had this past year?
I live in a western suburb...Naperville. It was voted number 1 place to raise a family several years in a row. Maybe 3 homicides in it's whole history. Comparing Chicago homicide rates to the Chicago suburbs is like comparing NYC to Long Island...ridiculous and not comparable. I live an hour from Chicago. The homicide rates don't apply.
I just looked into lovely Naperville. It seems there were 11 murders between 98-08 (probably none before 98 I am sure), slightly more than the 3 you reported "in its whole history" - though still not a bad place I would guess as these numbers are very low for a city that size.
A few things to note, the population of Naperville was estimated to be 144,000 in 2008. Since LI has about 3 million people between Nassau and Suffolk are you comparing Naperville to all of Nassau and Suffolk or just Port Jefferson? I am not sure how many murders there have been in PJ's "whole history"...maybe someone can fill us in?
I can not find the same stats for Long island, Nassau or Suffolk individually (maybe you can) but I did find some articles from the New York Times which had the murder rate/100K in the 1.2 & 1.8 range in 2003 which are extremely low (and went lower for at least the next 5 years). I am sure someone here will rip me apart on what these stats mean or how they are reported, I look forward to being educated. I am happy for you that you feel even safer in your new home in Naperville.
Brains, beauty, and a badge... In each episode of Female Forces, viewers ride shotgun with the female officers from the Naperville, Illinois Police Department as they fight a full gamut of big city crime in the suburbs of Chicago.
NOTE there is NO "Police Women of Nassau and Suffolk Counties," is there? We wouldn't have enough crime to focus on a show including male officers, let alone just filming the females!
NOTE we don't have episodes of COPS, Crime 360, The First 48, etc., etc., etc., and etc. filmed here.
REASON: We don't have enough CRIME to support a TV show about our police officers. Apparently Naperville does. Doing a show like that on LI would be impossible because it would not have enough action and would bore everyone to tears. How many episodes would we get? Maybe a couple watching kids in gangbanger colors stand around a park like a bunch of morons? Wow!
Last edited by I_Love_LI_but; 06-26-2010 at 07:54 PM..
NOTE there is NO "Police Women of Nassau and Suffolk Counties," is there? We wouldn't have enough crime to focus on a show including male officers, let alone just filming the females!
NOTE we don't have episodes of COPS, Crime 360, The First 48, etc., etc., etc., and etc. filmed here.
REASON: We don't have enough CRIME to support a TV show about our police officers. Apparently Naperville does. Doing a show like that on LI would be impossible because it would not have enough action and would bore everyone to tears. How many episodes would we get? Maybe a couple watching kids in gangbanger colors stand around a park like a bunch of morons? Wow!
Great find! I am sure most episodes focus on them saving cats from trees and that sort of stuff.
Great find! I am sure most episodes focus on them saving cats from trees and that sort of stuff.
What are you saying this for if you think Naperville has crime rather than being as "crime free" as the person you were posting to?
Absolutely not kitties in trees. (Fire Departments do that, not cops anyway.)
Watch full episodes on the website.
They were one bunch of tough women.
I enjoyed that show and I have a lot of respect for those lady cops.
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In response to the O.P.
