Caught on Camera..
 

Thug caught on camera beating 85-year-old Brooklyn woman

BY SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, August 18th 2008, 4:52 PM

Cops released video on Monday capturing a cruel punk's attack on an 85-year-old Brooklyn woman — and she's not his only victim.

The surveillance video shows the robber following Lilian France into the elevator of a Crown Heights building, stalking her into a hallway and then choking her from behind.

France waved her arms, desperately trying to throw off her attacker.
She was left panting on the floor as he ran off with $900 — and her cane, the video shows.

Police believe the cowardly thug has gone after nearly a dozen seniors in Crown Heights, Kensington and Flatbush during the last few months.

The robber — described as a man in his 20's or 30's sporting a "nice watch, baseball cap and white sneakers" — likes to follow his prey into their apartment lobbies to share an elevator ride, said police.

Then, "he approaches them from behind," said NYPD spokesman, Assistant Chief Michael Collins. "Either knocks them over or puts them in chokehold."

Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS, or text in their tips to 274637 and then enter TIP577.

There is a reward of up to $12,000 if he is captured.

Copyright 2008 New York Daily News

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Video of the attack ... here.

See, this is a case where police brutality would be just fine. Some people deserve cruel and unusual punishment.

as he ran off with $900 What was she doing carrying $900 in cash?

I think I have only carried that much money on hand maybe twice in my life!

I am not saying that she deserved this or that she was looking for trouble, but that is a hell of a lot of bills to be carrying on your person at one time!

Your attitude is a pet peeve of mine. If I carry $10,000 in cash on my person how the phuck is anyone going to know it unless the mug me????????????????????????????????

HOT BUTTON!

Ninja - this guys is suspected in like 10 other muggings. In each case, he followed an elderly woman home from the bank

he's waiting for people to go cash their monthly social security checks. My guess is that the $900 was supposed to last that woman through September.

No.

Like I said if you read my post, I never blamed the robbery on the $$.

But why in heavens name would an 85 year old woman be carrying that much cash around with her? (PS, I read your post Fazee... I talk about it later in the response here...)

It does not mean that she deserved what she got, or validated the attack in any way. But here's the catch. You think that saying that an old woman was carrying that much cash around with her will make it safer for them to walk around now?

They are already known as easy targets to these punks, telling the exact $ amount that was stolen, especially one so high, is not a very responsible thing to do.

And 195, if you are carrying $10K in cash around with you, you are not being very smart. It COULD be stolen from you. That is why most people say it is not a smart thing to do. There are safer ways to transport that amount of cash.

If there isn't, for someone like herself, then there has to be something done about it to make it unnecessary for her to be carrying that much with her.

I think some of these elderly people feel uncomfortable with banks and electronics. They would rather have the money under the mattress or rolled up in a soup can than in a bank. Hell, IndyBank did not exactly help things with that either!!!

How can we get these people to be more comfortable with a debt card? Haw can we make it so that pushing over an old lady will net you a cane and a wig, but nothing much else? How, aside from the obvious apprehension and "accidental mishandling" of a suspect can we discourage this immoral, but definitely easy money?

all valid points. They've already converted food stamps to a debit card - you think they'd be able to set up a similar system for social security (or maybe they have?)

My apologies, Ninja. I should have just passed this thead by.
When I was a kid, my parents hired a nanny to take care of us when they went away on trips. She was a very sweet lady. A few years after her last gig with us, we found out some thugs had robbed her and beaten her to a pulp.
Back then, the discussion of the incident took a similar path to this one.
The discussion of how much money she had on her always struck me as irrelevant, and unfair.

Steve

Understood 195.

That is why, if read right http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.png, my statement should be taken as kind of an aside.

The amount, while having no direct bearing on the attack itself, cannot be ignored as a motivator. It almost sounds like someone saying "I'll give you $20 to go beat up that old lady. How about $50? $100?".

What makes this enticing enough that guys liek this would do it? A few sickos would do it just for fun, but this smells different....

Anyway, the problem is twofold. How to catch the guy, and how to remove the motivating force so it becomes less of an issue to start with...

Unfortunately, many elderly people are just not comfortable with the concept of stored debit cards or electronic cash. These are the same folks who bring their savings books to the retail counter once a quarter to have the interest on their accounts updated, and refuse Direct Deposit for the Social Security Payments. They are not dumb, (and I an not suggesting you think the are) but they are a bit untrusting and they need to see and feel the paper. Remember, these folks lived through the Great Depression, and witnessed Bank Runs and Fails. Plus, they are not comfortable with technology. To many of them Cash is King.

It is really just that simple.

The woman was 85. Born in the 1920's. Credit cards, ATMs, pin numbers to remember, buttons to push with failing eye sight, bank statements with all those tiny numbers and details...

You use cash.

We all know that.

How can you get them to NOT use cash?

Cash is not a chicken or a goat in your hand. It is not a watch, or a table. It was a representitve item used to replace barter and standardize trade. It is, however, physical and that seems to be the key.

The thing is, we all know the problem. Saying "oh they won't use electronics" will not stop guys like this one from mugging them. You will always get that from time to time. The only way to truly stop crime in any one area or any one venue is to remove the motivation. Making it more difficult does not remove the potential, it just increases the resistance.

Removing the juice from the circuit removes almost any chance of something like this happening.

So, instead of saying "old people don't like banks", why don't we think of a possible alternative to cash? Would a card that has actual digital numbers on it be better? More visceral? Would mini-deposit cards, ones that could be used like cash but were really limited debt cards work better? How could we get a system in place that would ID the person that had these cards and allow them to make official transactions with them like they were cash?

Obviously, we would also have to keep some money in the mix, but pushing over an old lady for $100 is a lot less tempting than for $800.

Sounds like an ideal application of the scrotum razor hook with heating coils