Safest part of town.  Am I the only one who remembers that someone was murdered in the bank parking lot last year? And really, even if downtown is the safest neighborhood, does that really mean it is safe? When the city is only safer than 6% of other cities in the country it means nothing.

Quoted from Madam X

Someone called Ray Gillen just after the incident. How did whoever did that come up with the idea of calling Ray Gillen, of all people? Sounds like a plan, to me. Like they were expecting this sort of thing.

You're exactly right.  This does sound planned.  He's almost bragging about talking about it at 6AM.

If not serious why would he be talking on the phone to someone so damn early?

Quoted from Parent

Safest part of town.  Am I the only one who remembers that someone was murdered in the bank parking lot last year? And really, even if downtown is the safest neighborhood, does that really mean it is safe? When the city is only safer than 6% of other cities in the country it means nothing.

Downtown has the lowest crime rate because it is the least populated section.

Quoted from Libertarian4life

Downtown has the lowest crime rate because it is the least populated section.

Or maybe because it takes months before the general public knows about any incidents.

Quoted from Parent

Safest part of town.  Am I the only one who remembers that someone was murdered in the bank parking lot last year? And really, even if downtown is the safest neighborhood, does that really mean it is safe? When the city is only safer than 6% of other cities in the country it means nothing.

I do remember that.

And unrelated to that, I could swear someone on these boards may have posted that there was something near the Bow Tie but saw nothing in the paper.  Maybe I was wrong, I did try to search the board and didn't ome up with anything so maybe I was wrong.  Maybe it was something else that happened that never made it to the news.

There was an incident where the glass was smashed when the anti-Obama movie posters were displayed.

Efforts to suppress this have totally failed. More stories of gang activity and rowdy behavior on the radio. Entire shows devoted to this. Maybe if the theater was staffed better? Same guy makes popcorn,
sells tickets and is the projectionist. Don't know if they can overcome the tidal wave of bad media.

Officials from the city, Metroplex and Bow Tie Cinema did a super job keeping under raps the disturbing news about an assault that took place June 28 at the downtown Schenectady movie house, where an adult patron from the suburbs at the 10 o’clock showing of “White House Down” had the temerity to tell a group of unruly teens to quiet down, then was badly beaten by them as the show let out.

But the story finally emerged last week when the perpetrators were indicted, as they deserved to be, on a variety of charges, and officials had to resort to some serious damage control.

Yes, it’s the first incident of this sort since the movie theater opened seven years ago. ... No, there’s never been one at next-door Proctors, which entertains 650,000 patrons annually. ... And, yes, the cops were on the scene before the theater personnel who called them even got off the phone. ... Maybe the whole thing wouldn’t have happened if the guy had only let theater personnel handle the problem, rather than snapping his fingers at the teens in an effort to silence them.  


It all may well be so, and we have no reason to believe otherwise; but such attempts to downplay what happened are likely to do little to convince suburban naysayers — who have expressed such fears about downtown Schenectady for years and who are undoubtedly the reason officials were hush-hush about this incident — that it’s just as safe as a suburban movie theater or shopping mall.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t; but people are likely to have doubts as a result of what happened — not just the beating (which left the victim with a concussion and broken hand) but the fact that officials avoided addressing it as they should have. Now they’re going to have to work overtime to assure the public that not only was this an isolated incident, but that steps are being taken to ensure against repeat performances.

Of course, there are no guarantees — not in downtown Schenectady, suburban malls or anywhere in the United States, for that matter. But trying to act as if the whole thing didn’t happen doesn’t work, either.

Quoted from Hawthorn

Or maybe because it takes months before the general public knows about any incidents.

No, he's right.

Crime rate statistics are calculated by the number of crimes per 1000 residents, and very few people live there.

Quoted from Tommy

No, he's right.

Crime rate statistics are calculated by the number of crimes per 1000 residents, and very few people live there.

Based on that math then it is even safer. If there are 50 crimes and only 1000 people live there, that is a 5% rate. The same 50 crimes in a neighborhood where there are 2000 people would then have a 2.5% rate.

I am so sick of this stupid urban/suburban argument. Parts of Schenectady are no more "urban" than parts of Niskayuna, or Glenville. I know that there are problems at Crossgates cinemas, everybody knows about the problems there, it was in all the media. So the talk about suburbanite perceptions and so forth is just a bunch of blather from social engineers disguised as journalists. Guess what? The problems at Crossgates stem from it's being a bus ride away from high crime areas in Albany. The Bowtie is within walking distance. Who cares if there are some people somewhere who think Crossgates is safer? That does not change what happened downtown. Changing people's mindsets to get them to go to the theater downtown won't make anybody any safer or less safe. It's just a bunch of wasted hot air.
I think the other incident near the Bowtie that MC is referring to may have been this same one, because it was reported as someone having their phone stolen, originally. Big deal. Phone thefts are the biggest crime going, and it happens anywhere there are iphones.
Downtown is statistically a safer neighborhood because it isn't a neighborhood anymore. Any time you put yourself in proximity to the violent element in this city, you increase your personal odds of become a crime statistic by a very high percentage, because criminals commit crime. Duh. The woman from the City Mission or wherever doesn't count like the woman who died in the jail didn't matter like the woman dead at Swett & Swett doesn't get a name. They are just fodder for Poverty, Inc. and for possible votes for the machine.

Quoted from Libertarian4life

Downtown has the lowest crime rate because it is the least populated section.

Illegal Police Department Activity Threaten to Bankrupt Counties Nationwide

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 8:09
0

(Before It's News)

The Truth Behind The News

susanne_posel_news_ police-state-002Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
February 7, 2013


Local police departments (LPDs) across the nation are incorporated as specialized non-profits. Most LPDs are known to the Secretary of State in their respective state as an association which gives the impression to the average citizen that this is a union. However this is not the case.

The LPDs are contracted by the City Council to preform police services and securitize the city they are hired in. This is the exchange of a local government hiring a private security firm to stabilize the local population and generate revenue for the city through tickets, arrests and recording infractions. However, this does not include upholding local laws, as the County Sheriff’s Office is elected to take charge of.

The problem with this system is that the LPDs, being corporations, are subject to corporate law. And corporations fall into dissolution (i.e. the termination of the corporation) for various reasons quite often. When it is the LPD that dissolves; this becomes a question of legal authority over the citizens by the hired private security firm known as the LPD.

Corporations that dissolve are not allowed by law to conduct business. These same rules apply to the LPD that is actually a corporation hired by the local government or city council to preform police services.

For example, in the State of Oregon, over 12 LPDs are in dissolution. On the Secretary of State website, when a LPD is dissolved it is classified as “INA” or inactive. This includes LPDs in the following cities:

• Beaverton
• Canby
• Charleston
• Eugene
• Gresham
• King County
• Lake Oswego
• Lebanon
• Portland
• Sherwood
• Weston

According to corporate law, if a corporation dissolves, it must withdraw as a business entity. This means that once the LPD is dissolved, they cannot continue to perform police services for the city in which they were hired.

And in fact, should this be brought to the public, it might be common place (as it is in the State of Oregon) that LPDs are in dissolution and not legally allowed to conduct police services because they lack legal authority as a dissolved corporation.

It also stands that the local governments that are privy to this information would be involved in not only egregious corruption but are knowingly misleading the citizens of their towns and cities. Once the LPD is dissolved, from the date of dissolution, any arrest, ticket, or police service preformed is now an illegal act. It is tantamount to a citizen impersonating a police officer which as serious legal ramifications.

Should citizens become aware of this fact in their city – that their LPD is a corporation that has dissolved and is continuing to operate as if they have legal right to do so – there would be justified legal recourse for every citizen who had been arrested, jailed, forced to pay a ticket of any kind and forced to appear in municipal court under those circumstances (including court costs, attorney’s fees and fees attributed by the court).

In 2012, Louis F. Quijas, Assistant Secretary of the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (OSLLE), for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained the purpose of the OSLLE as a front “office that provided coordination and partnership with state, local, and tribal law enforcement.”

The OSLLE was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It was created to “lead the coordination of DHS-wide policies relating to state, local, and tribal law enforcement’s role in preventing acts of terrorism and to serve as the primary liaison between non-Federal law enforcement agencies across the country and the Department.”

Intelligence is disseminated through OSLLE to LPDs or “non-Federal law enforcement partners” to keep information flowing through initiatives such as the “If You See Something, Say Something™”, the Blue Campaign, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), and the Department’s efforts in Countering Violent Extremism.

OSLLE consistently works with LPDs on education, actionable information, operations and intelligence for the purpose of their part in the operations of the DHS with regard to keeping “our homeland safe”.

OSLLE also works as a liaison between LPDs to maintain DHS leadership and considerations of “issues, concerns, and requirements of state, local, and tribal law enforcement during budget, grant, and policy development processes.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) upholds relationships with LPDs for the purposes of and participation with National Preparedness Grant Program that began this year.

To ensure that local police departments continue to meet the requirements of training from DHS, officers regularly attend the DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia.

LPDs are focused through OSLLE and DHS to “remain vigilant and to protect our communities from all threats, whether terrorism or other criminal activities” as DHS expands its control over local law enforcement and the communities they oversee.

As stated in the DHS directive from the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (SLLE), the assistant Secretary for SLLE has “the primary official responsible for leading the coordination of Department-wide policies related to the role of state, tribal, and local law enforcement in preventing, preparing for, protecting against, and responding to natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man- made disasters within the US.”

This directive also sets guidelines of advocacy for DHS by the LPDs. Authorization of DHS to take over LPDs is given in Title 6 of the United States Code, Section 607, “Terrorism prevention”.

In 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that LPD “make up more than two-thirds of the 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in the US” which translates to an estimated 12,501 law enforcement agencies. Of those LPDs, there are more than 461,000 sworn officers.

Last year President Obama signed an executive order (EO) that created the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee which tied DHS to local partnerships, federal and private institutions “to address homeland security challenges.”

Members of the Steering Committee include:

• Department of State
• Department of US Treasury
• Department of Defense
• Department of Justice
• Department of Transportation
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• The Federal Bureau of Investigations

In 2011, Congress encouraged private sector “police companies” to replace law enforcement on the State and local level by coercing a new police protection insurance that would tack on a fee to citizens for the use of “police protection”.

This move was justified by having citizens pay for the police to be called to scenes as a “communal service” that is contractual just as any other service or good is paid for. As a customer, the citizen would tell 911 dispatch their insurance information for payment purposes to be billed after the police were deployed to the scene, or services were rendered.

Turning LPDs into private security firms that provide services to the public was the scheme behind privatizing law enforcement.

Under state government contract, private security firms preform law enforcement services. With legislative bodies on both the state and Congressional level supporting this change, private corporations enter into contractual agreements with city councils to provide armed security patrol. Just as a rent-a-cop is hired to secure private property, local police departments are masked rent-a-cops that were hired by local government to secure their city.

This fact has been hidden from public scrutiny and has added to the blending of social perception of what the police are and what they do so that police services are able to function without question. At the same time, citizens are expected to pay fees for these “services” that were once inherent to life in a structured town or city.

In early 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report entitled “Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission” which outlined in part on how to redirect efforts of the federal government from international terrorism toward home-grown terrorists and build a DHS-controlled police force agency that would control all cities and towns through the use of local police departments.

DHS maintains that “the threat grows more localized” which necessitates the militarization of local police in major cities in the US and the training of staff from local agencies to make sure that oversight is restricted to the federal government.

Private corporations have been parading as public servants policing cities and towns across America without the knowledge of the average citizen for quite some time. Although they wear the same badges as LPDs of the past, these private security firms are not there to uphold peace or enforce any laws and city ordinances. Just like any other corporation, they seek out opportunities to collect revenue for the benefit of the city that hired them.

The post Illegal Police Department Activity Threaten to Bankrupt Counties Nationwide appeared first on Susanne Posel.

Quoted from Madam X

I am so sick of this stupid urban/suburban argument. Parts of Schenectady are no more "urban" than parts of Niskayuna, or Glenville. I know that there are problems at Crossgates cinemas, everybody knows about the problems there, it was in all the media. So the talk about suburbanite perceptions and so forth is just a bunch of blather from social engineers disguised as journalists. Guess what? The problems at Crossgates stem from it's being a bus ride away from high crime areas in Albany. The Bowtie is within walking distance. Who cares if there are some people somewhere who think Crossgates is safer? That does not change what happened downtown. Changing people's mindsets to get them to go to the theater downtown won't make anybody any safer or less safe. It's just a bunch of wasted hot air.

The difference Madam is that the taxpayers of this City and County have put $100 million of their hard earned money into this Downtown and for what?!?

This City is dangerous, statistics do state that. Unless you put a moat and barbed wire fence around Downtown, you have no chance of keeping the criminal element only within the neighborhoods. It will spill over into the million dollar mecca.

Maybe Gillen should have spent a few million to clean up the neighborhoods and bring in some real jobs.

Yes, what I mean is, I know that there are people who fear Schenectady and yet will go to Crossgates, but who cares? A man gets beaten, in front of his kids, and there is a discussion involving people's perceptions, and suburbs vs. city? There is a discussion about what we can do about what people think? I'd say the issue here is the man, his kids, and the lasting effect this will have on them.
These people who are practicing CYA at a time like this are depraved.

Quoted from rachel72

The difference Madam is that the taxpayers of this City and County have put $100 million of their hard earned money into this Downtown...

That $100 million was given to people who don't even live here.