As the Lunar New Year approaches, officers from the 72nd and 66th Precincts in Sunset Park and Boro Park will again team up to provide extra patrols along commercial and nearby residential streets in order to ward off would-be robbers and burglars.
According to Captain James Grant of the 72nd Precinct, extra patrols will be deployed between Sixth and 10th Avenues and 48th and 61st Streets from around 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night, starting on Thursday, January 23 and tapering off on Sunday, February 2.
This year, the Lunar New Year falls on Friday, January 31. It is arguably the most important holiday for families of Chinese, Korean and other East Asian descent.
For the first 15 days, it is traditional for family and friends to visit one another and exchange food, and, for the children, gifts of money folded into red envelopes. Getting the money, of course, requires a trip to the bank.
The holiday season has often been a prime time for Asian American shoppers to be targeted while coming out of the bank or store with money and gifts.
Similar security efforts have been deployed in previous years. For the past three years, the 72nd Precinct and NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn South parked a Mobile Command Center near stores and banks at 55th Street and Eighth Avenue to provide crime prevention material and a physical deterrent to crime.
In 2008, community members had requested that previous commanding officer Deputy Inspector Raul Pintos do something to prevent the annual rash of holiday robberies. Now, Grant is continuing that tradition.
According to the Chinese calendar, this is the year 4711, the Year of the Horse. It is said to be a good year for patience, adaptability, careful planning in business and investment, some travel and caution regarding health.
People born in the Year of the Horse have birth years of 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966, 1954, 1942, 1930 and 1918.
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