2 APRIL 20 - APRIL 26, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
BED-STUY SEX OFFENDER
SENTENCED FOR 2016 RAPE
A 54-year-old registered Level 3 sex offender
has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for
sexually assaulting a woman as she walked home
from a Bushwick subway station.
At around 2:45 a.m. on August 16, 2016, the
victim, 27, exited the Kosciuszko Street subway
station when 54-year-old Michael Mann of Bed-
Stuy grabbed her from behind, placed a knife to
her back, demanded money and threatened to stab
her. The woman gave Mann $5 and offered him the
rest of her belongings, at which point he cut her
clothing with a knife and raped her.
Mann also told the victim that he knew where
she lived and would kill her if she called the police.
Mann was arrested on August 17 after officers
responded to a dispute and recognized him from
the rape victim’s sexual assault report. His DNA
matched that which was recovered from the
victim.
POL LOOKS TO CRACK
DOWN ON TEXTING AND
WALKING
Assemblymember Felix Ortiz on Wednesday,
April 11 introduced legislation to amend the state’s
vehicle and traffic law to prohibit pedestrians from
using portable electronic devices while crossing
the street.
Banned devices would include anything with
mobile data access, as well as laptops, pagers, electronic
gaming systems and, of course, cellphones.
The pol cited statistics which claim texting takes
away from alertness, as well as the National Safety
Council’s recent determination that injuries from
smartphone use have increased from roughly 500
a year in 2000 to more than 2,000 in 2011. 2017, he
said, saw nearly 6,000 pedestrian deaths due to
“distracted walking.”
'NEIGHBORHOOD POLICING'
COMING TO R LINE
The NYPD announced on Thursday, April 12
that Neighborhood Policing – the department’s
new crime-fighting strategy which mirrors the
old beat cop and emphasizes crime reduction and
collaborative problem solving within communities
– will expand into the city’s subway system
beginning with one transit district in Brooklyn
and another in the Bronx.
The program will begin in districts 12 and 30.
District 30 covers Brooklyn stations along the 2,
3, 4, 5, A, C, B, D, Q, F, G and R lines.
The NYPD began rolling out its Neighborhood
Policing program in 2015. The program will be
coming to the 62nd Precinct later this month, and
to the 68th early this summer.
—Meaghan McGoldrick
Photo courtesy of Teri Brennan
Political hopefuls appeal to voters
at student organized Q and A
BY THOMAS NOCERA
Dozens of people participated
in a Q and A
session hosted by Reverend
Khader El-Yateem at Salam
Arabic Lutheran Church on
Saturday, April 14. The session
was conceived and organized by
Bay Ridge Prep senior Alex Pellitteri
and focused on violence
affecting young people.
It was Pellitteri’s hope that
the efforts would be able to help
raise awareness and kick-start a
local debate on the topic
Attendees, who included
students from a number of area
schools, members of various
Brooklyn-based advocacy
groups, Brooklyn Borough
President Eric Adams, and concerned
parents, were given the
opportunity to ask questions of
two different panels.
The first was an expert
panel of teachers, activists
and non-profit heads who have
focused their work on violence
affecting the lives young people.
Following this initial Q and
A, the lengthier part of the
event saw attendees able to ask
questions to another set of potentially
influential panelists: four
hopefuls running for District
11’s Democratic nomination for
the House of Representatives.
“I think it’s important with
the upcoming election that they
know people are ready to hold
their elected officials accountable,”
Pellitteri commented.
The four candidates — Omar
Vaid, Michael DeVito, Paul Sperling
and Zach Emig — hail from
vastly different backgrounds.
Vaid is a former union mechanic
turned political hopefully,
Sperling, at 25 years old, is
one of the youngest candidates
running in the country. Devito
is a former Marine, and Emig an
engineer.
With differing levels of political
experience and platforms
that clash on certain issues, they
all held the same belief regarding
violence affecting America’s
youth; that drastic change legislatively
is necessary to prevent
violence in schools.
“Young people are asking
‘what’s next,’” DeVito said. “We
have to come together with
young people and guide them
through the process”
Sperling agreed. “We need to
make the safety of every citizen
our priority,” he told the crowd.
With Pellitteri moderating the
debate, the conversation took a
turn towards an array of other
topics. Attendees grilled the
panelists on issues ranging from
the policing policies to campaign
finance laws.
With U.S. military strikes in
Syria occurring only a few hours
before the panel met as well,
Middle East foreign policy dominated
the focus of many questions
attendees put to the panelists.
For almost an hour and a half,
the group addressed the wide
array of concerns and parried
on issues that could potentially
decide their fates come the primary
election on June 26.
While District 11 — which
includes all of Staten Island and
a swath of southwest Brooklyn
from Bay Ridge to Gravesend
— has elected a Republican representative
in the last several
general elections, the hopefuls
were not fazed.
Voicing a sentiment held by
the group, Emig commented:
“This isn’t a Republican district,
we just have to engage the voters.”
Vaid expressed his hope
that partisanship would not get
in the way of electing a truly
representative congressmember.
Pellitteri, for his efforts, was
pleased with the turnout and
results. He hoped the politicians
vying for votes in the district
would get a simple message: “If
you’re not going to be accountable
for what’s happening, you’ll
be replaced.”
The district is currently represented
by Congressmember
Dan Donovan, who is being challenged
for the GOP nomination by
his predecessor, Michael Grimm,
who stepped down from the seat
after pleading guilty to tax evasion
and other federal charges,
and serving seven months of an
eight-month prison sentence.
Also running for the Democratic
nomination are Max Rose
and Radhakrishna Mohan.
Salam Arabic Lutheran
Church is located at 414 80th
Street.
Audience members listened to responses.