Forgive me for veering *way* off topic, but this cop's behavior is one of my pet peeves. I resent it when anyone tries to make me afraid of my own city. Cops have no business bad-mouthing the people and neighborhoods they are sworn to serve. I would have reported him. There are circumstances and situations that are dangerous, but they are hardly confined to specific neighborhoods. Good things happen in supposedly bad neighborhoods all the time, and bad things happen in supposedly good neighborhoods all the time. Wal*Mart parking lots, which are never situated in "bad" neighborhoods, are ideal settings for all sorts of predatory behavior and they have the crime stats to show for it. What you do is pay attention to your surroundings and the behavior of those around you. --- Ruth Madar <[email protected]> wrote: [snip] > Friends of > ours who live in Buffalo/Lackawanna area decided to go for a > ride in the > Perry Projects area to reminisce where he grew up. A police > car pulled him > over, asked who he was, then asked if he lived there. Paul > explained what > he was doing, the police escorted them out of the area and > told him, > politely, that if he doesn't live there, he doesn't belong > there and never > decide to reminisce again in that area. This happened in the > early > afternoon. That's how bad it is. *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-* Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com http://www.BuffaloResearch.com "Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living. City living by its definition is crowded. It is tolerant of other people. It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that a city generates." --Robert N. Davis, Jr. (1955-2007)

Well, he really didn't bad mouth it. All he said was don't come back. I can speak from the viewpoint of being "familiar" with Law Enforcement and personal experience in that neighborhood. There are certain "types" of people who don't venture into that neighborhood, unless it's to do "business." They stick out like a sore thumb, Type of car, speed at which they are driving, do they appear to be "looking" for something in particular, and yes, the color of their skin(racial profiling goes both ways). Police deal with this all day, everyday, and it's rare that it's someone just reminiscing. RARE. This officer did the right thing, first to stop them and question them about their business there. Secondly to escort them safely out and warn them not to return, for their safety. It's very easy to get "lost" in that area, and then run into trouble. BELIEVE ME, You'd be surprised at how quickly you can be staring at a 9, and find yourself minus your purse, jewlery, and your car. All it takes is one stop at a stop sign, IF you get that far down the block. And all it takes is one nervous actor to pull that trigger a little to far. Bad things happen to the ignorant and naïve. Very Bad things. The type of preditory behavior you'll find in the WalMart lot is NOT the same as in the projects, Perry, Langfield, Baker, etc. Nor is it on the same scale. Apples and Oranges, Cynthia, Apples and Oranges. He didn't need to bad mouth the place. It does that all by itself, which draws more suspicion. Why would anyone, no matter what they "look" who didn't live there, not high-tail it out of there as soon as they realized what type of neighborhood they were in? There's usually only one reason why. If something bad had happened to these people, people would be demanding to know where the police were, and why they weren't doing their job. It's a case of Don't shoot the messenger. Ok, I'm done. ----- Original Message ----- From: Cynthia Van Ness<mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 1:00 PM Subject: Re: [NYERIE] Perry Projects & Bethlehem Steel Forgive me for veering *way* off topic, but this cop's behavior is one of my pet peeves. I resent it when anyone tries to make me afraid of my own city. Cops have no business bad-mouthing the people and neighborhoods they are sworn to serve. I would have reported him. There are circumstances and situations that are dangerous, but they are hardly confined to specific neighborhoods. Good things happen in supposedly bad neighborhoods all the time, and bad things happen in supposedly good neighborhoods all the time. Wal*Mart parking lots, which are never situated in "bad" neighborhoods, are ideal settings for all sorts of predatory behavior and they have the crime stats to show for it. What you do is pay attention to your surroundings and the behavior of those around you. --- Ruth Madar <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: [snip] > Friends of > ours who live in Buffalo/Lackawanna area decided to go for a > ride in the > Perry Projects area to reminisce where he grew up. A police > car pulled him > over, asked who he was, then asked if he lived there. Paul > explained what > he was doing, the police escorted them out of the area and > told him, > politely, that if he doesn't live there, he doesn't belong > there and never > decide to reminisce again in that area. This happened in the > early > afternoon. That's how bad it is. *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-* Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com http://www.BuffaloResearch.com<http://www.buffaloresearch.com/> "Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living. City living by its definition is crowded. It is tolerant of other people. It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that a city generates." --Robert N. Davis, Jr. (1955-2007) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message