Talk Bronx New York

Demonstrators Rally In The Bronx Against Police Shootings

The protests continued Wednesday, nearly a week after the acquittal of three police detectives in the Sean Bell shooting.

Demonstrators held a rally in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx Wednesday afternoon, calling the verdict a miscarriage of justice.

They chanted the names of a number of other men shot and killed by the NYPD in the past, including Anthony Baez and Timothy Stansbury.

Many say they still cannot understand why Bell was killed.

“Fifty shots is just too much. For real, man. I believe the officers only got a vacation. That’s all they got was a vacation,” said one demonstrator. “Now they’re back on the job.”

“What you see that happened to Sean Bell and his friends, that could be your brother, your cousin, you know, somebody in your family and you know that no one is exempt,” said another. “Somebody that you know could be involved in the next police brutality case.”

“It could be any one of us, you know what I mean, and we’re all here just to show support,” added another. “That could be any one of us.”

More protests are planned including a solidarity march in the Soundview section of the Bronx on Saturday in front of the home of Amadou Diallo. He will shot to death by police in 1999. The officers in that case were also acquitted.

SOURCE: NY1.com Read more..

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Police Search For Alleged Bronx Apartment Scam Artist

Police in the Bronx were searching Wednesday for a man accused of targeting apartment hunters in an internet scam.

NYPD detectives said the man pictured in the above sketch posted fake apartment ads on Craigslist.

They said on two occasions, potential renters handed over cash deposits to the man in exchange for keys to apartments in the Mount Hope neighborhood.

The renters soon learned the rooms were already occupied.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

SOURCE: NY1.com

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Author Abraham Rodriguez delves into Barrio noir in “South by South Bronx”

A mysterious blond appears naked in the bed of an aimless man who has frequent blackouts. She’s got a pair of Manolo Blahniks, a secret and a gun.

This scenario would fit right in with the hardboiled detective novels from the 1950s, the ones starring cynical gumshoes like Mike Hammer or Philip Marlowe.

Instead, it’s the opening to Abraham Rodríguez’s new novel, “South by South Bronx” (Akashic Books, $15.95), which intersects concerns about terrorism, changes in the drug trade and gentrification with Hitchcockian double-crosses and a mountain of cash.

The novel, Rodríguez’s third, takes the Bronx-born writer’s longtime concerns about Puerto Rican identity and street-level realism and meshes them with the structure of a classic pulp fiction narrative.

“It wasn’t a conscious thing, ‘I’m going to do a mystery book,’” says Rodríguez, whose first novel, the gritty and lyrical “Spidertown,” was published in 1994.

“I always wanted to do something with a Puerto Rican cop, and I’m obsessed with the concept of dragging Puerto Ricans into Americana,” he adds over the phone from Northern California, where he began his book tour last week.

Tonight at 7, Rodríguez will be reading at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca, 97 Warren St. — the first of five book presentations in New York (see below).

“South by South Bronx” is divided into two narratives, set off by the use of different typefaces.

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Ministries for Peach and Justice

When Alexie Torres-Fleming, the director of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, was growing up in the 1960s, she would sit at the window of her ninth-floor housing project and watch the South Bronx burn.

“There was a period where I was really ashamed of my community,” said Torres-Fleming, 43, who was raised with her three siblings by Catholic Puerto Rican immigrants in public housing during the epidemic of drug abuse and gang violence.

“If you’re black or brown and you grow up poor the way we did, the message you get is that you’re only going to be successful when you can get out of the ghetto.”

After fleeing the Bronx in her 20s to live and work in Manhattan, Torres-Fleming met human rights icon Luis Garden Acosta, who mentored her at his Williamsburg activist group, El Puente. Inspired by the power of grassroots community organizations, she returned to the South Bronx to ignite local activism.

She joined a community action group at Holy Cross parish. In 1992, after the church led a march against crack houses in the area, drug dealers set the church ablaze in retaliation.

But Torres-Fleming was more devastated over the drug epidemic in her neighborhood. Read more..

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James Vacca Coy Over Possible Bronx Borough President Run

East Bronx City Councilman Jimmy Vacca isn’t totally denying he’s thinking about a run for borough president in the 2009 Democratic primary.

Though he’s up for one more Council term, he has yet to declare for any office with the city Campaign Finance Board.

And with three Hispanics - term-limited Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. and ex-State Sen. Pedro Espada - likely to dilute the Latino vote, and Councilwoman Helen Foster pulling a heavy black vote, Jimmy just might slide in with the help of the East Bronx/Riverdale white vote.

But we tend to think it could be a bargaining chip with Joel’s dad, Dem Jefe Jose Rivera, to back Jimmy for a council leadership role - from Speaker to chair of a powerful committee, such as land use or finance.

Competing for a Council plum: South Bronx Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

East Bronx/Queens Rep. Joe Crowley likes and respects Jimmy, but as Queens Democratic boss, he also has to deal with his homies.

Gettin’ his mojo workin’

Political circles are wondering just when Joel Rivera is gonna get out of the gate in that run for Bronx BP.

While Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. has been raising bucks and working the boro, Joel’s already spent half his money raised so far and barely been making the rounds.

“It’s like he’s campaigning in his apartment,” said a local political operative - not the only one talking about it.

But Joel’s camp says it’s ready to crank up his political mojo - when the time is right.

One thing for sure - the last thing Daddy Rivera wants is party arch-enemy Pedro Espada having a shot at winning - or being a spoiler. Read more..

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