Activists believe that Staten Island officials are under-reporting their crime statistics, and that by doing so, the city’s smallest borough (pop. 463,000, according to 2004 U.S. census) is being programatically shortchanged.
“There is a lack of support services available to Staten Islanders, particularly in the 17-to-25 age group,” charges Josephine Tucker, a former Staten Island Urban League executive director. She argues that the clandestine, class-ish attitude of island officials hurts both Blacks and whites. “The crime statistics that the public sees doesn’t show the reality of what is happening in the streets,” Tucker argued.
“You cannot get away from the crime; it is here, affecting both Blacks and whites,” Edward Josey, president of the Staten Island National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told Amsterdam News. He added that he understood clearly “where Ms. Tucker was coming from.”
“I question the way crimes are reported here, especially bias crimes,” Josey said. The NAACP president added that “he tended to believe that crime in the Black communities is reported, while not always so when it happens in the white community.
“But, that type of thinking hurts all Staten Islanders,” lamented Tucker.
On April 19, a story that appeared in the Staten Island Advance, the island’s daily newspaper, said, “City program targeting rape excludes island.” The writer concludes that the reason for the borough being excluded is because there is no city hospital where the program may be housed.
“It’s another example of the direct negative effect on Staten Islanders for not having the same services that other New Yorkers have,” said Councilman Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island).
The newspaper, quoting NYPD statistics, said that rape was rising on Staten Island, with 19 reported so far in 2006, up from 10 in the same period in 2005. There were 54 rapes in 2005, up from 39 in 2004. The article said that most of the rapes occurred in Councilman McMahon’s district, which covers the island’s North Shore, where 17 percent of the Black population lives.
The Staten Island Advance reporter wrote that when Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked about Staten Island, he “acknowledged that more is needed” in the borough. There is no Special Victims Unit on the island, according to the article.
Tucker became angry when she read on April 13 that a 24-year-old Black woman had been accused of stabbing to death her 29-year-old boyfriend in the Port Richmond section. The activist/school teacher said that the young woman had been in a program started in the 1990s by 15 people, including her, called Power Moves Inc.: Breaking Down Barriers. It seems this young woman had stayed in college long enough to earn an associate degree, but upon her return to Staten Island could not find comparable work and eventually fell prey to selling drugs.
“I blame those who want Staten Island to remain behind a wall of isolation,” Tucker said.
She then turned her attention to the indictment of the grandson of Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro for stabbing a 14-year-old. Witnesses said that at least 30 youths were in the area, but only four have been indicted in the attack. All of the youths involved in this case are white. Tucker said the reason neither the police nor the newspaper called this a gang attack is again an example of the denial of reality.
“I cannot agree with that argument,” said Kenny Mitchell, chief-of-staff to McMahon. “This is the first time I have heard that anyone believes that the NYPD on Staten Island under-report crime statistics.”
He said the mindset on the island was that the borough was always being shortchanged. “We have to fight for everything,” Mitchell added.
Rev. Victor Brown, pastor of the Mt. Sinai Christian Baptist Church, said that he does not buy into the under-reporting argument either.
“The problem is that some of the programs we have on Staten Island are under-funded,” the pastor stated. “The real problem is that we cannot get Black people together at the same table so that we may discuss our people’s plight and how to empower them.”
On April 17, The Staten Island Advance reported that gun arrests were up this year 327 percent.
A 68-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his apartment, according to the April 18 issue of the newspaper. And on April 19, it was reported that a cab driver was found shot “execution style.”
“Crime is greater over here than the rosy picture painted by island officials,” observed Donnie McCombs, head of the grassroots program Choice Not Chance. “We clearly need a movement on this island, something that would unify us.”
