A Slam Dunk for Park Slope Cops: The Arena is Ours

pic by Deepti Sahrawat

I promised myself I wouldn't use a cheesy basketball metaphor for this post, but clearly I failed from the get-go. Anyway, there appears to be a thin silver lining around that giant shit-brown cloud called the Barclay Center that's hovering over us. 

According to the New York Post, the Barclay Center will most likely be under the police jurisdiction of Precinct 78. For those of you who don't care about precinct numbers, that means the fuzz of Park Slope will have the Barclay Center on their beat. Even though the arena is technically within the boundaries of Fort Greene's 88th precinct, the coverage was awarded to Park Slope because of the close proximity of it's precinct house (a mere block away). In comparison, Fort Greene's station house is over a mile away. The bottom line: mo' money for the cops in our precinct, mainly by way of overtime hours.

Of course Fort Greene is PISSED. An unnamed activist told the Post:

The 88th Precinct will be affected by the arena just as much as the [78th Precinct] — if not more — so we should be getting the extra cops because crime is already higher here.

Though one 78th Precinct cop said it wouldn't have mattered if they were awarded the coverage or not since our station house is so close to the arena:

The overtime was going up whether we got the arena or not. If something happens at the arena and a cop isn’t around, most people are going to walk into our [station house] to report it because we’re across the street. They’re not traveling all the way to the 88th, so obviously, our workload is going up. And don’t get me started with the traffic and scalpers.

Now don't get me wrong, the arena still sucks a hard one and this cop from the 78th agrees, telling the Post: "Yes, many people are looking forward to more overtime, but the arena is going to be a nightmare to deal with.” Amen to that brother. 

The NYPD plans to set-up a special task-force like the one in place at Madison Square Garden. This makes some, like Park Slope civic leader, Eric McClure happy because it means additional cops for the Slope. His hope is that even when there aren't events at the arena, the extra coverage will keep Park Slope safer. 

Now can our cops write the Barclay Center up for awful PR?