Angry Stuy Tenants Hold Town Hall after Rape of Young Girl

Angry residents of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village held a town hall with police and local elected officials to address the aftermath of a brutal rape of a 14 year old that occurred within the complex on the East side of Manhattan.

One reason for the town hall called by the Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association and held at a 400-seat auditorium in the NYU Dental School on Feb. 26 was dismay over a webinar that management had called two weeks earlier to address the same incident. Many residents, including STPCV president Susan Steinberg found the response to be inadequate.

Beam Living hosted a virtual webinar on Feb. 12 to address the concerns of the community of the rape and sexual assault that happened within a stairwell inside a building off of First Ave. and the First Ave. loop Rd. near 18th St.

The corporation, which is the management firm for the owners–the hedge fund Blackstone Group and the Montreal-based developer Ivanhoé Cambridge–did not allow for live comments by residents. Instead, they required pre-written questions to be addressed during the meeting. This caused an uproar by the community, with one resident calling the scripted meeting, “an absolute abomination.”

Steinberg, president of the Tenants’ Association, said she was dismayed by Beam’s physical absence from the community following the crime. And she noted that it was the Tenants Association that first informed residents about the sexual assault within the complex, which has 110 buildings across 80 acres.

“We are wanting to do something about what we are all perceiving as a failure of safety...We will come up with a plan that we can bring to management and get some improvements to what we feel is failing us.”

Police, working with US Marshalls arrested suspect Germaine Parham upstate and charged him with a 17 count felony indictment including for rape, sexual assault and robbery. He is currently remanded on Rikers Island without bail.

Steinberg was joined by State Senator Kirsten Gonzalez, New York State Assembly Member Keith Powers, Councilwoman Virginia Maloney, as well as 13th precinct Lieutenant Ken Rice, Sergeant Frank Faber, and Officer Bangosh.

In reference to the lack of communication between public safety and the community, Gonzalez said, “We saw pretty quickly that the response did not meet the moment and the gravity of the situation.” One resident, a mother to two young boys, said that she received no notifications that anything was happening, and only found out about the rape when she went to the mezzanine level and saw police presence. Lieutenant Ken Rice made clear that although, “We recognize that when information is not given, it spreads fear, and a lot of misinformation,” they were unable to provide the residents with specific details of the crime. One resident spoke on behalf of her neighbor, who’s daughter said, “A month ago, twice, I walked in the stairwell and there was a man there and he was telling me how pretty I was.”

Citizens complained of a multitude of other consistent crimes in the neighborhood. Package theft, non-residents hanging out in stairwells, kids sneaking into the basketball courts at night, an incident of a car racing inside the Stuytown loop with reported shots fired, and home robbery.

Another resident was frustrated with the overall lack of security present on Stuytown grounds, “I think we deserve more than we’re getting. I hardly ever see police around the property.” She wasn’t the only person who felt this way. Every single participant commented on the need for increased “boots on the ground” enforcement. Lieutenant Rice verbalized the efforts made by the 13th precinct to handle the crime efficiently, “I want to commend the 13th precinct who very quickly identified the perpetrator within probably an hour and a half...They got a name, picture, tracked this guy, and identified who committed the crime within a few days,” he said. The female resident was unsatisfied with his response and repeated her question, “Can you address what I was actually talking about, which is, can we have more police?”

The 13th precinct has around 115-120 officers, and, due to limited resources, does not have foot patrol in either Stuytown or Peter Cooper, which has its own private security force. “Electeds, you need to get us more people so that we can have some foot patrols, because this riding around in cars is great, but it’s not like having foot patrols,” said one of the women at the mic. Assembly member Powers said he would be asking for a higher head count in the precinct to give them the resources they need to support the area.

A few attendees presented possible solutions to address these crimes. One being a workshop hosted by the NYPD and public security to help families and children become more aware of what to look out for.

Steinberg said she would bring the issues addressed during the meeting to management. She asked the residents to email her the most pressing issues they had, so that she could present the top three to Beam. So far, Steinberg has received around 50 responses and is expecting more. Since the representative of Beam refused to meet in person, Steinberg feels that, “They don’t have the residents’ backs.”