Video Could Be Key In Trial Of Crip Charged In Deadly 2011 Brighton Beach Boardwalk Shootings

On June 9th, five people were shot on the Park Department's Brighton Beach Boardwalk including 16-year old East Harlem girl, Tysha Jones who was tragically killed. Iloune Driver, a 21-year-old Crip from East New York, Brooklyn, shown here being arrested, was charged and is on trial for second-degree murder for the shooting  that killed the innocent teenager and wounded four others.  (Photo: Todd Maisel/New York Daily News) 

Over the twelve weeks leading up to that incident there had been twelve shootings, including five deaths, and more than a dozen stabbings and muggings and numerous sexual assaults in parks. And since  January there had been more than 150 arrests on park land including 98 in Union Square Park alone and the Summer had yet to begin.

"Frankly, I think it's a shame for people to sort of gin it up and try to panic people into believing that parks are not safe," then Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe embarrassingly stated as the public once again called for more protection in parks. 

 "They're safer than they've ever been," he said.

Brooklyn

A few seconds of video evidence may determine the courtroom fate of a gangbanger accused of spraying bullets over a jam-packed boardwalk in Brooklyn two years ago, killing an innocent teenage girl and wounding four others, according to the New York Daily News.

Iloune Driver, 21, whose trial for second-degree murder began Tuesday, fired at a rival in Brighton Beach on a sunny day in June 2011, fatally striking a bystander, Tysha Jones, 16, who was hanging out with friends, a prosecutor said.

Chaos ensued at the Brighton Beach Boardwalk when a fight erupted into a shooting.

(Photo: Patrick Q. Barr for NY Daily News)

 “All she was doing was going to the beach,” prosecutor Janet Gleeson said in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

“But those were the last moments of her life.” 

No weapons or ballistic evidence tie Driver — an avowed Crip who has the words “True Blue” tattooed across his chest — to the crime.   

Tysha Jones, 16, an innocent bystander, was killed in the  Brighton Beach Boardwalk shooting on June 9, 2011.  (Photo: Michael Schwartz/New York Daily News)  

Gleeson said two witnesses identified Driver as the gunman. She said shots were fired as a group of Crips taunted a rival crew of Bloods.

“That’s what it was all about — gang stupidity,” Gleeson said. 

But defense lawyer Mario Romano argued that video of the shooting’s immediate aftermath refutes the witnesses’ statements that Driver was on the sand when he fired; the video, the lawyer said, shows Driver on the boardwalk a few seconds after the crowd begins to scramble for cover.

Romano said Driver was “running away from the mayhem, like everybody else.” 

Driver was apprehended by police as he entered the subway. He wasn’t initially charged, but named others as the assailants, Gleeson said. A witness called a police department tip line a few days later and identified him as the shooter.     

Read More:

Video could be key in trial of Crip charged in deadly Brighton Beach boardwalk shooting   

New York Daily News -

 October 22, 2013 - 

Oren Yaniv 

Park Crime Surges - Calls For Increased Security

A Walk In The Park - 

June 15, 2011 - By Geoffrey Croft

Arrest in Brighton Beach Deadly Shooting

A Walk In The Park 

- June 13, 2011 

Five Shot, Teen Girl Killed In Brighton Beach Boardwalk Shooting 

A Walk In The Park - June 10, 2011 

Illegal Venders Hit Brooklyn Beaches

An illegal vendor makes his way along Brighton Beach last week.

"It's an open-air supermarket," said Brighton Beach activist Ida Sanoff, who even saw one bold hawker pushing bottles of Smirnoff vodka. "We've got a beach that's full of illegal vendors selling booze and cigarettes - you name it."

There is not a single Parks Enforcement officer assigned to cover any of Brooklyn's three beaches. Despite this fact that did not stop a Parks Department spokeswoman from telling the Daily News there were a total of 28 Parks employees - including PEP officers, assigned to Brooklyn beaches this summer. The Bloomberg administration keeps allowing these misrepresentations from the agency. This was the third misrepresentation from parks officials in recent weeks involving public safety and quality-of -life issues. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on image to enlarge.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn's beaches have become open-air markets for illegal vendors peddling everything from cotton candy and ice cream to beer and Jell-O shots, community activists charge, according to the New York Daily News.

Brazen entrepreneurs are pushing their wares - including tie-dyed dresses, homemade jewelry and full cases of cigarettes - with impunity, disturbing beachgoers and ticking off local businesses.

"It's an open-air supermarket," said Brighton Beach activist Ida Sanoff, who even saw one bold hawker pushing bottles of Smirnoff vodka. "We've got a beach that's full of illegal vendors selling booze and cigarettes - you name it."

Brooklyn's three beaches - Coney Island, Manhattan and Brighton - cover nearly 150 acres, giving the traveling salespeople plenty of space to wander.

To make matters worse, there are fewer Parks Department enforcement agents to stop them than ever before. Many of the agents have been cut in recent years due to budget belt-tightening.

Joe Puleo, vice president of Local 983, the union that represents the Park Enforcement Patrol officers who write tickets, said, "We've noticed numerous vendors and shopping carts but officers don't have the visibility.

"When you reduce enforcement, priorities get shifted."

Puleo said there are only two PEP supervisors assigned to Brooklyn's beaches - and they rely on seasonal workers and welfare-to-work employees to report illegal vendors.

"Beer has always been a problem, but now it's out in the open and now they're not even hiding it," he said. "There's nobody there to confiscate it."

A Parks Department spokeswoman said there were a total of 28 Parks employees - including PEP officers, seasonal workers, welfare-to-work and park rangers - assigned to Brooklyn beaches this summer, down eight from last year.

"We go to where the populations are as best we can," she said.

Beachgoers said they rarely, if ever, see green-shirted officers busting chotsky-slingers or booze buyers.

"I've never seen anyone come up to them and say, 'You can't do this here,'" said Bronx resident Christian Lambow, 18, at Coney Island beach last week. "In Central Park, someone gets stopped immediately."

Marine Park resident Robert Raimond, 63, said he enjoys the beach-side service.

"I don't have to get up, put my shoes on, walk all the way back to the Boardwalk and probably pay more for the beer than just sitting in the chair and have it handed to me," he said.

Last week, the Daily News observed at least six vendors pushing everything from mango slices to Coronas. When approached by a reporter, they refused to speak.

Brighton Beach BID executive director Yelena Makhnin said the new illegal vendors flooding the beach were taking dollars away from legitimate businesses.

"Businesses, they say enough is enough; something should be done," said Makhnin.

"A guy who doesn't pay rent, he takes business away from the restaurant who pays rent. There should be some more enforcement."

A police spokeswoman said cops have issued 20 tickets for unlicensed vending in Coney Island since the beach opened in May.

Read More:

Unlicensed vendors flood area beaches, turning city shores into open-air marketplaces

New York Daily News - July 3rd 2011 - By Edwin D. Rios, Erin Durkin and Jake Pearson

Push To Restore Brighton/Manhattan Beach Waterfront Access

A crumbling esplanade connects Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach Park. A chain link fence was built by the late Jack Laboz in the 80's to prevent the general public from accessing the promenade in front of his large house at 293 Amherst St. between Amherst & Beaumont Sts. along the waterfront. In December 1993, a State court ruled in favor of Mr. Laboz, "a politically connected Brooklyn developer" which allowed the fence to remain. (Photo: Brooklyn View)

Brooklyn

Brooklyn leaders are pushing a public-promenade plan that would reconnect the exclusive seaside neighborhood of Manhattan Beach with the rest of the borough’s less affluent southern shorefront, according to the New York Post.

Under the proposal, an eight-block rickety walkway that was fenced off from "outsiders" through a 1993 court order would be reopened and replaced with a new promenade. It would connect with the neighborhood’s public beach to the east and the Brighton Beach and Coney Island boardwalk to the west.

"Waterfront views should never be blocked," said Theresa Scavo, chairwoman of Brooklyn Community Board 15. "The city is finding ways to bring greenways for walking and biking to Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Why can’t Southern Brooklyn have something like that?"

The proposal is one of many being pitched by the Brooklyn Borough Board — comprised of Borough President Marty Markowitz and community board leaders like Scavo — for consideration as the city Planning Department drafts its "Vision 2020" comprehensive citywide waterfront development plan.

Other Brooklyn goals of note include establishing recreational access at both Plumb Beach in Mill Basin and polluted Coney Island Creek, bringing back ferry service to the 39th Street, 69th Street and Steeplechase Piers and widening a heavily used waterfront bike path running from Bensonhurst, past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and to Bay Ridge.

The weatherworn Manhattan Beach cement esplanade dates back to the mid 1800s and was once heavily used.

But a state judge in 1993 ruled it private property belonging to shorefront homeowners by siding with Jack Laboz, a politically connected Brooklyn developer.

Laboz six years earlier blocked off part of the walkway by erecting a massive fence behind his grand home at 293 Amherst St. His deep pockets helped withstand a legal challenge by some of Manhattan Beach’s roughly 800 homeowners.

Scavo said that, if the city gets involved, she believes it could use its clout to easily overturn that ruling because some property deeds describe the esplanade as a pedestrian street.

Read More:

Beach battle B'klyn wants public access

New York Post - November 29, 2010 - By Rich Calder

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: MANHATTAN BEACH; Awaiting Esplanade Ruling

New York Times - November 28, 1993 - By Lynette Holloway

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: BROOKLYN UPDATE

New York Times - December 26, 1993

Critics Reject Parks Dept. Coney/Brighton Beach Concrete Boardwalk Spin

Traditional wood to prototype concrete in Brighton Beach. The Parks Department, are attempting to replace the historic boardwalk in Coney Island and Brighton Beach with concrete. The City refuses to allocate proper funds to maintain the wooden boardwalk. (Photo by Paul Martinka)

Brooklyn

Call it a concrete bungle!

Critics says that the city was horribly mistaken when it indicated last week that concrete was the only viable alternative for the repaired Coney Island Boardwalk, because environmentalists and one leading plastics scientist insist that prefabricated “faux-wood” could do the job just as well — or better, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

At a meeting last week, a key Parks Department official said that plastic material — called “recycled plastic lumber” — would not work because it warps, gets slippery when wet, and becomes hot after hours in the sun.

But opponents, who will host their own meeting on Nov. 17, scoffed at this statement — literally!

“The U.S. Navy doesn’t think it’s slippery, the U.S. Army doesn’t either,” said Richard Lehman, referencing the fact that the military has made bridges out of plastic. “When plastic-based lumber gets wet, it is not slippery.”

Lehman, who is the director of the Advanced Polymer Center at Rutgers University, added that the real issue — one that he’s heard elsewhere, given that he is one of the leading scientists studying plastics — is the aesthetics of concrete, which many locals have said would turn the Boardwalk into a sidewalk.

“If you want a highway-look [on the Boardwalk], of course you go with concrete,” said Lehman. “But that is a major departure.”

The plastic lumber would still resemble a boardwalk and would seem an easier “sell” than the scored and colored concrete that the city favors.

Read More:

On the Boardwalk, there’s one word — plastics

The Brooklyn Paper - November 10, 2010 - By Stephen Brown

Coney/Brighton Beach Boardwalk To Sidewalk Uproar

A Walk In The Park - October 29, 2010

Coney/Brighton Beach Boardwalk To Sidewalk Uproar

A boardwalk user walks from traditional wood to prototype concrete in Coney Island. The Parks Department, in concert with the Department of Design and Construction are attempting to replace the historic boardwalk with concrete. The City refuses to allocate proper funds to maintain the wooden boardwalk. (Photo: Egan-Chin/News)

Brooklyn

That's no boardwalk. That's a sidewalk.

The iconic 42-block Riegelmann Boardwalk at Coney Island may be headed for a makeover as a concrete-slabbed walkway, city officials said, according to the New York Daily News.

Outraged residents hissed and shouted at Parks Department officials who presented a $7.4 million project to rebuild a five-block chunk of the fabled stretch with concrete.

City officials indicated at a local meeting they were thinking about redoing most of the rest of the stretch the same way.

"It is a boardwalk! It is not a sidewalk!" shouted Brighton Beach resident Ida Sanoff at the Community Board 13 meeting Wednesday night. "It looks like crap. ... You're looking for the cheap way out and the easy way out. Not acceptable!"

City officials hope to eventually rehab the whole beatup walkway and are leaning toward using concrete everywhere except the Coney Island amusement area, which already got a wood makeover.

"Certainly if we use it and it's successful, as we expect it would be, we would be proposing it for future projects," Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey told the Daily News after the meeting.

Locals, fiercely protective of the Boardwalk, weren't having it.

"This is a historic, hundred-year-old, world-famous Boardwalk ... and we're going to turn it into a sidewalk which is harmful to people's feet, their joints, their bones?" railed Ruby Schultz, 76, who walks the Boardwalk every day. "This is an absolute disgrace."

Read More:

Coney Island folk rage over plan to put concrete in place of historic boardwalk

New York Daily News - October 29th 2010 - By Erin Durkin

Call Boardwalk plan a concrete bungle - Borough President Marty Markowitz

New York Daily News - October 30th 2010 - By Ben Chapman

Coney Island Boardwalk Could Become Sidewalk

CBS - October 29, 2010