CYBER CAFE MURDER Call for Rules After Teen Is Stabbed to Death
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E S I D BROOKLYN’S ONLY COMPLETE U • ‘Henry IV, Part One’ is S L I N P dethroned • Transforming Cobble Hill eatery Nightlife Guide • Afrobeat at Brooklyn Museum CHOOSE FROM 36 VENUES — MORE THAN 140 EVENTS! 2003 NATIONAL AWARD WINNER Including The Bensonhurst Paper Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications at 26 Court St., Brooklyn, NY 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 © Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol.26, No. 40 BRZ • October 6, 2003 • FREE CYBER CAFE MURDER Call for rules after teen is stabbed to death By Deborah Kolben have become hangouts for youths over cyber-cafes boiled over following an ton Parkway at 62nd Street. Hamilton Parkway, a Bay Ridge group Despite their “cafe” moniker, there is The Brooklyn Papers playing hooky. attack on 61st Street between Ninth Av- Other nearby cyber-cafes include the that is concerned about the internet cafes usually no food served at these centers, enue and Fort Hamilton Parkway that left Matrix LAN Party, on Fort Hamilton cropping up in the area. which offer up computer and Internet serv- A deadly teen gang fight that The stabbing death Sunday night of Tony Lee, 16, of Flushing, follows by a a Fort Hamilton High School freshman in Parkway at 70th Street, and Ecline, on “Large groups of kids hang out there. ice by the hour and tend to draw teens play- erupted inside an Internet cafe has week a vicious bat and knife attack on a critical condition. Third Avenue at 76th Street. Gangs, drug dealers seem to prey on kids ing online video games and sometimes be- already-incensed Bay Ridge and teen by a gang said to hang out at another On Sept. 22, Nicholas Brooks, 14, was “We’re very concerned about the activi- that go there. It’s a great target market for come hangouts for kids cutting class. Sunset Park community leaders call- area cyber-cafe. attacked by a group of teens wielding bats ties that happen inside cyber-cafes,” said thugs and drug dealers. When they’re out of Lee was killed after he and a group of ing for tighter restrictions on the Just last week the concerns of local and pipes who were said to hang out at the Josephine Beckmann, president of the public view and there is no parental supervi- friends burst into the Y & Z Computers establishments which, they claim, community groups and elected officials nearby Cyber Sniper Cafe, on Fort Hamil- United Neighbors Association of Fort sion, bad things can happen,” he said. See MURDER on page 6 Ridge GOP slams CB10 chair over 9-11 namings By Deborah Kolben In other communities, including The Brooklyn Papers neighboring Bensonhurst and Stat- en Island, community boards have While Community Board approved all requests for streets to 10 has been grappling for be named in honor of 9-11 vic- months over how to deal with tims. the issue of requests to rename The issue came to a head at streets in honor of civilian vic- CB10 in June when a request by tims of 9-11, this week the Eileen Geraty to have a stretch of Republican brass of southwest Gelston Avenue named for her Callan / Tom Brooklyn jumped into the daughter, Suzanne, an employee at fray. Cantor Fitzgerald who worked on In a strongly worded letter ad- the 103rd floor of the North Tow- dressed to CB10 Chairman Mango / Greg er, was up before the board. Stephen Harrison, Rep. Vito Fos- At the behest of Harrison, that sella, state Sen. Marty Golden, As- vote was tabled until the board Papers The Brooklyn semblyman Matthew Mirones and could make a uniform policy The 155-year-old stained glass windows of St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights are on a list of the Councilman James Oddo jointly about street namings for civilians. “100 Most Endangered Sites” in the world. blasted the board’s decision to im- “I thank them for writing their pose a moratorium on such memo- Papers File The Brooklyn letter, but I also point out that it’s rials. Eileen Geraty holds a photo of her daughter, Suzanne, who died really something that they’re com- “We contend that this policy is in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. ing in on at the very last second. wrong and misguided and respect- The community board has been fully request that this decision be considering this all summer,” Har- reversed,” reads the letter, which reasoning to be wrong because of rison said. ENDANGERED us not forget that more than 730 was signed by all four politicians. one fundamental difference. days have passed since the attacks. Harrison also criticized the Referring to a letter to the editor “The victims of the attacks of We believe that is long enough.” politicians for calling the policy Stained glass rates on ‘World’ list by Harrison that was published in Sept. 11, 2001, were killed because Harrison contends the legisla- “wrong and misguided.” a local newspaper in defense of the they were enjoying the American “The simple fact is that the if I tors have misconstrued the board’s By Deborah Kolben Both rank among the top “100 volvement. board’s moratorium, the politicians way of life,” the letter reads. policy. had not taken the action, the likely It goes on to say, “The policy of result would have been that the re- The Brooklyn Papers most endangered sites” on a list put In addition to the gothic church at wrote: “In your letter … you justi- Back in June, CB10 tabled all fied the course of action taken be- street namings that you have re- quest would have been denied,” What does the Great Wall of out by the New York-based World Montague and Clinton streets, other cause the civilian victims did not jected has been successfully im- requests for street and park nam- Harrison said pointing out that un- Monument Fund. monuments making the cut included ings after civilians killed in the China — one of the Seven Every two years the organization the Panama Canal zone, Sir Ernest display the same level of heroism plemented in other sections of der CB10’s street-naming guide- Wonders of the World, spanning as the emergency personnel killed New York City … as a proper and World Trade Center attacks, while lines Geraty would not have quali- nominates 100 cultural and architec- Shackleton’s expedition hut in that day, and indeed equated the respectful way to remember the all requests on behalf of police of- fied. more than 4,100 miles — have tural landmarks in need of restora- Antarctica, the Nineveh and Nimrud killing of the World Trade Center dead and what happened on that ficers, firefighters and other emer- But it was Harrison’s own in common with the 155-year- tion. The distinction is intended to palaces in Iraq, and five other sites victims with that of a felonious car day. gency workers killed in the World guidelines, drafted well after Sept. old Church of St. Ann and the attract attention to monuments in in the United States including Lower accident. “Finally, while you contend that Trade Center were eligible to have 11, 2001, that would cause the ex- Holy Trinity in Brooklyn need or maintenance and restoration, Manhattan. “Let us state we believe your a go-slow approach is needed, let a street named after them. See CB10 on page 4 Heights? and spur government and activist in- See WINDOWS on page 5 Trio stabs 2 in Dodgers statue Prospect Park set for Keyspan By Deborah Kolben “The mayor is completely in fa- By Deborah Kolben from the park was arrested in connec- The Brooklyn Papers vor of the statue,” Chris Coffey, a tion with the attack. spokesman for Mayor Michael The Brooklyn Papers Plans for a statue of A trio of muggers stabbed two Tuesday night’s stabbings follow a Bloomberg, said this week. recent spate of other attacks in Prospect Brooklyn Dodgers immortals The mayor spoke extensively with men in separate incidents inside Park. Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Robinson’s widow, Rachel, at a cere- Prospect Park Tuesday night. On Sept. 17, a man sexually assault- Reese, shelved by 9-11, are mony in June where Robinson’s No. 42 At 8:45 pm, the three approached ed an 11-year-old boy around 9 am in a back in the works. See NO. 42 on page 4 their first victim, 42, walking on East section of the park near Empire Boule- Drive, north of the Prospect Park Zoo vard. and asked him for money. Police patrolling the park spotted When the victim tried to run away, two boys and tried to stop them to in- he was punched, kicked and stabbed in the chest and right arm, police said. quire why they weren’t in school. They CORRECTIONS The assailants made off with his jacket. initially evaded the officers but when The victim was taken to Kings County caught, they reported the assault. The Brooklyn Papers and was eulogized by former On Sept. 2, an attempted rape was Hospital where he was listed in stable The article headlined Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, among condition. allegedly thwarted when Police Officer other notable figures. A year later, Anthony Ward nabbed an ex-con “Parents of Hurst cop-shoot Just five minutes later the roving victim sue city” (The Bay the city renamed 58th Street be- band of thugs attacked a 22-year-old named Bennie Hogan as he viciously tween Fifth and Sixth avenues man near the Eastern Parkway exit at beat a woman near the Third Street en- Ridge Paper, Sept.