WELCOME ARMED ROBBERS TO BP/HASTINGS

ALL'S WELL !!  IT'S JUST A MACHINE GUN!!

      This past January the seen it all, grizzly, "man's man" Mayor of Hastings, Peter Swiderski, tried to calm the nerves of Hastings residents concerned over a string of violent crimes throughout the village by issuing a "Crime and Perceptions of Crime" memo to the village, highlighting a soothing BURGLARY statistic for 2011. 

 "I want to reassure people that Hastings is generally a very safe village: we had 9 burglaries last year, 5 down from the previous year.  There’s no upward trend here."  The street wise Mayor concluding that "normal vigilance and due diligence on locking up will go a long way to making things even safer than they already are."  Whew, that's a load off.  I'm sure Mantung Cheng will now rest easy.   The Mayor's laissez-faire memo was delivered eleven days following Mr. Cheng's thrilling morning in the "generally very safe village."   In broad daylight, just as Kelly Rippa was settling in behind her morning cup of Joe, three gunmen, posing as police officers, forced their way into Mr. Cheng's Main Street apartment, tying up Mr. Cheng, his wife, his mother and father.  Having locked up and done his due diligence, surprisingly the 9 a.m. armed home invasion did not leave Mr. Cheng "feeling even safer" than he had been.  After being hog tied at gun point, Mr. Cheng remarked, “It’s this morning you know, not like a nighttime thing.  Why do it in the morning?”  

HOME INVASION VICTIM - MANTUNG CHENG

        Why do they do it in the morning, indeed.   Isaac Garson, owner of Slices on Main St., offers this dose of reality.  “People are nervous because of what happened at Madaba Deli, there was somebody else that was followed and robbed and then this (the bounding and armed robbery of the Cheng family) is number three.  There’s just a tension in the air.  It’s surprising, but it’s just the way the world is now,” Garson said.  “People are desperate, desperate measures, desperate times.”   What an alarmist.

         Yet, just yesterday a Hastings man was robbed at gunpoint on the steps of his Warburton Avenue home!   
          Hastings Police responding to a call from a woman at about 7:33 p.m. Tuesday May 15, stating that her neighbor had just been robbed. Hastings police said the victim reported he had returned to his Warburton Avenue home just after 7:30 p.m. and was walking up his front steps with bags containing electronic equipment when he was robbed at gunpoint.  “The male pointed a handgun at the victim and demanded the property he was carrying.” 

        Now hey, before the local papers start reporting this and blowing it all out of proportion, lets all take a deep breath and ingest some more pearls of perspective from that memo sent by the unflappable Hastings Mayor, Peter "Gunn" Swiderski .    

       "We live in a society where sensationalistic crimes and news dominates the television and many newspapers: it leads to a fear disproportionate to the actual risks we face in day to day life and can make us unduly anxious" The Mayor continues, "the local paper, the Enterprise, reports crimes in their blotter, as does the Rivertowns Patch.  They give a good sense of what is going on – and I am not inclined to amplify that unless a pattern of behavior leads the Police to believe a public notification is necessary. There is no such pattern worth reporting about now."

           "Hey that fellow in the camouflage hoody has got me to thinking.  Whatcha say we build another park?!"  

        Whew, I feel much better.  For as our street wise Mayor points out, there's no need for alarm or amplification for there is no pattern of behavior here.  Note: the "no need for alarm" armed robbery of the Chase Bank at 565 Warburton (machine gun totting bank robber pictured above) went down at 8:50 a.m., and though Mr. Cheng was robbed at gun point at 9 a.m., this last incident took place at 7:30 p.m.!!   No pattern there.   Unless of course you consider ARMED GUNMEN A POTENTIAL PATTERN!!! This is not disproportionate fear Mr. Mayor, this is not one's perception of crime, THIS IS CRIME.  The reality of the world we live in INCLUDES HASTINGS.  The DENIAL of this reality by entitled elected village imbeciles has gone on long enough.  Let's face facts, Hastings is a gated community without a gate.

        It's time Hastings put aside it's dreams for the future (ie. it's unfathomable foolishly timed, "Comprehensive Plan") and start PROTECTING IT'S RESIDENTS and address the world we live in, by increasing police presence and using tax monies to PUT MORE COPS ON THE STREETS, instead of proposals for another fucking park.  The last thing we need is MORE EMPTY SWIDERSKI VERBIAGE!

      It's sickeningly clear that Swiderski loves to hear himself talk and is extremely fond of any and all pomp and circumstance that comes with playing Mayor, example of such the memo excerpted within.  Sadly, Swiderski's insulated denial is likely to continue until such time, God forbid, that such crimes visit he and his family. It's amazing how having a gun waved in your face changes one's perception of crime.  When Swiderski's mother, daughter and dog contracted Lyme disease he declared Lyme an all out epidemic and the highest of priorities, with his first order of business the netting and bolting to death of deer. (all deer if he could have had it his way) Talk about zero to sixty!  Criminals had best not fuck with Swiderski's dog or there will be hell to pay! 

         Perhaps it is then and only then that CRIME will finally be seen as CRIME in Hastings, and not dismissed as just undue fearful perspective to be disregarded with attention devoted to the creation of yet another park.  
      Rome is indeed burning Swiderski, this is not a dress rehearsal, it's about time you put down the marshmallows.

        The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still seeking the public's assistance in identifying the machine gun totting man pictured in camouflage responsible for the Chase bank robbery in Hastings.