crime

Where’s my pancakes, read Rodney Bradford’s Facebook page, in a message typed on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 11:49 a.m., from a computer in his father’s apartment in Harlem.

At the time, the sentence, written in indecipherable street slang, was just another navel-gazing, cryptic Facebook status update — words that were gobbledygook to anyone besides Mr. Bradford.

But when Mr. Bradford, a skinny, short 19-year-old resident of the Farragut Houses, was arrested the next day as a suspect in a robbery, the words took on a level of importance that no one in their wildest dreams — least of all Mr. Bradford — could have imagined. They became his alibi.

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A pocket of Brooklyn has the highest juvenile crime rate in the city – and police say robberies of iPods, fancy cell phones and other expensive electronic devices are at least partly to blame.

“That’s the new thing,” said 84th Precinct Crime Prevention Officer John Kenny.  “They just snatch it off your ear.  The era of cell phones, BlackBerries, iPods – that’s the source of a lot of these robberies.” (more…)

Age: 45
Neighborhood: Crown Heights
Occupation: Social Worker
First Time Voter: No
Political Affiliation: Democrat

“I’d like to see this country move forward by helping people with addictions.”

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The Center on Media, Crime & Justice and CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice hosted the Third Annual Harry F. Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America Dec. 3-4. This year’s theme, “Crime, Justice and Politics: Looking Ahead To 2008,” brought together politicians, educators, journalists and law enforcement officials to discuss crime and crime statistics — and how they’ll play a part in the upcoming presidential elections.

For video reports on the conference, click here.