Gerritsen Beach once again lived up to it’s reputation as one of the worst Halloween Mischief neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Although there was a stronger police presence this year than in years past, it was not strong enough to prevent dozens of teens from vandalizing the avenue with eggs and shaving cream.

The mischief started in the old section with older “kids”(17+) gathering at Big Al’s early in the afternoon, which is where they started their egging. The police showed up and took the “I’m your friend approach,” and told them to move on. Which they did, to Victoria’s, but started egging again as soon as the cops pulled away.

Eventually everyone in the area made their way to Victoria’s (Everett and Gerritsen), which quickly turned into a very large group. They egged and threw bottles at any marked car or bus.

The police didn’t respond very well to this group. They pulled up, talked to the kids and pulled away. On top of that, every single time a patrol car would drive by or pull up everyone would run into Ice Cream U Scream and Victoria’s. Since when did Ice Cream U Scream and Victoria’s allow these troubled kids safe harbor? As far as I’m concerned, Ice Cream U Scream and Victoria’s enabled this horrible behavior by allowing them to hide in their stores, and by allowing them to hang out in front of their stores.

Eventually a store owner on Gerritsen Avenue confronted the group for hitting a school bus with eggs but found himself retaliated against for doing so, forcing him to close early. One “kid” was taken into custody as a result of the retaliation.

Although there was no SkyWatch watch tower like the 4th of July, the patrol size was decent. It peaked at maybe four marked patrol cars at any given time, and the Captain himself made a few visits. The captain was even walking around back weeds at one point behind the little league field containers. The police stopped kids on the avenue to confiscate shaving cream & eggs, and also searched bags. They also were patrolling Seba Avenue Park often enough for that not to become a problem.

The buses were not shut down during rush hour, which was a big plus for commuters. However, for some reason the buses stopped running later in the night around 10 pm. I’m not sure why the buses were shut down at that time because Gerritsen Avenue was empty from trouble makers and no buses had to be cleaned.

In the end, the 61st precinct did a decent job controlling the problem, but they could have reached the trouble spots sooner. It was a much more proactive approach than last year.

2008 Halloween Mischief Photo Gallery

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