Neighborhood Patrol Groups Say They're Preventing Looters. Some Residents Say They Make Communities Less Safe.
In Sheepshead Bay, about 100 volunteers get in their cars every night and drive around until 5 in the morning. They call themselves "Holding Down Brooklyn South" and they say their goal is to deter looting. They're all men, a mix of local business owners and residents. And they came under scrutiny earlier this week, after a letter on a local Brooklyn news site said they were quote,"armed with legal weapons including baseball bats."
Co-founder David Brodsky says that's not true. Â
"No, I do not drive around with a bat," he said. "Have I have heard about any of our guys driving around with a bat? No. We say that our weapons are our eyes and phones."Â
But Sheepshead Bay business leader Steve Barrison says the community doesn't need civilian patrols. There haven't been lootings or vandalism there -- and the risk of racial profiling is one he doesn't want to take.
"Imagine in white Sheepshead Bay, a bunch of black kids come through at night and they see them, the chance of them overreacting is definitely there and it's scary, it shouldn't be," he said.Â
A few miles away, Bensonhurst resident Cindy Delvillar says she finds online comments from the group's supporters menacing, and reassurances from the group's co-founder don't make her feel any safer.
"Honestly, even though one person might genuinely be there just to stop looting, I don't think all the people have that mentality, all the people who join this little group."Â
She says she owns a business in the Bronx and there, residents are looking out for her storefront, asking people not to vandalize it.
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