19 CommentsAs reported by DNAinfo, a female Harlem resident was sexually assaulted in Morningside Park during the early evening this past Sunday. The incident happened around 6pm and police are currently interviewing witnesses. As Brad Taylor, a board member for the group Friends of Morningside Park observes, the attack “was alarming because it occurred while it was still light outside.”
The suspect is described as a black man in his 20s who is roughly 5’8″ tall, and was reported to be wearing jeans, a black skull cap, and a dark hooded sweatshirt at the time of the incident. The New York Post has a surveillance video of the perpetrator.
Bwog urges you all to be cautious as you travel about the city. Morningside Heights is a safe place, but as is true in any urban environment, it’s always necessary to keep an eye on your surroundings, especially when traveling alone. If you ever suspect danger, there are lots of options to protect yourself:
- If there is an immediate threat, call Public Safety at 212-854-5555, or the NYPD at 911
- Be familiar with the locations of the emergency call boxes
- If you feel unsafe walking, take the evening shuttle or call the escort service at 212-854-SAFE
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19 Comments
@Anonymous well i think it was a favore for money an after she did what she did to him the kid didnt have no money.An why wait until monday to report the crime an it happen sunday!! blank stare.
@Anonymous Suspect is 5′ 8”, black, and wore jeans and a dark hoodie? They’ll nab him in no time at all!
@Anonymous A teenager was shot in the park before sunset this summer. I continued to walk through the park every day to get to/from work on campus, and never felt unsafe about doing so. Just worn out from all those damn stairs.
I’m not saying it’s not horrifying that a woman got raped there in daylight, but in general, until it gets dark, there are parts of the park that are pretty well populated and overall pretty safe.
@Resources Rape Crisis/Anti-Violence Support Center: 212-854-HELP
Student Services for Gender Based and Sexual Misconduct: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/dpsa/
@Anonymous Things like this happen occasionally on even 110th and Broadway, but do you think twice about going to Rite-Aid after dusk? No.
Exercise caution anywhere you go. It’s a shame that things like this happen, but to assign certain areas as more or less dangerous isn’t the best solution.
@Seriously? Upper East Side, Compton, Beverly Hills, Baghdad….safe dif!
Are you afraid of hurting the areas’ feelings?
@Anonymous Not the area, but I would guess the, you know, large majority of law-abiding citizens that live there.
@CC'13 fuck, i have to walk though there all the time
@When will people learn Morningside Park is not a safe place at/after Dusk. So don’t go there alone around dusk. Especially as a woman. I’m a 6″4′ male and I wouldn’t go there alone at that time either.
@yes but after dusk is not an excuse for anyone to be raped either
@I don't think... The initial commenter was implying that.
@Anonymous yeah. the first commenter wasn’t implying that. You’re stupid. The moral of the first comment was: morningside park is dangerous, as such, you should do your best to avoid it.
Just so you know, I’m a pretty physically intimidating person and I can handle myself in a fight. And I never have and never will go into morningside park. Even in the day. It just isn’t worth it.
@CC'13 i think it was the “when will people learn” part of his comment. i don’t think that’s what he was implying either, but maybe not the best phrasing around a sensitive issue.
@wow srsly? you’ve never been into morningside park DURING THE DAY? yeesh.
@Anonymous Why would you never go there? Because there are…black people?
People at Columbia are way too scared of Harlem. Morningside Park is actually pretty nice, but you’ll never know unless you go there. If you want to stay in New York you’re going to have to get used to life in less homogenous neighborhoods…
@Anonymous as a person who has grown up in “dangerous” neighborhoods for most of my life (some of them way more “dangerous” than any of the two Harlems, which I actually think are pretty fine), I have been to Morningside Park like three times and I hate it. I don’t know what it is about that place but it gives me the creeps–the most sketchy-ass people always seem to be there (at least every time I’ve been there…and I know how to detect “sketchy-ass” people having lived where I’ve lived and having been assaulted several times…oh and yeah it has nothing to do with color). I just avoid that place altogether and honestly, I’d advise anyone else to, unless you’re with a large group of friends I guess. So much political correctness about a place that’s just a bunch of rocks and a few basketball courts smacks to me of white guilt. just sayin’
@CC'13 morningside park is beautiful-the sloping paths down, the stone walls with climbing ivy, the lake and the weeping willow, the flowers by 116th and morningside avenue, the parks that cut between the large rocks as you make your way up by 122nd. i love living by it.
@Anonymous I’m no longer in my room so my comment won’t track, but I’m the guy that avoids the park at all hours. I was born in Queens and I am ethnic minority. Don’t assume that I’m some bigoted person from a homogeneous neighborhood.
The fact of the matter is that there are places that you are more likely to be the victim of a crime and it is to your best interest to avoid those places. I avoid them not because I am a bigot but because I’d prefer not to potentially be in a situation.
@when will people learn That sexual assault is never the fault of the survivor? When will people learn that it doesn’t happen because someone was in a “dangerous” neighborhood, or because of their outfit? Is it a crime to be a woman walking in the city at night? A person here made the active decision to assault somebody–blame perpetrators for committing assault. Don’t blame the survivors.