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Woman mugged at knifepoint outside Brewery in JP

A woman walking on Merriam Street reports she was held up at knifepoint around 4:40 p.m. on Dec. 29. In e-mail, she writes:

A man rushed me from behind, put his arm around my neck, showed a tactical/hunting knife with his other hand and demanded my stuff, mostly my phone. I screamed the whole time and took off after him when he got my purse. Somehow my phone ended up still in my pocket. A witness was nice enough to come out but we lost the guy through the yards towards Boylston St. E13 police did show up to do a quick drive by and take my information but all in all I found them to be rude, insensitive, and lackadaisical. I'm still dealing with back pain from the attack. It's so disheartening that this type of dangerous assault happened to close to a hub of JP and it's shocking to me that there hasn't been a shred of publicity warning the community. I estimated the attacker to be about 6 ft tall, light skinned Hispanic male, in early-mid 20s, with a slight accent. in a black hoodie. That's the best I could do since he came at me from behind. The knife was about 5 inches long, sloped down at the point, serrated at the handle and dark matte gray.

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Comments

Why should the "hub of JP" be immune to crime?

When I lived in JP in the mid 1980s, I as a victim to two separate incidents of violence, one right on Center Street, and the other on Spring Park Ave - even more close to the "hub of JP" than Merriam Street! I was not "disheartened" or "shocked" as I understood that these things happen, especially in a city setting. The police were great, both times, and there was no "publicity warning the community". The publicity is that you live in a city and you have to be as careful as you can but crap will happen (personally, I stopped carrying handbags and use a backpack now when walking in the city. Not foolproof, I know, but maybe less of an incentive to a would be mugger.)

I am sad that anyone has to experience the horror of violence but one should be realistic.

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What I find disheartening is women putting women down for no reason. This woman was mugged in the afternoon and threatened with a knife and all you can think to do is critique her? She's warning others that she was attacked at a specific location and gives a description, albeit vague, of her assailant. If I lived or worked in that area, I'd be grateful to know.

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I am not putting her down and I do not know why you believe that. It is her choice of words that I critique not her experience.

I found her post to be disheartening that she, as a woman, is "shocked" (her own words) that this type of violence goes on so near the "hub of JP". There is much violence that goes (and continues to go on) in JP, near and far from the hub.

And I, as a crime victim and a woman, I believe that my comments are not out of line. Sorry you feel that they are.

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It's impossible to fight the deafening sound of the feminist echo chamber on here. We'll laugh and chortle at all those stupid people in West Roxbury who don't lock their car doors at night, but as soon as someone even hints at a suggestion that someone actually take a moment to look up from their glowing rectangle long enough to know who's around them, suddenly, "STOP BLAMING THE VICTIM, YOU'RE A HORRIBLE PERSON WITH NO VALUE TO SOCIETY AND YOUR OPINION IS COMPLETELY WORTHLESS!!!! PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE IN A NAIVE BUBBLE AND NEVER HAVE TO TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEMSELVES GIVEN THEIR SURROUNDINGS!!!!!".

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You mean, "unfair demands that people think before spewing misogyny because men can't be expected to grow the fuck up".

Hokay.

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I can't spew woman hating bile around here without being challenged. It makes me feel like my balls are tiny to have to think and be considerate! That's not faiiiirrrr! I can't be expected to think about what I say on teh internuts!

WAHHHHHHH!

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Damn, you've got a serious chip on your shoulder!

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She's not shocked at being mugged in a city.

She's shocked at the Cops "whatya want us to do about it" response and that nothing was forwarded or reported on to the neighborhood, news, ect. Nor was there any follow up beside the initial report takers.

If people don't know about it, it didn't happen, and they don't know to be aware in case it happens again.

I can't fault her, it seems BPD has really cut back it's policing from proactive to reactionary the past few years. At the same time crime is rising. Somebody was mugged within sight of C6 the other day. Thats... disturbing, especially since it seems the thugs are feeling that BPD won't be there to stop them.

Are they still having trouble finding qualified new recruits? Maybe it's time to drop the residency requirement, especially with the meager first year's pay.

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"Maybe it's time to drop the residency requirement, especially with the meager first year's pay."

What residency requirement? Go look at the union rosters that were leaked onto pastebin by the occupy people, and you'll see dozens for non-Boston addresses among rank and file and higher-ups like captains.

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And I'm not sure on the real world enforcement, are required to have resided in Boston proper for a year prior and to stay put in Boston for 10 years after.

After that I don't think there is any requirement. I'm not surprised most if not all flee for the burbs.

But my point is recruits are not paid much in their probationary period and first few years. Living in Boston ain't cheap, and from my experience people striving to be police don't really like living with roommates, especially when they'd be younger college / post college people that might be not doing everything by the legal book. That's a headache and liability they don't want.

Plus, there's better pay and cheaper living conditions for going elsewhere (although more risk and crappier pensions / seniority pay)

Edit, found this: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/...

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Officers must live in the city for 10 years of employment, then they may move outside of the city.

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Mr. Anon squared...

Crime is DOWN , not up. nationally and here in Massachusetts. You always seem to put the police and the powers that be down first chance you get and you seem to love to play Monday morning qb...why aren't you a cop then? Too change things you need to get involved, so I hope you do get involved where ever it is that you live ( I hope it is in the city...)

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I said crime is down historically. I also don't think things are as bad as the news reports purport and honestly think things overall are pretty damn good. I'm an optimist.

That doesn't mean crime rates don't change. Nor that we can't be proactive in means to lower them when we notice it up ticking.

We're not near the levels it used to be. Boston is a pretty safe city. Still it appears crime is slightly up ticking, and Menino and the BPD are not worried about it. That's fine, but should we be waiting until it gets worse before doing something about the uptick? That sort of reactive approach costs taxpayers more.

And I'm not putting cops down. I'm questioning Menino's administration and the institution of the BPD. LEO's have my utmost respect for the shit they have to put up with. Doesn't mean we can't be critical and find better ways to do things, or that change should be met with "shut up and sit down".

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so the twelve or so cops that went looking for the guy didn't care? The Sergeant that took her to the station to trace the phone did that because he didn't care? The cops that had her look at a possible bad guy did so because they didn't care? Really? Really?

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The woman was mugged. Forget the critique of whether the Brewery is a hub in the neighborhood or whether the expectation of safety is unreasonable. The woman was mugged. Criticize her attitude another time.

I am saddened but not surprised that the cops who were supposed to help her acted with a poor attitude. There are good cops in this city but there are cops who are only good for detail work. Sounds like she got the latter.

I am surprised that JP feels more dangerous to me than when I was living off Dot Ave. in Savin Hill. What is it about JP that predators believe that mugging, robbing and beating people up, and knifing and shooting people in pizza parlors can be done with impunity?

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Remember too that crime reporting in JP seems to be a lot more robust than reporting of crimes in Dorchester. Would a mugging for a cellphone in Dorchester even be covered by the blogs/media?

To your point about the cops and their attitudes, totally agree.

I have been living in the Brewery area for the last decade and have not seen much of a trend either towards or away from gentrification. What happened to her is terrible, but we need to do a better job of not being oblivious to our surroundings. Don't walk around quiet inner city neighborhoods after dark listening to your iPod.

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Maybe JP is going through an identity crisis? The neighborhood comes out in full force to bitch about Whole Foods moving in, but a JP resident gets held up at knife point and the first JP resident to comment on this thread whines about the feelings the victim expressed in her report of the assault? Sad.

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The anti-Whole Foods crowd was loud, but they in no way represented the neighborhood coming out in full force against WF. Though their corporate vampire puppet schtick was cute. And completely ineffective.

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"E13 police did show up to do a quick drive by and take my information but all in all I found them to be rude, insensitive, and lackadaisical."

How unsurprising, though. These are the offices who once mowed down a baby in a crosswalk with a police truck, and then claimed first that he "brushed the baby carriage and it tipped over" in the police report (when the Globe and other reporters had no trouble finding a witness who said that, gee, actually, NO, the kid went flying).

Back when people were shooting and throwing stuff at people on the southwest corridor bike path, someone from Boston Housing Police basically had the "oh, those poor kids" kind of attitude when I talked with him a few nights later; bleeding heart stories about how he was always "bringing them home" and no daddy around. Yeah. Those poor kids. No father around, so that excuses taking pot shots at people with BB guns, and in 5 years they'll be using a 9mm because they realized how so many people will be enablers and apologists for them, and how they can do anything they want and get away with it.

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... and the increase in violence was part of the reason why I moved. Miss the area dearly though, especially the SW Trail.

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Increase in violence? If anything it seems the opposite is true. Over what period are you referring to? The last 10 years? The last 6 months? The area is "gentrifying" if anything--though there is still the bottomless black hole of Boylston Street between Amory and Washington. I don't mean this to sound like an attack on your comment--I just want to know if maybe I am deluded.

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Seems to be ticking up slowly around the city the past few years, but much of it is probably economically related. Still, the city doesn't seem like it wants to be proactive to nip it in the butt. That costs money and money isn't to be spent until it's politically viable (residents complaining en mass).

but yes, historically we're still at the lower end of the spectrum, luckily.

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Good evening, Mrs. Malaprop.

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"It's so disheartening that this type of dangerous assault happened to close to a hub of JP and it's shocking to me that there hasn't been a shred of publicity warning the community."

This "hub" of JP (not really) is also adjacent to Egleston/Boylston Street/etc. which has long been an actual hub of violent crime. All sympathy for the mugging but there seems to be some kind of weird entitlement at work here about where exactly "crime" is supposed to be taking place.

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The following link shows the size of the Brewery Complex and lists the 30 diverse companies housed there.
http://www.jpndc.org/help_business/brewery.html

We are all told to be especially aware of dark, quiet, unoccupied areas. It is sad that violent crime can happen so close to a community keystone as well.

Victim blaming and criticism is also sad, especially when I simply want to make people aware of dangerous events in their community. Perhaps this is why more people don't speak out when they are assaulted.

I forgot to mention to Adam that the police had told me that a crime of similar description happened in the same area about a week or two ago. I have yet to find any publicity about this incident either.

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Hi, this is Chris Helms. I run JP Patch, a news and community site for JP. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you.

We run a daily crime blotter with the raw crime information. Here's a link to the column: http://jamaicaplain.patch.com/columns/interactive-...

I try to get it every day, but I admit I miss some days, and must have missed that previous incident you refer to. I have a New Year's resolution to get the police blotter posted every day.

There used to be a good crime map widget on Neighbors for Neighbors, but I couldn't find it when I looked just now.

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As one of your neighbors in the Brookside neighbourhood, I am really glad you shared this info. I am also really sorry you had to go through a scary thing like this. You DID NOT do anything to deserve it.

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While it is horrible that this woman had to deal with this, what is even worse is the response of the police department. It seems to be their M/O, frankly, to not give a damn about stuff like this. A few weeks ago someone got shot across the street from my house in JP. The police didn't inform the neighbors, didn't ask us any questions about whether or not we'd seen anything, and when I asked the officer on the side of the road what happened, his response was similarly rude, insensitive and lackadaisical. There can be no expectation of a better community if the police a.) don't care and b.) can't be bothered to involve the people living in the community.

This will not stand.

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The Boston Police Department is continuing to actively investigate this incident. Experiencing a crime such as this is scary and upsetting for the victim. We hope the victim has a speedy recovery as we continue to do everything possible to find the person responsible. Anyone with iformation is encouraged to contact E-13 detectives at 617-343-5628.

Here is some additional information about the incident including a suspect description:

About 4:44 pm on Thursday 12/29/2011, Officers responded to E-13 to take a report of an armed robbery which occurred at Merriam/Brookside Ave. On arrival officer spoke with the victim who stated while walking at above location an unknown white Hispanic male approached victim from behind wrapping his arms around her neck with a knife to her throat and then pushing her down to the ground. Suspect stated "Give me all your stuff, be quiet, I known you have a cell phone".

Suspect then cut victim's cell phone headphones with his knife and snatched victim's handbag from her person. Handbag contained victim's wallet, identification, various debit/credit cards, cash, and two Playstation games. Victim was notified to cancel debit/credit cards.

Suspect is described as a white Hispanic male with an accent, approximately 20 years of age, stocky build, wearing a black hoodie over his head.

Suspect fled up on Marmion, left on Brookside Ave, and a right onto Germania were he made way with his escape. Several units made a search of area to know avail. A witness stated to an officer that he heard victim scream, then observed suspect run by him with purse. Witness followed suspect from Brookside to Germania where he lost sight of suspect in a backyard going towards Boylston. Witness describes suspect as 5'9", thin build, wearing a dark colored hoodie.

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Think you guys could possibly work together to get a blotter up and running on Uhub?

Heck, in this day of technology there should be a way for BPD to give out a API for the blotter area of it's own website to allow local sites to pull and host their blotter updates directly.

We all appreciate the information above, but there's simple and cost effect means of information dissemination technology that many, many local sites would probably be interesting in incorporating into their sites.

Just a thought. Standardizing and making it much more available might do wonders for neighborhood watch groups and people just wondering whats going on in their hood.

Oh crap, am I sounding like The Zak now?

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Yeah, I'd love to see an API for accessing BPD data, or even just daily CSV feeds.

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Enforcing the immigration laws might help, but heaven forbid anyone say so out loud--

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By deporting "them" all back to Puerto Rico?

Statistics on %crimes by undocumented immigrants versus %undocumented immigrants in the population please ... except that wouldn't make your "case".

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Wrong. Illegal immigrants rarely report crimes because:
1-they fear attracting the attention of law enforcement….and
2-often they come from countries where the police are notoriously corrupt.

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You imply that the crimes in Jamaica Plain are committed by Puerto Ricans. As someone partly of puerto rican heritage I find that baseless and outrageous.

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It sounds like this person is mocking the ignorance of the person he/she is replying to with that statement.

As you know, you can't deport people who were born in Puerto Rico as they are US citizens - ergo, I smell satire.

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is not a color of a red blooded 'Merikan, amirite?

Seriously Mr. KKK, go away. You probably have plenty of non-white, non-English protestant blood in your veins. Are you assaulting people from mom's basement?

Every generation is something else.

Not too long ago people were blaming the Italians and Irish (who came here "illegally" by today's tough standards). The groups who's multicultural descendants now practically run the Northeast.

Our constitution talks of inalienable human rights. This nation was and continues to be built from immigrants. You're welcome to leave if blacky/brownie is keeping you down. The rest of us will be fine without you.

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You mean like requiring immigrants to have some skills or education so they can get actual jobs instead of mugging people?

The unskilled labor jobs that supported all those European immigrants just don't exist anymore, except for people who won the MBTA lottery.

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You trust a government that would deport a 14 year old US born African American girl to Colombia? This kid has been on milk cartons for years: http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Dallas-Teen-Is--Mis...

Until they "mistakenly" deport your kid, all is okay.

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Alabama or Georgia of unintended consequences of it's new immigration laws.

Fields of rotting food, ripe and unable to be harvested. Those are not signs that there's no use for cheap, unskilled labor. You know anyone willing to pick them for $50 a day? Are you ok with lettuce prices going to $20 a head to hire "skilled workers"? One or the other...

Also, Fed laws state that you can not hire non citizens without a work Visa. That's government in the way, not a lack of low skill jobs that both companies and immigrants would gladly take. Have you been listening to businesses on the cape lamenting that they can;'t get enough H1B Visas for the summer season? That there's a supply shortage of people willing to work those service jobs?

If you haven't noticed, we have problems with companies illegally hiring immigrants too. Enforce that law, and there's no immigration because there's no work. Remove the citizen work law, deport the trouble makers and allow the hard workers to stay, contribute and work towards citizenship and we're back to the old sane laws. American companies are demanding their labor, and immigrants are risking quite a bit to come here illegally. The market is speaking, so lets listen to it!

History had no such laws, so your argument is a bit dubious.

My great grandfather came from Lacedonia, signed his name in a book off the boat in Boston and worked his butt off doing odd jobs with no threat of being deported for lack of citizenship. He saved money and bought land in Fitchburg to raise a family, start a farm and became a citizen. His children were citizens and they all served the country in the military in WWII. Their legacy is why my family is where it is today.

So don't dribble that racist crap buddy. You're the one with a fictitious view of history. There were people like you, making the same arguments and shitting on my great grandfather back in the day. You're as wrong, privileged and racist as they were.

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BPD will catch these two thugs then she will be mugged by the justice system. She will loose several days of pay when she has to take time off because the case will be continued for a year. After a year the court will play lets make a deal and the two muggers will receive a sentence of community service and she will have back spasms and nightmares forever.

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Well... first her character was called into question by her friendly JP neighbor. You see, when the victim spoke of being mugged at knife-point, she didn't express herself quite to the satisfaction of commenter #1.

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If you like, I will concede that I should of shown much more understanding up front and for that I sincerely apologize. I understand the horror of what happened to her since I experienced the same (and once, much worse) on three different occasions in my life.

Again, I am not calling her character into question at all. Sigh.

One can argue about crime statistics and the character of the assailant back and forth and back and forth. The point I was only trying to make is let us try to be less shocked and more aware. And I am speaking in general - this is not directed to anyone in particular.

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I am very relieved that this woman wasn't hurt. I am glad to know about this as I take it as a warning to stay vigilant. I have lived in the neighborhood for 40 yrs. Crime goes up and down. In those years, friends and members of my family have been mugged, have had our houses and cars broken into, there have been nearby shootings, etc. I take a lot of precautions. We live in an urban area.

Sadly, the police attitude and statements have often been, "Why don't you move?" Overall, the good experiences have outweighed the bad but sometimes, I ask myself the same question.

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I have always found the police in the Brookside neighborhood to be extremely responsive. Not to discount your experience, but thus far for me it has been different from your own.

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For what it is worth, does anyone know if there is an email crime alert tool that I can subscribe to for JP? I live in the area, am often walking with my children, and would like to know, as soon as I can, when something like this has happened near our dance class, or the T we take, or the streets we cross.

Does anyone know if there is an email alert system for when a crime such as this occurs and is reported? I would appreciate it.

to the OP - I am so sorry this happened to you. It is horrible. And there are two crimes, the physical one which occurred and the emotional/psychological one as I can imagine you no longer feel safe in areas you once did and that can linger indefinitely. Thank you for sharing as much information as you did given the trama of the moment. As a woman often at the brewery at that exact time, it is of value, even as I see it belatedly.

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