Like it or not, the Guardian Angels are digging in their heels after months of outreach in Riverhead and Greenport.
Tag: guardian angels
Guardian Angels members spent their patrol introducing themselves to the public and handing out informational pamphlets. (Credit: Guardian Angels)
The Angels stood their ground, and the panhandlers near the Riverhead train station “scattered.”
So said Benjamin Garcia, the patrol director for the NYC Guardian Angels, an anti-crime group that took to the downtown area for patrols Wednesday afternoon into the night. (more…)
The Riverhead BID says its isn’t interested in the Guardian Angels. (Credit: Tim Gannon)
The Riverhead Business Improvement District voted against a plan to bring the Guardian Angels to the downtown area at its meeting Wednesday night.
A Riverhead police officer walks the beat downtown on Monday night. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Editor’s note: This story was published in Thursday’s paper, before an arrest was made in relation to the downtown robberies.
On Monday morning, Francine Smith was walking past the Suffolk Theater, newly purchased gift in hand. It’s a route along Main Street she’s familiar with, having lived in Riverhead for the past 17 years.
But once the sun sets, she’ll be back inside. She and her husband don’t want to risk going out, she said.
“I wouldn’t come down here at nights, to be honest,” Ms. Smith said. (more…)
We don’t need another robbery or a similar incident possibly related to gang activity as evidence that downtown Riverhead has a problem with crime. It has plagued the area for years, and it’s worth noting that, unfortunately, downtown Riverhead is not the only place in Suffolk County that could use, for lack of a better phrase, some cleaning up. It’s also worth admitting that crime can never be completely eliminated there or anywhere else.
Is Main Street safe? No it is not. There are many factors that lead to this dilemma, just as there are many solutions needed to correct it. Let’s start with the recent rash of armed robberies. Downtown businesses are struggling to begin with, and they work very hard at becoming part of the success story that this town truly needs for its revitalization. Having armed thugs walk into a business and forcibly demand money is an extremely frightening and dangerous situation for any local business owner. Just ask Barth’s Drug Store. There needs to be more police presence downtown – period. This does not mean simply enlisting one part time police officer to walk around. It means confronting the problem with fully trained professional police officers, properly equipped to handle this growing problem. (more…)
The Guardian Angels are expected to begin recruiting downtown next week, though Town Board members believe their presence will send the wrong message to potential visitors. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Barth’s Pharmacy has stood on East Main Street since 1917 -— and in nearly all that time, no one has robbed the store.
But that changed in the past three years, during which the business has twice been targeted by armed robbers. The most recent incident occurred Friday, when a masked man burst into the store, held a gun to an employee’s neck and took off with an unspecified amount of cash, said owner Barry Barth.
“Nobody was physically hurt and that’s a good thing, but the mental anguish and the fear of having someone coming to your place of business with a handgun to rob you is overwhelming,” Mr. Barth told the News-Review. “We just went through this two years ago. You try to put this behind you and then it rears its ugly head again.” (more…)
Curtis Sliwa at a meeting in Greenport last November. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)
A day after Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller met with leaders of the Guardian Angels to establish a Riverhead chapter of the volunteer anti-crime group, Supervisor Sean Walter’s fellow Town Board members say they were blindsided by the effort and that bringing the Angels into town could exacerbate a negative image for downtown. (more…)