Stories to Sour Your Morning Latte: "Gangs' Terror" in Prospect Park

It was a little bit of a shock to Gowanus Lounge's system to open this morning's Post and see that "teenage wolf packs" have robbed nine people in and around Brooklyn's Prospect Park in the past six weeks. (The specific headine, is: "Gangs' Terror in the Park: Propsect Park Rob Blitz"). Three of the robberies happened in little more than a week.

We'd noticed a couple of stories in the Brooklyn Papers and other local crime roundups, but must say we hadn't put A, B and C together. Most of the victims of the ongoing crime spree were teens victimized by big groups of other teens. On Wednesday, though, a 53-year-old man was surrounded by eight teens, pushed to the sidewalk, kicked and robbed. The cops have added patrols and even busted eight people in five of the attacks, but the mugging spree has continued. (The most recent one was May 24.) The robberies are happening inside the park and around Prospect Park West.

Quickly rising to the task, Gothamist suggests that if the cops can't stop the teens from terrorizing the community, then a consortium of real estate agencies will start a neighborhood patrol. (Who wants to get mugged by fifteen-year-olds outside their $300,000 studio apartment?) Somebody should be able to get a handle on it. Anyone with eyes can see the quite large packs of teenagers hanging out in and around the park on any given night, especially on Prospect Park West.

The park photo above is from Frank Lynch's superb flickr photostream.