It what has to be one of the most unfortunate incidents I can remember in the few years I have lived on Roosevelt Island a local parent was arrested by a PSD officer, at a Little League game at Capobianco Field, in front of not only his son but all the kids who were hoping to complete their game. The worst part about it is that from all accounts it never had to come to that.
I will not try to summarize all the facts but direct you to a Main Street WIRE article that is still under preparation for the next issue regarding the incident.
Michael Shinozaki, local resident, former and expected future member of the RIOC Board, who witnessed the events as they unfolded had the following to say (as quoted in the aforementioned WIRE article):
I will not try to summarize all the facts but direct you to a Main Street WIRE article that is still under preparation for the next issue regarding the incident.
Michael Shinozaki, local resident, former and expected future member of the RIOC Board, who witnessed the events as they unfolded had the following to say (as quoted in the aforementioned WIRE article):
"There is so much blame to go around that it isn't funny," Shinozaki said. "They should have called the game [when time ran out]. RIOC didn't have the field prepared. The parents should not have been rabble- rousing. Public Safety escalated the situation. The only one with no blame in all this are the kids, and they are the ones who were ultimately hurt. They'll end up with a negative view of Public Safety, of government, and an upset memory about their summer baseball fun. They are the only ones who were really hurt."All I can say is that Saturday was a sad day for all parties involved.
Posts
Woah. I disagree with "They'll [the kids] end up with a negative view of Public Safety, of government,..." Without taking any sides on who should get the most blame I must say this is something the parents have to make sure that the children understand what happened. It looks like that all involved people need to be blamed and that sometimes taking the high road is the best way to do. Unfortunately, that didn't happen here.
ReplyDeleteSoon the PSD and the "hard core" RI residents will square off just like the NYPD and Critical Mass do every single month. I hope we all calm down and press the reset button.
ReplyDeleteI invite everybody to read the e-mail exchange between Dick Lutz and Keith Guerra. Why did Dick have to escalate this exchange? Like the silly suggestion of Keith to save space in the WIRE for some positive article about somebody's 20th year anniversary. Instead of just replying with "if there's enough space after we about the arrest we may cover it" Dick had to say something along the lines "how dare you telling me what to publish and what not".
ReplyDeleteCan we please all get along with each other and stop attacking all the time?
And of course Farance had to spew his hate toward the PSD and the RIOC without being a first person witness basing everything on hearsay and cc'ing everybody from his rolodex. Classy move.
ReplyDeleteI have lived here for 26 years. I have seen the best and worst in my neighbors, their children, Public Safety, RIOC, the newcomers, the "young and the stupid", who transcend all the other categories, and the off-islanders and other visitors who haven't got a clue how to behave in someone else's neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI was not an eyewitness to what happened Saturday. I feel awful for Island children who saw Public Safety folks and Island residents both let the situation escalate.
You can be sure of a few things however -- that none of the adults involved directly had any impulse control nor were any of the other adults able to control their peers. That NO ONE was thinking about the children, who were probably scared and upset by the whole event.
Mr. Guerra is wrong when he says "it is not about us" - Public Safety -- of course it is about them AND it is about the adults who could not seem to come to consensus about how to prevent a simple issue from becoming a crisis.
With regard to Mr. Farance, he also needs to demonstrate a little impulse control. He may be the president of the residents association, but he sure does not speak for me on this incident.
With regard to the WIRE, thank goodness Dick Lutz is NO Bill O'Reilly -- let the man do his job -- but Dick, you too need to demonstrate some impulse control too. Lets not antagonize the one person whose cooperation might be needed.
And has anyone heard from Mr. Shane and our DHCR commissioner yet ??
I'm not surprised that the field wasn't ready, the Octagon field has been reseeded and is apparently being allowed to turn into grazing land, whereas firefighters field is a combination swamp/overgrown vacant l. If RIOC is going to be charging money they should mow the lawn-unless the Public Accountability prevents them for doing that for some reason. I've know some of the parents and the field not being ready is becoming a regular occurrence.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I accompanied my son to the Copobianco field for his Little League practice. The field had to big puddles. The children never complained, and practiced for an hour. This is a field that is RENTED to the Youth Center and is rarely well maintained. The sad part is that the kids would rather take a rare field time, in any condition, rather than catch ball in the Church yard, or even the basketball court.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe that after all the tension and arrest... the field was still not well maintained for the Little League's practice! SHAME on you RIOC.
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe that Frarance is still running RIRA. Talk to the guy for 5 minutes and you can tell he is out of his mind. I guess they feel thay can just band behind the one who will yell like crazy, even though he hasn't a clue what he's yelling about. The guy's email was totally inappropriate and irresponsible. Like the other anonymous writer, he doesn't speak for me either. And to think, Frarance was voted in by the majority of the voters in the RIRA election. Wow! We can do better folks.
ReplyDeleteHello Farance is crazy and out of his mind. That's why he couldn't get put on the REAL board.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the crazy liberals on this island voted for him.
Here's the big problem with The WIRE. It's run by residents. There is ZERO impartial journalism because The WIRE is written and edited not by journalists, but by residents who have their heart right in the middle of the fire. It's a story about their friends and friends' friends.
ReplyDeleteHow can they be impartial? They can't. It's the same reason that there will never be a Civilian Review Board for PSD. There's nobody with an impartial view that lives on this rock.
I can't give a first hand account of the incident, so I can't actually say what happened, but since everyone is surmising that the PSD officer(s) acted beyond the law even though they're going on hearsay, I'll do it as well.
There are people on Roosevelt Island who think they're above the law because they've "LIVED HERE FOR 25 YEARS!!" They also think that PSD is a security organization which means they don't have to follow lawful orders. Well, they're not. They're a police agency with police powers. Answering calls for "kids in my hallway" is not something that NYPD would ever do though so be grateful.
If the residents realized how great they have it, they'd think of PSD in a much better light.
Hey RIRA... You are now bigger than you've ever been before. You can accomplish great things for the residents on the island. But, you are led by a malicious idiot who is tarnishing your reputation and you need to do something about it. Get rid of Farance or he will continue to be part of this community's problems & bring you down as well.
ReplyDeleteThis incident aside, Public Safety is out of control, making trouble when there is none to be found. Roosevelt Island is for many, finally, a pond small enough for them to make a splash.
ReplyDeleteAnd the hardcore RI crowd thinks they can do whatever they want because they own the island, right?
ReplyDeletePlease people! Let's not fight amongst ourselves. Everyone can do their part to improve things in this small but wonderful community. I moved here by choice. Can't we all just get along?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this complaint that the WIRE article was based on hearsay. Journalists can't be expected to be at every incident they report on. Dick did as good a job as can be expected. I suppose by your logic that every article written in any newspaper that is based on eyewitness accounts is just "hearsay" and ought to be discarded. Dick does a wonderful job in the article of letting everyone tell their side of the story. The fact that after that PSD comes out looking so bad probably speaks to how poorly they seem to have behaved.
ReplyDeleteYea good try. It's called slanted liberal "journalism" I think I'm the only registered republican that lives on the island, and that's fine. Forget the hearsay part, get volunteers for The WIRE from off the island and then we can talk about journalism instead of "journalism"
ReplyDeleteI was one of the maybe 7 residents who attended the PSD awards show thing and it was great to hear all of the good things that happened throughout the year. It's too bad that PSD only gets the official voice from Keith Guerra and their officers can't speak because then maybe it wouldn't look like a bash session in the paper.
I hope all you fellow residents who have lived here for 20 years never move because you'll get a serious wake up call and probably end up crazier than you are now. This is the only place where your ridiculous actions would be tolerated by a government agency.
Please everyone, grow up a bit.
ReplyDeleteWhenever a situation gets out of control, it happens because both parties take steps to let it happen. An abundance of stubborn pride and refusal to take a backwards step by both the aggrieved parents and the PSD are clearly part of the problem here.
Compromise and get along people (parents and PSD), and once everyone's blood has stopped boiling have a think about how your actions contributed to the incident and what you could have done differently.
play nice now
Dad
From the way Dick Lutz reported it, it seems that the conflict was between the parents and the on-coming softball players - not PSD. PSD only arrived after being called to resolve the conflict. Forget the story Dick wrote about "hearsay" or whatever you call it. Read his piece entilteld "Serenity" on page 2. That seems to be the story best told by the Editor.
ReplyDeleteThat editorial was a little creepy, I must say. Be honest, which of the children was emotionally harmed by what happened? Could we stop putting the children into the center of this whole debacle? We should behave not because of our children alone. Let's behave and get along because that's what's necessary to get along in the first place, especially in a small and virtually isolated place like Roosevelt Island.
ReplyDelete