MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-01-05 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] defund everything...
|
Subway assault victim 'stunned' and 'scared' after assailant's release
David Meyer
3-4 minutes
January 4, 2021 | 4:43pm | Updated January 5, 2021 | 12:04am
One of at least five victims of a string of attacks at a Brooklyn subway
stop ripped the NYPD Monday for what she believes is a failure to keep
women who use the station safe.
“I was stunned that this had happened so many times. I didn’t see any
police stationed there. There were no flyers,” Bianca Fortis said
Monday, a week after the attack in East Williamsburg’s Morgan Ave. station.
The attack left the 32-year-old journalist with multiple bruises on her
face, shoulder and chest. On Saturday, another woman was attacked at the
same location — bringing the total number of police-reported incidents
there to five.
“There’s not enough security,” Fortis told The Post.
“After it happened the first time, or certainly the second, there should
have been more information. Even just a flyer saying be on alert.”
Fortis was exiting the station at around 5 p.m. on Dec. 28 when a masked
man came up from behind and starting hitting her, she said. She screamed
and after a few seconds, the man ran away.
Days later, cops arrested Benny Watts, 50, of Manhattan, in connection
to the attack and three others against young women at the station on
Nov. 17, Dec. 11 and Dec. 26 — all of them on the station’s exit stairs
and ramps.
Prosecutors charged Watts with just one count of third degree assault,
after three of the victims could not confirm he was their attacker. A
judge released him on Friday because the charge is not bail eligible.
An NYPD spokesman said Morgan Ave. station has been a special post with
extra cops since Nov. 29, and became a fixed post for officers after
Fortis was attacked.
“Cops are there at the station,” the spokesman insisted.
The assault left Fortis afraid for herself and her neighbors. She said
she’s avoided the Morgan stop at all costs — despite its close proximity
to her home — and feels a jolt of terror whenever someone walks close to
her on the street.
Those fears and frustrations boiled over after The Post reported
Saturday that the suspected assailant was released, she said. A fifth
woman was attacked at the same station that night, though she told The
Post on Monday her assailant did not match Watts’ description.
“I have no idea what he looks like. If he’s walking around my
neighborhood, I wouldn’t even know. That makes me really nervous,”
Fortis said.
“I don’t feel safe, and I also feel scared for other young women in the
area. The concern is that this is going to keep happening.”
Authorities have not said whether Watts suffers from any cognitive or
emotional ailments.
Still, Fortis insisted he needs help, not punishment.
“I do think he needs some kind of help, and I don’t think letting him
roam freely to do it again almost immediately after being released is
the solution,” she said.
“I don’t want people to politicize my trauma. This isn’t about bail
reform, it’s about finding better solutions to keep women safe.”
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
Hangout mailing list
Hangout-at-nylxs.com
http://lists.mrbrklyn.com/mailman/listinfo/hangout
|
|
