East Village residents can eat free hot dogs, jump in a moon bounce and meet local N.Y.P.D. members at today’s National Night Out event hosted by the Ninth Police Precinct. The block party (which runs until 8 p.m. in the space across from the Precinct at 321 East Fifth Street) is one of many community events across the country designed to facilitate interaction between neighbors and police.

Courtesy of NYPDA police photo of the suspect.

The police are searching for a suspect in an attempted bank robbery Monday morning. Around 10:30 a.m., a man entered Bank of America at 72 Second Avenue and passed a note demanding money. The authorities describe the suspect, who did not receive any money, as a man in his 40’s who was wearing a white shirt and carrying a black backpack.

Clint McMahon

Good morning, East Village.

There was a little Hollywood action in our neighborhood on Wednesday. DNAinfo reports that HBO filmed part its television series “Boardwalk Empire” yesterday in the East Village. The HBO crew used John’s Italian Restaurant, which is on 12th Street between First and Second Avenues, as the backdrop for a few scenes. “Boardwalk Empire” is a television drama that takes place in Atlantic City and stars Steve Buscemi, who plays a corrupt politician named Enoch “Nucky” Thompson. It is produced by Martin Scorsese.

Speaking of show business, EV Grieve reminds everyone that the EPIX Movie Free-for-All series continues tonight with a showing of “Coming to America.” In case you didn’t catch the announcement, EPIX is sponsoring a movie night once a week outside at Tompkins Square Park from now until Sept. 1. Next week, they’re showing “The Warriors.” The gate opens at 6 and the movie starts at sundown.

Finally, DNAinfo reports that one of the former NYPD police officers who was acquitted of rape is also charged with drug possession. Kenneth Moreno, 43, was indicted in 2009 on charges that he housed heroin in his locker at the Ninth Precinct. Prosecutors searched Mr. Moreno’s locker after he was arrested on rape charges stemming from an incident in December 2008. In May, Mr. Moreno and his former partner, Franklin Mata, were acquitted of raping a woman in her East Village apartment. However, Mr. Moreno’s drug charges remain open and active on the docket, prosecutors told DNAinfo.

Laura E. Lee Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

Fighting crime — on the Internet or on the street — takes community cooperation, said Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who spoke to residents at the 9th Precinct Community Council meeting Tuesday night.

Addressing a crowd of about 40 people at the precinct stationhouse, Mr. Vance said individuals have to be diligent about protecting personal information from identity theft. “The Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century,” he said.

While cybercrime is a real threat, Mr. Vance said the 500 attorneys in his office are continuing to collaborate with the local precincts to combat the more traditional crime involving “guns, gangs and drugs.”

Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lehr, commanding officer for the precinct, emphasized the need for citizens to take preventative action against crime as the weather grows warmer.

He warned the audience of some of the daily hazards in the summer, like leaving a window open or not keeping a careful eye on personal items at sidewalk cafes. Residents should be on the lookout for any unknown individuals on fire escapes and alert officers to their presence, he said.

Several residents voiced concerns about criminal activity in the region, mostly focused on underage drinking and drunken activity in the early morning hours.

“Underage drinking is a tremendous problem for us,” Inspector Lehr said. When police tested local bars for serving minors, 64 percent passed, he said.

The Council does not meet in July or August.

NYPD Surveillance images of the suspect.

The police are searching for man nicknamed “Dante” who is suspected of choking and robbing two victims in Union Square and Chinatown in the last three weeks.

The first incident occurred on May 30 at the corner of Third Avenue and 16th Street. The suspect first chatted up his 27-year-old victim at around 4:30 a.m. before suddenly choking him and robbing his jewelry and money.

The second attack occurred on June 13 in the lobby of a building on the border of Chinatown and Little Italy. In that case, the suspect attacked his 30-year-old victim and robbed his wallet at 7:15 a.m. The police did not reveal the exact location of the crime.

The authorities noted that in both cases the suspect befriended his victims before making his move.

Investigators said that “Dante” is roughly 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds. He has a tattoo of a star under his eye, another tattoo on his neck, and writing on his chest.

The man suspected in three bank robberies.

Earlier today, we told you that the police are searching for a man suspected in a string of bank robberies in the city since last month, one of which took place in the East Village. We now have more details and some images of the suspect.

In all three cases the suspect entered a Chase Bank and passed a note to the teller demanding money.

The first incident occurred on May 2 at 8:19 a.m. at a branch at 350 West 125th Street. The suspect successfully fled with an unknown amount of cash.

The second occurred in our neighborhood on June 2 at 9 a.m. at a Chase Bank at 835 Broadway near East 13th Street. Again, the robber escaped with an unknown amount of money.

The suspect struck again four days later at 2438 Broadway near West 90th Street. This time, he left the scene empty-handed.

The authorities described the suspect as being in his 40’s. In a surveillance image he is shown wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a black coat.

Michelle Rick

It happened several weeks ago, during a hard day’s night.

There was the usual raucous disturbance in the street below, when the bars begin closing and their liquored-up patrons spill out all drunk and disorderly. The area in question, lower First Avenue, leads uptown from that gauntlet of traffic lights that intersects Houston. Nearby, police cars almost always lay in wait, not to regulate barflies, mind you, but to collar motorists for traffic violations.

Such was the case that very night: the siren’s wail drew me up to the window. The squad-car’s bullhorn then came alive and demanded that the hapless driver shut off the motor and put his keys on top of the car. Considering how many drunken souls were out at this hour, it seemed a smart precaution.

But the driver was cogent, in fact, and had his license ready when the two officers strode up to meet him. What the policemen didn’t expect was the presence of three drunken young bravos who had just shambled out of the corner pizza joint.

They called out to the police from the crosswalk: first with whistles and catcalls, then appellations of the more insulting variety. This included one term which describes an orifice at the opposite end from our mouth, and an old-English noun which usually designates a female dog. These epithets were repeated again and again, just in case the two policemen hadn’t heard them the first time.
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The police say that this man is a suspect in five robberies.

The authorities are looking for a man suspected of committing five robberies — including three in the East Village — over the course of four days.

The first incident occurred on May 12 at 315 East 18th Street, when the thief approached a 26-year-old woman at around 10:30 p.m., brandished a knife and demanded her wallet. He fled the scene empty-handed.

The next morning the suspect struck again, this time in our neighborhood at Second Avenue and East Houston Street. The police said he grabbed a 27-year-old woman from behind, covered her mouth and once again failed to steal his victim’s wallet.

Investigators said that on May 14, the suspect struck twice more in the East Village. At 1:20 a.m. he wrapped his arm around a woman’s neck at 202 East Sixth Street and stole her cell phone. Then, the police said that at 9:10 a.m. the man covered another woman’s mouth at Lafayette and Bleecker Streets and demanded her wallet. He again left empty-handed.

In the fifth incident, the police said that the man pushed a 24-year-old woman against a wall at 44 Wall Street at 3 a.m. and stole her cell phone.

Police said the man — who is pictured above in a pair images from surveillance cameras — is roughly 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds.

Philip Kalantzis Cope

If you’ve been keeping up with local news, you probably know that two East Village police officers are on trial for rape, still on the city payroll but excused from their duties until the case is resolved. Statements made before the trial began revealed the following facts. A panicked taxi driver called police for assistance when his passenger began vomiting in the backseat of his cab. Two officers arrived to help her into her apartment. Once inside, she testified that one of the officers raped her while the other played lookout. A surveillance camera shows the two men returned to her apartment three more times that night.

What is their defense? She was too drunk to accurately recall the events that took place. The idea that behavior diminishes victimhood is a familiar one that even the New York Times perpetuated in its reporting of a Texas rape case last month.

“Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town” was the newspaper’s headline over an article that described the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl from the perspective of a battered and reeling community. Readers were asked to consider where the girl’s mother was through her child’s ordeal; what will happen to the young boys and men now accused of rape; and why this child was hanging around with older boys and dressing, as the writer put it, too old for her age. Of the victim and her future, the writer posed no questions.

The article had little time to idle on newsstands before outrage surfaced. Within 2 days, the public editor filed a response that called the story unbalanced and cited highlights from the Times initial response issued that week. This response explained that he paper did not intend to invoke victim blaming, and seemed to give the reporter his get out of jail free card. In a sentence, “They are not our reporter’s reactions, but the reactions of disbelief by townspeople over the news of a mass assault on a defenseless 11-year-old,” the statement said.

The Local isn’t suggesting that the quotes the writer chose necessarily represent his personal opinion, but that’s really beside the point. The point is, why did it go to print as an incomplete story? Why did paraphrased interviews take such a front running role in the telling of this story?

The New York Times does not make a habit of covering rapes in small towns across the country. The Times chose to cover this because it is as unusual as it is horrific. Nearly 20 individuals— children and adults— coordinated to attack a small child, and yet, the coverage makes no effort to unpack the very element that made this a New York Times story.

The article states that the events occurred around Thanksgiving. Why not wait until the rest of the story unfolded in order to pay the young victim the attention she deserves? What, The Local wonders, was the rush?

But the fact that The Times printed the story in the state it did isn’t the only source of confusion. The article suggests an entire town is rallying behind a group of gang rapists who likely destroyed a child’s life. If this perspective holds true, then the town must be subject to its own set of questions.

Both The Times article, and the local rape case, invoke judgment of a rape victim’s actions to form the basis of an assailant’s defense. They employ the familiar claim — “But she was asking for it!” No, no woman is ever asking to be raped, nor is any child.

Join the conversation: What do we as a society think about a woman’s right to her body? How do these incidents of public victim blaming effect our community?

Timothy J. Stenovec Detectives at the scene of the stabbing Monday morning. Jairo Pastoressa, 25, a resident of the East Seventh Street tenement where the stabbing occurred, faces murder charges.

A 25-year-old East Village man was charged with murder last night in the fatal stabbing of another man early yesterday morning, the authorities said.

The suspect, Jairo Pastoressa, lived in a tenement at 272 East Seventh Street where the police said that Christopher Jusko, 21, was stabbed around 5:30 a.m. Monday. The authorities said that Mr. Pastoressa surrendered to the police shortly after the attack.

While detectives did not immediately provide details about a possible motive, Mr. Pastoressa’s neighbors said that the killing occurred after a dispute over a woman in whom both had a romantic interest.

The arrest of Mr. Pastroressa was confirmed by The Local this morning. It has also been reported by other news organizations.

One of Mr. Pastoressa’s neighbors, John Bonilla, said that a friend of Mr. Pastoressa’s family indicated that Mr. Pastoressa told investigators that he was acting in self-defense.

Mr. Bonilla described Mr. Pastoressa, his neighbor of about four years, as a “personable young man” and said that he “generally kept to himself.”

“We’d exchange hello and goodbye when he’d go out and walk his dog,” said Mr. Bonilla.

Mr. Bonilla said that neighbors along the stretch of East Seventh Street where the stabbing occurred were jolted by the crime.

“It’s very unnerving,” said Mr. Bonilla. “It doesn’t give you a good sense of security, and makes me wonder about staying in New York.”

Timothy J. Stenovec Detectives have continued working at the crime scene along East Seventh Street through the afternoon.

The authorities this afternoon identified the victim of a fatal stabbing on East Seventh Street even as detectives were still trying to determine a motive for the crime.

Police said that the victim, Christopher Jusko, was stabbed once in the neck about 5:30 this morning inside an apartment at 272 East Seventh Street. Mr. Jusko, who was 21, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Timothy J. Stenovec Detectives are continuing their investigation into a fatal stabbing that occurred this morning on East Seventh Street.

Detectives are investigating a fatal stabbing that occurred this morning on East Seventh Street between Avenues C and D.

The police said that the victim is a 21-year-old man who was stabbed in the neck around 5:30.

The authorities have a taken another man into custody in connection with the incident.

Reporters from The Local are on the scene and we will post a full report as soon as we have more details.

Timothy J. Stenovec Officers Edward Thompson (left) and John Sivori were honored at a ceremony Thursday night saluting officers of the Ninth Precinct.

A loaded .22 caliber semi-automatic weapon, eight daggers and a silencer.

Those are the items that Officer Edward Thompson and Officer John Sivori, both of the Ninth Precinct, discovered on a burglary suspect in the East Village early one morning in March.

The officers, who are also Marine veterans and have served in Iraq, were two of the 34 police officers who were recognized last night for their “outstanding service to the safety and well being of our community” at the annual Ninth Precinct Recognition Ceremony.   The Ninth Precinct Community Council, a volunteer organization focused on strengthening the relationship between the community and the police, put on the event, which highlighted specific instances in which officers had acted with exceptional bravery.

“Not a lot of people know what we do on a daily basis, and it’s nice for my guys to get the recognition,” said Sergeant Elias Miranda, who supervises the unit that includes Officers Sivori and Thompson.
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Jenn Pelly The bomb squad was called to the New York City Marble Cemetery this morning after a report of a suspicious package.

Jenn Pelly Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly (right) said that the explosives could not have gone off because there was no detonator.

A volunteer at an East Village cemetery discovered a stash of old military explosives this morning setting off a chain of events that brought out the police department’s bomb squad and jarred nerves around the neighborhood.

At a news conference near the cemetery this afternoon, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the explosives were potentially deadly but that there was no danger that they would go off because there was no detonator.

Commissioner Kelly said that the explosives – eight sticks of C4 – had originally been found last year by a caretaker at the New York City Marble Cemetery, on Second Street near First Avenue, who unearthed them and placed them next to a tree at the rear of the property.

“He placed the bag next to the tree,” Mr. Kelly said. “The bag stayed there up until yesterday.”

That’s when a volunteer at the cemetery found the explosives and asked the police to remove them.

In a separate incident, police officers also discovered two notes – a rambling note with religious overtones that was written on a sheet of paper and had been placed on a patrol car Sunday and another one written in chalk on the street in front of the cemetery that read, “I really hope one of you finds this.”

The authorities initially believed that there might be a link between the notes and the explosives but dismissed that possibility after investigating further and now believe that the incidents are unrelated.

“It would be difficult to tell when the chalk note was written,” Commissioner Kelly said. “We will look at cameras in the area to try to see if there’s any indication to who wrote that and when it was written.”

The authorities received a call about 10 a.m. this morning reporting that the package had been found in the cemetery on Second Street between First and Second Avenues. The cemetery, which is usually closed to the public, had been open during the weekend for the eighth annual Open House New York weekend.

The bomb squad was called to scene along with a police helicopter to search the area. Commissioner Kelly said that the police investigation is continuing and that the bomb squad would continue to search the cemetery for additional explosives.

State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, with constituents this summer, co-sponsored a recently enacted law that can help close troublesome nightspots.

There’s a new weapon to close down noisy and violent bars. At Tuesday’s Community Council meeting, Daniel L. Squadron, a Democratic state senator for the 25th District, which includes the East Village, discussed a new law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson just last month, designed to fight the very problems making life miserable for many locals. But for it to work, neighbors have to voice their complaints.

In an interview Wednesday, Senator Squadron told The Local East Village that with the Squadron/Schimminger Bill, signed into law on Aug. 15, the State Liquor Authority can revoke a liquor license from an establishment when police have referred six or more noise or disorder incidents to the authority within 60 days. Before the new law was enacted, liquor licenses could be revoked for repeated noise violations, but a police complaint was not considered evidence of a disturbance unless the liquor authority could show that the license holder was responsible.
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C.C. Glenn

Good morning, East Village.

More than 150 people attended Tuesday night’s Community Council meeting at the Ninth Precinct where the talk was all about the charged atmosphere outside some of the neighborhood’s nightclubs.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to our post by NYU Journalism’s Rachel Morgan, who reported that many residents who live near the Sin Sin Lounge – where Devin Thompson was fatally shot last month – say the nightclub is still a source of problems with noise and violence.

Asia Thompson, a sister of Mr. Thompson, attended last night’s meeting and told NYU Journalism’s Timothy J. Stenovec afterward that she hopes more can be done to improve security at nightclubs like Sin Sin.

“My reason for coming here tonight is so my brother’s death won’t be in vain,” Ms. Thompson told Mr. Stenovec. “He was a father, he was a brother. I just want this tragic incident not to happen again to somebody else’s loved one.”

The owners of Sin Sin, which is located on East Fifth Street near Second Avenue, said that since the shooting they have put new security measures in place, including the use of handheld metal detectors.

Still, Ms. Thompson said that she hoped more could be done in the future and she wondered why more wasn’t done sooner to improve security at the club.

“My brother would still be here today,” Ms. Thompson said. “Because there’s a lot of complaints going on, so how come those steps weren’t taken before this happened?”

Timothy J. Stenovec Makeba Thompson, 41, holds a photograph of her brother Devin Thompson who was fatally shot outside the Sin Sin Lounge Aug. 22.

It’s been a month since the slaying of Devin Thompson outside the Sin Sin Lounge, and speaker after speaker at the Ninth Precinct Community Council meeting tonight told the police that things aren’t getting any better.

Of the more than 150 people who attended the meeting – residents and business owners – at least 25 indicated they had come expressly to urge the police to act against continued problems with noise and fighting at Sin Sin, which is located on East Fifth Street near Second Avenue.

“They have carefully crafted a bar where anything goes,” said Bill Koehnlein, who is in his early sixties. He lives down the block from the nightclub. “They cater to people who aren’t from this neighborhood to do what they would never do in their own neighborhood.”
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Rachel Wise

Hello, East Village.

We wanted to let you know that the Ninth Precinct will be holding a Community Council meeting tonight at 7 at the Ninth Precinct station house, 321 East Fifth Street.

NYU Journalism’s Timothy J. Stenovec spoke with Jeremiah Shea, the president of the Community Council, who anticipates a large crowd because it is the first council meeting since June. Mr. Shea recommends that people arrive early to get seats.

Tonight’s meeting does not have an agenda – although such topics as last month’s shooting outside the Sin Sin Lounge are likely to be discussed. The Neighborhoodr blog posted a flier calling on members of the community to attend the meeting and rally around the issue of violence in the East Village.

The Community Council sessions offer those who attend a chance to speak during the public comment period. “It’s a community expressing their opinions, their problems,” Beth Neuman, the council’s first vice president, told Mr. Stenovec. “It’s a place for them to vent.”

In other neighborhood news, in case you missed it, here’s a link to our earlier post about Monday night’s meeting of the liquor authority committee for Community Board 3.

There are several stories about the East Village resident who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Canal Street. You can find them here and here.

And The Observer weighs in on the Sukkah City architecture competition up in Union Square. And here’s another image of it via Neighborhoodr.