Third shooting in a week at Albany bars


Categories: News
Steve Barnes

52 Responses

  1. Josho says:

    Wait, Dick Cheney goes to the Royal India bar? I’m so there!

  2. Lboy says:

    It’s about time. I kept wondering why there was never much in the way of shotgun violence in Albany.
    It’s nice to see people incorporating fresh new ideas in gun violence.

  3. RobertR says:

    #2, But if going to go all out and carry a shotgun, why load it with bird shot?

  4. uncle joe says:

    just had another shooting. could it be community habit..albany gun violence task force have reviewed this issue for over one year and made recommendations.

  5. Speshulk99 says:

    Charleton Heston would’ve been proud. Whats up with all of these guns???

  6. jim says:

    Albany is getting bad, to many street punks, it seems to me the Mayor has lost control

  7. George says:

    #6, Very well said. seems like Albany needs a change in that department. Mr. Jennings hasn’t done enough to curb the gun violence.

  8. Hope for the Best says:

    Albany has become an unsafe place to live. Just last week, a letter carrier and others were peppered by BB’s by a couple of teen punks. It could as easily have been by a shotgun. I used to like living in Albany, but the street crime has become such that I no longer do.

  9. Not PC but true says:

    Oh, for all you bleeding hearts, these are both 99.5% Afro American bars, AKA black bars. Now let the swarm of ( that doesn’t mean anything begin). How long do these blk bars or hip hop clubs,(the ones) mostly patroned by the bros and sistas stay open before the shots ring out. I can’t think of too many open in Albany, can you. Lets bring back Sneaky Petes maybe they can succeed at giving it a try, OH WAIT…….nevermind

  10. eddie s says:

    Mmmmm, we have hundreds of “Anti Gun” Laws on the Books.. Almost every Politican who has run for Office in the last 30 years has promised to do away with this Gun violence. The Police keep asking for more Laws and Restrictions…..Obviously no one is really paying any attention to the laws nor the Poltiicans nor the Police, because in reality they cannot do a dang thing about it and they know it,,so what do they do,,they go after the Gun Sellers and the Gun Manufacturers AS IF they are the cause… I believe any number of things would resolve these issues…#1. Make it mandatory that every one own a gun, since in towns and cities not controlled by the Demoncrats and their accompanying baggage, gun ownership is at an all time high and crime is down in those Municipalities even with the high unemployment. #2. Have the Police train people in the proper use of firearms. #3. Back in the in 50’s, 60,s and into the Mid 70’s Forbes Rifle and Pistol Club used to train the Public in how to properly use Firearms. Albany High and most of the High Schools had Shooting Teams who competed against each other. I still have the Times Useless clippings to prove it. #4. Jobs, when you drive away all the jobs and have a large population whose only job is to drink, smoke dope, and rob other people you have gun problems, you know, professional non-producers and Albany has some that go back 5 generations. If you put them to work, their too tired at night to go out and get drunk and shoot up the City. #5. Albany, aside from Government Jobs, is a Bar town, keep em dumb, drunk or stoned and they’ll vote for ya..So maybe Albany just has too many Bars to attract the College crowd and not enough “Family Orientated” businesses that attract families.. The Saint Patrick Day dabaucery on Pearl Street is a perfect example of what is wrong with Albany. It is surely not a family event and so only benefits a few Bar owners.

  11. DC says:

    Don’t you dare mention the Cops or the Mayor didn’t you see how tough they were during the Tent Cleanup, awsome display of authority.

  12. RobertR says:

    #9, And the flip side of that coin is. School shootings,well respected university coaches,family massacres are almost always… Oh never mind.

    Point a finger if you need too. But its all senseless.

  13. Lboy says:

    Laws are great to keep guns out of my hands. Because I follow said laws. There is no one that follows the laws that govern the Community Gun behind dunkin donuts though.

  14. Sysonby says:

    The shootings are not being committed by legal gun owners with registered guns. They are not taking place in or around college bars either. There was another shooting at or near Central and Quail since the one mentioned above. These are not college kids with guns they are local thugs and if any of them was a better shot we’d have a couple of “extra” murders added to the toal for 2011.

    Sorry but there are predominently 2 types of crime in Albany, thug on thug crime or incidents where the thugs venture forth out of their own neighborhoods and prey on either drunk college kids or average middle class city residents.

    Sorry, I don’t care how poor you are, if a parent doesn’t instill in their children the sense of empathy for the potential suffering of others and allow to grow the sense that because you feel “wronged” somehow that you are entitled to shoot someone they are raising an animal not a human being. I know plenty of people who grew up on welfare, in single parent homes, in orphanages and homes where no English was spoken and yet they have managed to improve their lot in life because they were raised with values that involved education, hard work and not turning to gun violence as soon as they were offended. It can be done.

  15. williepitt says:

    eddie s (#10), at great pain to myself I’m refraining from commenting on your screed (or the errors therein), except to suggest that the best words to describe it may be your own: “dumb, drunk or stoned”.

  16. Madmartigan says:

    According to Omar Little, getting a little shotgun blast once in a while is “all in the game”.

  17. jerry says:

    Sysonby – Very well said and absolutely spot on !!!

  18. Huh? says:

    Maybe we should let the cops be cops and do some work, we have tied there hands with
    touchy feel-y rules, let them everytime the cops touch someone, all the bleeding hearts
    cry about police brutality and how mean they were to the “nice church going boys” Everyone wants safe streets but have no ideas how to make them safer. How about
    re instilling a fear and RESPECT for the authorities.

  19. Sysonby says:

    Since the Royal India shooting there was one at Central and Quail and according to the TU’s home page another shooting has taken place in Albany tonight, Monday 12/26. I guess the victims can just be thankful that the local thugs are not very good shots.

  20. Greenguy says:

    To that end “huh” why not just follow your logic to its appropriate end and call for a complete police state in Albany?

  21. G says:

    #9 – Besides grandmothers in Alabama, who still says ‘Afro American’ haha Secondly, you’ll be hard pressed to find ANY bar in Albany that doesn’t play at least some hip hop, whether there’s a DJ or a juke box. You can’t blame the type of music people listen to, to crime…that’s dumb.

    #14 – Exactly.

  22. jeff says:

    just read in the times union , albany man shot 3x in chest on southern blvd, the city it seems now has at least one shooting a day , that we know of ,, its bad

  23. Fred says:

    Most guns used in crimes are bought illegally so guns laws will do nothing.
    This is NOT a black or white issue-(remember the St. Pats day crime committed by mostly white students). It is a thug issue usually combined with heavy alcohol use. Ask yourself this-would you want to have your son or daughter be a Albany Police Officer and send them off to work everyday?

  24. elmer says:

    Fred, what does the Kegs and Eggs incident have to do with shootings?

  25. Fred says:

    elmer–they both involved alcohol usage

  26. Resident says:

    Whoever says this isnt a Black issue is just incorrect, you dont see any white kids running around shooting off rounds at each other. Albany is horrible and ghetto for the most part. Sucks to have roots here.

  27. elmer says:

    And your source of info for that is what, Fred?

    As for the APD question, there is little doubt the shooting around here thug on thug. They aren’t shooting cops or anyone else.

  28. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:

    95% of these “shootings” are by young black men. PERIOD. You wanna yell, “racist,” knock yourself out. It’s the undeniable truth, and people wonder why places like Sneaky Pete’s gets turned away by the city?!

    Stop playing the race card and take responsibility for the actions of your young men. Their behavior is a disgrace to YOUR race. Do something about it.

  29. John Wells says:

    Guns/gun laws have nothing to do with a bunch of SUNY knuckleheads geting drunk and acting like idiots on St. Patricks Day.

  30. thinker says:

    Logically speaking, if you say this is a “black” problem you are totally incorrect because that would mean all black people are shooting each other, and we know that is not the case (this would be like saying all Italians are in the Mafia). However, one is equally incorrect to say that the culprits in Albany shootings are not usually black – they are, but these “thugs” represent a very small subgroup of the black population in the city.

    There is no easy way to solve a problem like this; one can’t over-generalize and monitor the activities of all black people in Albany, because the simple fact is that the majority of blacks are innocent law abiding citizens and this would be a tremendous waste of resources (not to mention an infringement of civil liberties). Yet at the same time, one can’t ignore hard facts regarding the distinct racial characteristics that most offenders of these types of crime share and pretend that it doesn’t exist. You take all the data and make logical determinations – which areas of town shootings are happening, what the shooters usually look like – based on facts, without prejudices and without sugar-coating things to avoid hurting the feelings of any particular group of people.

    I don’t have the answer of how to end shootings and other violent crimes in our city, but I think the first step is to identify the complexities of the problem.

  31. RobertR says:

    %28 No need to yell as its pretty apparent. Curious though to your thoughts when we hear on the news practically weekly. “But it was a family friend babysitting” or “Shooter kills five then himself” etc.etc. Do you yell them white people need to take responsibility for their children?

  32. Josho says:

    @#10: “1. Make it mandatory that every one own a gun…”


  33. Greenguy says:

    The majority of drug users are white; the majority of people locked up for drug crimes are black.

    When drunk white people beat each other up after drinking, it is the alcohol that is blamed; when drunk blacks beat each other up, it is their race that is blamed.

    When white people steal from supermarkets after Katrina they are trying to survive; when blacks do it they are “looting.”

    This isn’t something that is only common to the United States – go over to Europe and they’ll blame the Roma (“gypsies”) for similar types of behavior, ignoring the consistent poverty, discrimination, and inequality that both lead to these scenarios and the bias towards these groups covered up by the sociological assumptions they make. How we perceive the actions of groups is based on our own prejudices and biases, and the clearly racist poster on this site has done no reflection on this at all, nor do I think they want to do so.

  34. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:

    No problem Robert. Let’s compare the incidents. You gather all the instances you described, that occured in the city of Albany, and I’ll get the ones (I may need a few friends to assist with that much workload) involving black men and shootings in our fair city.

    It’ll be 20:1 in my favor. Open the Times Union everyday and you see the same stories all the time. So sad.

    Your need to point out whites gun issues had you scope the entire country, and your 20/20 episodes you watch weekly. Let’s focus on where WE live and do step one: ADMIT THE PROBLEM! Educate your youth, and don’t let them run wild. It ALL starts in the home….

  35. Buck Peterman says:

    Right on # 31. White people kill their entire family and themselves with “the family gun”, while black people shoot each other on the street, one at a time. While in Delmar, white people kill with axes.

  36. RobertR says:

    #34, Oh, so your going to point out more shootings in poverty stricken neighborhoods? Do you think I’m not aware of that? But of course you do realize your answer was irrelevant to my question.

    I’ll try again. Was race a factor with Christopher Porco? How about the upstanding deacon John J. Dennehey? Then we have Rory Poulin, you think it matters to his girlfriend what color he is. How about the stabbing of Latoya Ebron? Oh dear, was that a white girl who did such a thing? Just a few because you wished to stay local.

    Now if you wish to broaden your horizons and look at the big picture. How about Virgina Tech, Columbine, Charles Carl Roberts,Jared Lee Loughner,Robert Chambers,Jeffrey Dahmer,David Berkowitz etc etc. If you don’t see color when hearing of those examples above then why in the inner city? Got to call it as I see it. If your not asking where were the parents of those above and only those crimes committed in the inner city then its racist.

    And I’ll be honest. I don’t condone violence of any kind as I seen my share to last a lifetime. But compare the opportunities given to such in life like Robert Chambers to those offered to a kid in the inner city? It may not be an excuse for violence but its one hell of a better argument for ones actions.

  37. Sysonby says:

    Its not race, it’s culture.

    I used to work at a job where I worked with new employees. I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell new hires that “Yo!” is not how our customers preferred to be greeted or that saying “thank you” for doing business with us was a generally accepted mode of interaction. Sorry to say but many of the black newbies actaully told me that they hated “acting white” or that they felt like “servants” when using the common coutesy of saying please or thank you. Not that the problem was all about race, but it was an issue. That said I had plenty of white trainees who simply had no idea how to interact with our clients or even the basics of manners. I’m no Emily Post but telling a long term client to f-off is not the way to keep a job and I saw it happen.
    That was 25 years ago and the kids that are out shooting each other are their kids. They have simply no idea that guns and knives are not the solution to anything that annoys them.

  38. RobertR says:

    One more thing.. Actually your response is very common and not rare at all. Go to Yahoo news and find the story of the accidental shooting of the baby in his fathers arms in Oakland, CA. Then read the comments below. I won’t even go there and repeat them as it turns my stomach. Now compare that story with one where some caucasian man goes on a shooting rampage. Most of the comments refer to something like..Oh, in this economy he just must have snapped with no reference to race!

    Greenguy above surely got it right. Can’t agree more.

  39. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:

    Greenguy: You said, “when black people beat each other up….” that had me laughing. Blacks don’t fight, they stab, or shoot each other. If they had any guts they would use their hands to settle disputes, but they’ve been hiding behind weapons for decades now.

    Buck: one crazy sick white kid in 20 years, equals the DAILY high end violence committed by your people? Keep living in denial fellas, and keep blaming WHITEY. It’s all his fault. Can’t blame these violent kids that never grew up a father I guess, can ya?

  40. Josho says:

    76% of serial killers are American, and 80% of serial killers are Caucasian.

  41. williepitt says:

    RobertR (#36), not to mention Steve Raucci’s father in Schenectady who gunned down his ex-wife and 4-year-old child. Raucci? Real black name, right?

  42. Resident says:

    Greenguy if you have ever seen a group of Roma people than you would understand how bad they are…. as a Greek American with family overseas I have seen them in action many times they are scum who travel in packs and force their children on clueless tourists to make a buck.Would you return to a vacation spot if the last time you came you saw homeless people with accordians on every corner. Go read some sappy article from the New york times that says all white people treat every race like crap and cry me a river. The funny thing is white people are now the minority in Albany and its just going to get worse. You think all those for sale signs are for people who are looking to make a lateral move to a different street in town. Sooner than later “ghetto albany” aka north of central ave is going to spill over into pine hills and than nobody will get conned into moving here, houses will go vacant, taxes wont be collected, and more people will complain about how we are posting that everything is black peoples fault.

  43. G says:

    I’m not sure why race is even brought up…I mean, regardless of who commits the crime, the problem is still the illegal guns and children being raised like animals.

    People aren’t going anywhere, not Blacks, not Whites, not Latinos, not Asians…no race or ethnicity is just going to vanish, so if that’s your solution to crime, as one person said earlier, knock yourself out. The problem is way deeper than race…but if that’s all you can see, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.

    With all that said, I still feel very safe in (sm)Albany…day and night.

  44. RobertR says:

    #39, And there flies any chance of a serious conversation and exploring the facts. Ignorance and reality are like water and oil.

  45. elmer says:

    Good points Sysonby.

  46. THAT Bob says:

    Rudy did it in NYC. if the city crime can be drastically reduced, Smalbany should be a breeze. We need REPUBLICAN and CONSERVATIVE leadership.

  47. thinker says:

    Bottom line: put a white kid in a ghetto and give him the same upbringing and he’s got EXACTLY the same chance of being a criminal. THAT is how you know it’s not a race thing. If you have half a brain there is absolutely no argument against that.

    @”pointing fingers” – I’m sure you don’t realize it, but unless you’ve never looked in a mirror your brilliant screen name means that the blame should also be pointed at YOU hahaaaaa. Right on hahaha

  48. Fred says:

    I think , at least relevant to this blog, lets bring it back to food and dining..that being..How safe do you feel to frequent Albany’ dining and bars, especially late at night. I think its fair to say that lately the perception of crime being higher is relevant, and that will affect the local restaurants and bars.

  49. williepitt says:

    Fred (#48), it’s irrelevant for many of us, including me. Maybe it should be irrelevant for more.

    I feel no danger in Albany when I dine, which is seldom later (at its end) than 8:00. Anyone who wants to be out in the disorderly areas, “late at night”, assumes a certain amount of risk. The same is true anywhere.

  50. Fred says:

    #49, If its irrelevant , than shouldn’t we rename this “Steve’s Crime Blog”

  51. start pointing fingers in the mirror! says:

    40—how does that solve the DAILY shootings by young black men in the City of Albany? Stop reaching for psychos from Wisconsin, and try to make it like it’s a “human” problem. We’re talking ALBANY.

    Blacks make up such a small percentage (15-17%) of our population, but commit 75% of the major crimes?

  52. G says:

    Table Hopping Confidential.