In Brooklyn, a group of Asian American shopkeepers have filed a police report saying that they are being targeted by rowdy, unruly teenagers who have been repeatedly terrorizing their businesses.
Teens Terrorize Chinese-Owned Shops On Bay Parkway
In Bensonhurst, on a stretch of mostly Chinese-owned shops, a group of kids, ranging in ages from 13 to 17, have been antagonizing merchants and customers by shoplifting, pickpocketing, smoking in stores, throwing merchandise on the floor, and destroying property on a regular basis, nearly every day after school.
"They come in and grab everything they want three or four times a day," said May Lee, owner of the Chinese dry goods store SYJ Trading, told the Bensonhurst Bean. Some of the altercations have turned violent.
Storeowners told us police have been called many times, but either they don't show up, or they arrive after the kids have already bolted.
Occasionally, the altercations turn violent. Cheng Hua Yin, who owns a second-floor nail salon on Bay Parkway and 67th Street, said that he has had recurring problems with kids smoking marijuana at the entrance of his store and urinating on the stairs since last summer, but the police never showed up, so he stopped calling them.
Then, on April 19, when he went downstairs to shoo a small mob away, Yin said one youth cursed at him and punched him in the face, leaving him with a nasty bruise under his eye.
According to City Councilman Mark Trayger, the business owners have not said anything about any derogatory racial statements being made during these altercations, and police say they aren't treating the incidents as bias crimes. But all the shopkeepers are Asian, while all the kids are not.
I definitely wouldn't count out race as a factor in this shit.
Authorities say that have surveillance footage of the teens tagging a storefront with graffiti, but they have not yet been able to identify the vandals. Police say they plan on reaching out to local schools to see if they can track down any of the kids in question. Yes, please, catch these little assholes.
More here: Brooklyn Businesses: Unruly Teens Stealing, Harassing Customers Inside Shops