Repeating something endlessly doesn’t make it true, does it?

Thursday, we’re treated to Brown’s re-inaguration speech (Buffalo News 12/31/09) telling us he has been:

“making Buffalo safer” and “reducing violent crime”

Sunday, the Buffalo News (1/3/10) informs us that Gang violence boosts death tally -A spike in the number of deadly gangland quarrels pushed last year’s homicide count to 60

Other misinformation constantly repeated:

“These kids are out here fighting for drugs and to secure a territory. We are reactive to those incidents,” a district police official said in explaining that it is next to impossible to predict and prevent this type of violence. (Buffalo News 1/3/10)

Fact: You know its going on, proper policing would help prevent it. Try getting the police out of cars and onto the streets. Oh right, the Brown administration didn’t even apply for the grants to get Community police. (Buffalo loses out on grants for police; City ineligible to apply because of vacancies Jerry Zremski. Buffalo News Jul 29, 2009)

Buffalo homicide investigators earned praise when they caught the alleged killer of Javon R. Jackson, who was fatally shot May 10 while celebrating just hours after graduating from the University of Buffalo with an electrical engineering degree. (Buffalo News 1/3/10)

Fact: There were 4 males in the group that shot Javon Jackson. So far only two, Demario Cordelius and Christian T. Klenke, aka Christian McCutcheon, have been arrested. The rest remain at large, free to murder again.

The continued growth and evolution of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and the tremendous potential offered by UB 2020. (Byron W. Brown’s speech for second inaugural, Buffalo News 12/31/09).

Fact: Economic development that bases its hopes on a $5 billion handout from NYS is a hallucination not a plan. Projected NYS budget deficits: 2010/11 – $6.8 Billion, 2011/12 – $14.8 Billion, 2012/13 – $19.5 Billion

“overwhelmingly voted me into a second term” (Byron W. Brown’s speech for second inaugural, Buffalo News 12/31/09).

Fact: Only 26,464 people out of a City of 276,059 bothered to vote, 8578 of those people left the Mayor slot blank and 158 voted for Kearns as a write in. So really, only 17728 people voted for you, about 6% of the City. Looks more like an overwhelming embarrassment to me. Byron Brown’s new media consult and speech advisor, Mr. Weasel must have come up with this overwhelming theme.

Bonnie Russell Sighting, Woo Hoo!

The aliens apparently released City Councilwomen Bonnie Russell just long enough to comment on the travails of fellow Grassrooter Brian Davis.

I think he should eventually resign,” said University representative Bonnie E. Russell. “The minute the Law Department releases a decision, goodbye. He has to go.”

Still, Russell said it’s “very sad” to witness the problems that have plagued Davis. Buffalo News Nov 17, 2009

And how did Ms Russell use this valuable time free from her alien handlers? Why, to throw a little saracsm her fellow council members way, of course.

Russell scoffed at claims by some lawmakers that they will not make a decision on any possible successor to Davis based on politics.

“Let’s not be naive,” said Russell. “That gives me a good laugh.” Buffalo News Nov 17, 2009

Note to Ms Russell: Duh. You’re right, replacing Davis is all about politics, the gloves off kind. (You wouldn’t know anything about that would you? Does the name LoCurto ring a bell?) Anyway, the next time the aliens give you time off for good behavior could you spend it in a little more useful pursuit like asking the Mayor for more police for your district? We’re getting really tired of people getting mugged, raped and murdered around here. A few more housing inspectors wouldn’t hurt either.

Where are they now?

Adrienne S. March  – Kiele Coleman and Frank Militello

12/19/09 The judge imposed the near-maximum sentence for the shootings of Frank Militello and Kiele A. Coleman.
Coleman, in a wheelchair, told the judge she wanted her to “alter Adrienne March’s life as she altered my life.”
Still partially paralyzed and blind in her right eye from being shot in the head by March, Coleman, 23, told the judge that she hopes to some day be able to “smile again.”
Militello, 27, remains on a feeding tube in an Erie, Pa., hospital. (Buffalo News)

Adrienne S. March 

1/20/09 Adrienne S. March was convicted  of first-degree attempted murder, assault and a weapons counts for shooting Kiele Coleman and Frank Militello in a car in North Buffalo. She claims the man was supplying her the crack cocaine she sold on Buffalo streets.

March claimed Militello, 27, was her drug supplier and that she shot him in self-defense as they argued in his car over drug money she owed him. The jury unanimously rejected her self-defense claims.

Militello is now at a rehabilitation hospital in Erie, Pa. Coleman, 23, lost vision in her right eye and hearing in her right ear, and her left arm and leg are paralyzed. She was being brought to court today by a friend as the jury verdict was announced. Both victims were shot in the head.  Buffalo News

Todd Heatley

11/8/09 Detectives on Friday charged Todd R. Heatley, 28, of Main Street with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Jacob Herbert at about 4:30 a. m. Oct. 31.

Herbert, 19, of Clarence, was stabbed several times outside a house party at 112 Lisbon Ave. and died in Erie County Medical Center. Buffalo News

Custer St Rapist (alleged no longer)

Rasheed I. Milton, 27, of Custer Street, was found guilty as charged on two counts of predatory sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment and a weapons count.
The crime occurred in the Dartmouth Avenue home of Milton’s sister. Milton grabbed the victim as she was walking along Dartmouth, forced her into the house, where he assaulted her for four hours.

Because of a bookkeeping error, Milton was freed from the county jail in Alden last Feb. 27 by mistake. He was arrested a day after the March 4 sex attack.

A member of Buffalo’s Cash Money Gang, Milton still faces sentencing in U. S. District Court on a drug-trafficking conviction.

Sex Crimes Detective Jacqueline Sullivan testified Thursday that while she was interrogating Milton in police headquarters, she excused herself to use a restroom and Milton told her, “Sit down — I’m not done with you.” In closing arguments Glazer said the “the most damaging evidence” against Milton was in “his own words” to Sullivan, which showed a twisted desire to “dominate and control” women.
Buffalo News Nov 14, 2009

Heights Stabbing Arrest – a look under the ‘hood

The arrest of Todd Heatley for the stabbing death of Jacob Herbert illustrates just how tawdry, stupid and dangerous the “party” scene in the Heights has become.

Let’s speculate a little about how it all might have gone down:

• The Vernon boys learned that there is big money to be had running a “party for profit” house in the Heights. Money is not the only motivator. Tang, especially that fresh high school tang is another benie. (Sorry, The Verbose One insisted I include this.)
• They hire Todd Heatley, a fairly well known DJ in the Buffalo area, to provide that trip hop edge that all good little underage suburbanites crave. The Vernon boys may or may not have known, or cared, about Todd’s little anger management/violence problem.
  

  Todd Heatley, 27, of East Main Street was charged Aug. 24 with menacing with a weapon along with Harley Tong, 27, who was also charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury after the two were involved in an altercation. The Observer, Dunkirk

• Underage partiers from suburban high schools and colleges in the area swarm Lisbon Ave and pay a cover charge for music and all you can drink. Or perhaps just music, with the all you can drink being an extra charge. The police say 250 people, so there were probably many more than this present over the course of the night. (Attending “Parties for profit” in the Heights is a very popular pass time for Amherst and Williamsville High School kids. Just check facebook to confirm this.)
• The police are called repeatedly by irate neighbors sick to death of the noise, drunk high school and college kids slumming in the City for the night.
• The police come, see another college “party”, and make very little effort to shut it down. After all, they have real crime to attend to and not enough manpower to do that.
• Jacob probably gets upset because his good time is ruined by the police coming and allegedly demands his money back. Todd the DJ, who makes part of his living off of the proceeds of “parties for profit” like this one, probably wouldn’t take kindly to a rich kid from Clarence cutting into his livelihood.
• And we all know how this story ends.

We don’t have the manpower to baby-sit 150 kids – police official

Mayor Brown we are not asking you to baby-sit. We are demanding adequate resources be dedicated to this neighborhood. Numerous laws were broken the night Jacob died. If you can’t do the job, step aside and let someone who cares take over.

Some of the laws that were probably broken at 112 Lisbon, any one of which could have been used to shut the “party/business operation” down permanently:

• Noise ordinances.
• Fire code violations – 250 people or more in a house violates all sorts of regs.
• Serving alcohol to minors
• Selling alcohol to minors.
• Selling alcohol without a permit/license.
• Holding an event without a permit.
• Open container.
• Drug possession?

Sunday’s Buffalo News had a good article by Jay Tokasz. It confirms much of what we suspected, Heatley was the DJ at the illegal event, Heatley and Jake Herbert argued over a $7 cover charge, residents think the police response on this was completely screwed up …

Todd at work YouTube

Todd Heatley on the cover of Artvoice July 22, 2009 (he’s the guy standing by the TV in the blue suit)

Stabbings – industrial accidents waiting to happen?

Big and noisy parties are nothing new in the city’s University Heights neighborhood, but the Halloween bash put on by some young men on Lisbon Avenue took a tragic turn that won’t soon be forgotten.

The party at 112 Lisbon was so big that it spilled out into a parking lot across the street, and it was so noisy that Buffalo Police officers came by twice to break it up.

Neighbors said the party was extremely loud and was so big that many of the partygoers went to a nearby school parking lot, where it became a tailgate party with people wearing Halloween costumes. Buffalo News

An impromptu memorial to Jacob Herbert on site where he was killed

This stabbing illustrates just about everything that is wrong with Buffalo. It reads like an industrial or airplane accident; missteps, that taken by themselves, are insignificant (or in our case major nuances, but not generally life threatening), snowball to a catastrophic result.

• Put a bunch of young people into absentee landlord housing with little or no adult presence anywhere.
• Ignore the few remaining homeowners repeated requests for help dealing with young people learning how to be adults.
• Add large sums of money to be made by selling alcohol to a huge audience of underage consumers. At $5 a cup, there was easily over $1000 made, not bad for one nights work. This would be just for the beer, shots etc extra.
• Understaff a police department so badly that there is no one to run a burglary or robbery patrol and certainly so understaffed that there is no one who wants to spend the 4 hours or more it would take to round everyone up, take them to the Motel Hell and file all that paper work. Just tell the desperate residents that you had “real crime” to deal with and leave it at that.
• Throw in one of those neighborhood killing corner “stores” that attracts Bennett HS juvies to rampage during the day and gets the real bad asses to show up at night. Put up a crime camera in front the store because its such a frequent crime scene. Don’t shut it down.

Buff City – neighborhood scourge. 90 Lisbon

The story ends in all those unfortunately predictable ways, someone dies, more homeowners get fed up and leave, more slumlords buy up whats left and Buffalo continues spiraling downward at an ever increasing pace.

Epic FAIL for all involved:

Bonnie Russell for allowing “Buff City” to continue to exist in the neighborhood and for not being in Brown’s face daily demanding more resources for her district.

Buffalo Police for not taking these mob scenes, quaintly know as “parties” seriously.

Byron Brown’s failure to deal with the slumlords in any meaningful way. Waiting for everything to fall down, so you can sell it off to realestate buddies for pennies on the dollar and then get the feds and state to pay you to rebuild may be a plan, but its not working out so good for you or Buffalo, eh?

Byron Brown’s failure to staff E district to deal with the changing demographics and escalating violence in the Heights.

Simpson and the other overpaid UB administrators who think $10s of millions in sports spending, a fake Main St and fake lake ($5 billion and counting of NYS tax dollars) will do anything to keep the kids from coming to the Heights. You can’t blame the students, unlike The Rez, the Heights can be fun until it all gets a little too real.

But, unlike industrial accidents that get investigated by OSHA, FAA etc. in an effort to keep them from happening again, we can count on Brown to deliver more of the same.

The Vernon boys had quite a playpen at 112 Lisbon. That’s a Volkswagon hanging from a swing set. I won’t even speculate what that’s for.

42.948152 -78.824351

Another kid dies in my neighborhood

Another Neighbor Robbed at Gunpoint

Our neighbor was robbed at gun point outside of the NFTA LaSalle Station, Wednesday evening, on his way home from work.

NFTA and Brown administration both FAILed our neighbor on this one.

• Brown’s FAILure to staff E District with the resources they need to police this area properly.
• FAILure of the gun buyback program. Nothing like a gun in the face to get the point across that there are WAY too many guns on the streets of Buffalo, especially in the hands of idiot teen gang banger wannabes.
• Brown’s FAILure to even remotely deliver on his election eve Santa act.
• Brown’s FAILure to develop this area into more than a humongous parking lot (always more than half empty even at the busiest of times). He had the chance to do this but opted for a land grab that would enrich his real-estate buddies, only to have that FAIL too.
• FAILure of the NFTA to patrol the LaSalle adequately. This is the second violent incident there in the last month.

Our neighbor’s story in his own words:

A long barreled gun of a thief was pointed near my chest in the parking lot behind the LaSalle Subway Station Parking Lot at about 7:40 PM last Wednesday evening, October 21st, 2009, as I was making my way toward the Linear Park walkway on my way home after having worked only a couple of hours later than usual downtown that evening. The lead thief brandishing that curious gun had initially passed me at some distance proceeding at a fast pace in the other direction with a companion, who would later also produce a gun after their robbery of me had succeeded. Both were very young men, appearing to me to be in their late teens. As they passed me, they seemed determined to get somewhere in the opposite direction than I was proceeding. By the angle at which they approached me, it seemed they must have been coming up from the Shoshone Park steps to the LaSalle Station Parking Lot. They were moving not so much toward me as beyond me in the direction I had left, with some breadth between us. They seemed to be taking no cognizance of me at all. A moment before one had landed to one side in front of me, blocking my path with his gun, I had heard the other say to him something to the effect of “Now show us what you can do”. I thought nothing of what I had overheard until startled by the context my robbers had created in assuming their roles. My lead thief’s companion said and did little during the robbery; but he stood menacingly behind me slightly to the same side. Supported by the occasional echoes of his companion, the lead thief, who may have been more a novice in a test of initiation as I thought at the time, he demanded first my money and then my cell phone. At each demand, I told them I had nothing to give, conjecturing they might be put off and that I could move on. The gun looked strange to me; I was not sure at first how real it was. When the lead thief waved it at me in agitation and threatened to frisk me, I thought the gun might be homemade and that the better part of wisdom was to yield to their demands. At their successive commands, I first gave them some cash and then a cell phone. Although they were demanding it all, I began to turn away from them toward the back entrance way to the apartment building running alongside the LaSalle Station Parking Lot. I repeatedly pleaded with them that since they got some considerable cash and a cell phone that they leave me alone. As the lead thief started to run off with his booty, his companion lingered a moment, hit me on the back of my head with the butt of his gun and ran to catch up with his co-thief, evidently not wanting to face me alone even though armed. I was not injured by the hasty blow.

A minute and half later, when my escape had been made good and I was with people at the apartment building, I phoned 911. They took a detailed report from me over the phone. A Buffalo Police Car appeared in about 7 minutes. The officer took me at my request to the scene of the crime and so gathered further information from me about what had transpired. Another officer pulled alongside to relate that they had stopped two suspects fitting the description I had given but that they were neither armed nor had my cell phone. Earlier, I had been asked whether I could identify them. I unhesitatingly replied “yes,” but later qualified that in saying I would not want to misidentify any innocent person, expressing confidence I would be able to identify them if found together. At that, the officer then challenged me saying “In other words, you are saying you cannot identify them”. I asserted that was not what I was suggesting. In any case, I had not that night nor at any time since been called to identify any suspect or suspects. The Buffalo Police Officer who arrived at my call kindly took me home.

The following day, an aide to City Council President David Franczyk called the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Police on my behalf, since the crime occurred on NFTA property. An NFTA detective finally reached me. I gave him a report over the phone and later in person at his office. The NFTA appears to be actively investigating the robbery.

Although I have left a message by phone on the recording machine for the Detectives with the Buffalo City Police Department, as of this writing I have not yet heard from them.

Working towards a secure university

Dear Jennifer,

NFTA FAILs again

The near riot at the NFTA LaSalle Station, Thursday, comes as no surprise to the people who regularly use public transportation.  It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to the the NFTA either.  Complaints about the behavior of the Buffalo School students taking public transportation are frequent and ongoing.  Violent behavior and property destruction inside the stations and surrounding property by is Buffalo School students is well known and has been escalating for years.

Note to NFTA: A quick response time to a fight involving 30 or more students is a big, giant FAIL.    Police were present in the stations during the first week of school.  Removing them after the first week of school, so that we rarely see an adult presence on the the trains or in the stations, is a mistake and you know it.

Byron Brown/UB Weasel on Protecting the Heights

After repeated phone calls to 911 couldn’t roust our new UB/BPD bike patrols to check out a group of gang bangers setting up shop at the end of one of the dead end streets, we decide to give Officer Stabler at E District a call to see what’s up with these patrols.

Officer Stabler made it clear that while he is grateful for the extra man power, it is not enough for him to use to run the bike patrols.  Our call, for instance, was bumped by serious gun arrest.  UB and Brown kind of left that out out of all the heavy breathing PR associated with this didn’t they?

New Joint Patrols in University Heights Have Begun (but only when there is manpower available to do it.)

As we learned in the debate between Kearns and Brown on Friday, yes Brown has hired over a hundred more police, but the City lost about 100 due to retirements and disability.  A FEW additional hires in a City with sky rocketing crime rates is most certainly not enough to do anything but pay catch up (and badly at that).

So when is a Police Bike Patrol not a Police Bike Patrol? Obviously, when it is a PR event cooked up by a University who is desperate to appear to be doing something/anything in response to the murder of one of their students and a Mayor desperate to appear to be be doing something/anything in response to the sky rocketing violent crime rates in the City.  Who looses?  We all do.

This should in no way be taken as criticism against the hard working officers of District E.  We are very grateful for the service they provide to our community on a daily basis.  This is Byron Brown’s fault. E District has been understaffed and over worked for the entire time Brown has been in office.
______________________________

Apparently, gang bangers aren’t the only problem our neighborhood is having this weekend.  I received these emails in response this post:

9/12/09 I agree.  We had a horrendous night last evening on Merrimac and Heath Streets.  There is now a frat house that is located at 169 Merrimac.  We called 911 and district E between the hours of midnight and 1:30 AM regarding a large party at the former address.  Kids were on the lawn, on the upper and lower porches, inside the house, and in the basement of that dwelling.  We had been told earlier that evening by the police that the party would be broken up.  After midnight and into the wee hours of the morning the party was still going strong.  We placed several more calls.  It was after 2:00 AM when the BPD finally showed.  The scenario described at #169 has been ongoing throughout the past three weeks.


Generally speaking, during the forty years that I’ve resided here, I’ve never seen a worse scene on Merrimac and Heath Streets than last night.  Droves of kids carrying open beer containers (many of them underage) were seen and heard walking up and down both streets, drunker than skunks, moving from one house to the next.  Some were shouting that they had their fake ID’s and were headed up to the bars.  In addition to 169 Merrimac there were loud parties that we reported at #81 Merrimac, #63 Heath, and #140 Heath.  This was just the tip of the iceberg.  There were many more parties.  We chose to target one house from each block in the worst areas to report.


We also contacted WIBV, hoping that we can get some news cameras down here tonight.  We were told by the police that it’s going to be even bigger and better scene tonight because of UB’s home game today.


Yes, where were the bike patrols?  Where were the quality of life patrols?  Where were the UB officers?

9/13/09 This is getting really crazy…. My wife was awakened last night at 3:30 AM by the thumping music coming from somewhere to the west of us and we are on NFB…..I can only imagine what it is like to live closer. I also thought that the Buffalo cops could request that UB police intercede if they…the BPD…. are handling a higher priority elsewhere… what happened to this idea??

9/13/09 I called WIVB also at 12:30am after I watched about 30 drunk, laughing, shrieking students getting out of cars with beers in their hands and stagger on up to Main St. They staggered back around 5am, still loud but of course much more drunk.

At WIVB I spoke to Shane about the drunken chaos going on in the Heights. He had worked on the UB/BPD bike patrol story and was quite interested to find out that we have not seen any evidence of it.  I told him what Officer Stabler told us about not being given the manpower to to run these patrols despite UB’s and Mayor Brown’s willingness to posture all over this “new response to issues in the Heights”.

9/13/09 Saw the bike patrol guys and 3 patrol cars empty about 200 kids from 169 Merrimac tonight. It took a while, and the kids in the frat tee shirts started filing back about 10 minutes after the officers left, exchanging high fives.  They clearly thought they’d gotten away with something. They did seem to be turning others away though.