Photo credit: Sara Pekow
Eric Umansky, a deputy managing editor of ProPublica who lives in the neighborhood, is reaching out to the Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens community for information related to an incident on Halloween night that involved a group of teens from Red Hook. The teens were followed and then swarmed by uniformed and undercover cops, taken to the 76th Precinct in handcuffs, before being released without charges.
Umanksy wrote to us:
'On Halloween night, my family saw police converge on a group of black teenage boys in Cobble Hill. My wife saw an unmarked NYPD car going the wrong way hit one of the boys. The police say that didn’t happen. They say, “An unknown male who had fled the scene ran across the hood of a stationary police car.”
'On Halloween night, my family saw police converge on a group of black teenage boys in Cobble Hill. My wife saw an unmarked NYPD car going the wrong way hit one of the boys. The police say that didn’t happen. They say, “An unknown male who had fled the scene ran across the hood of a stationary police car.”
Three other boys— age 12, 14, and 15—were then arrested. Police said they fit the description of people who had punched someone and stolen a cellphone.

I am eager to find out more. I can be reached via Messenger, 917-687-8406, or eric.umansky@propublica.org. I'm happy to not use names.'
The incident was witnessed by quite a few people. Apparently, the officers of the 76th Precinct were investigating the theft of a cell phone from another teenager in Carroll Park earlier in the evening.
There have been a few such robberies in the park since the beginning of the year that we know of, including this one in May. This, in no way seems to justify the over-the-top response from the 76th Precinct on Halloween night.
If you witnessed the incident, please reach out to Eric.
Read more
.JPG)
