TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: New York City

  • Shooting victim sues craigslist

    Victim sues Craigslist, says shooter got gun through site:

    50-year-old Calvin Gibson of New York was shot by local resident lunatic, Jesus Ortiz, back in July. Luckily Mr. Gibson survived even though he was shot six times.

    Ortiz, who suffers from schizophrenia, confessed to police that he purchased the gun on craigslist. I’m going to assume that this was not what you would call a ‘legal’ purchase.

    So now Mr. Gibson is suing craigslist for $10 Million.

    “Defendant owed a duty to the public at large to monitor and supervise what may be bought and sold and by whom, with respect to its Internet ads,” attorney Paul Dalnoky wrote in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court.

    Wait a minute. According to craigslist their users flag ads for illegal sales and that it’s a bastion of users with good moral character. It was hard to type that without busting out into fits of laughter.

    craigslist had their usual response…

    Craiglist did not respond to a request for comment.

    Quelle surprise.

  • craiglist ‘date’ leads to murder

    ONLINE DATE WITH DEATH:

    24-year-old Daniel Brandtof New York City went to a Coney Island apartment to meet what he thought was going to be a woman he met on craigslist. Instead, Brandt was shot in the head and two men ran off. Brandt later died at the hospital.

    Police say they know who the suspects are and are awaiting search warrants.

    Thanks to Gothamist.

  • NY politician calls for craigslist crackdown

    Pol calls for Craigslist prostitution bust:

    A New York City politician has called on the NYPD to crack down on craigslist’s erotic services section. City Councilman Eric Gioia called a press conference yesterday likening craigslist to the wild west.

    What used to happen on seedy street corners and brothels has moved to the Internet,”

    Gioia and his staff conducted an investigation of the top 100 listings on the erotic services section for about three weeks and found that 85 percent of the ads seemed to be advertising illicit activities. The councilman said some of the ads used vague wording to offer paid sexual acts, such as “companionship” for “a generous donation.”

    “They’re pretty obvious,” Gioia said. “It’s high time that law enforcement in New York take a hard look at what’s happening.”

    The NYPD had no response and craigslist had their usual ‘we’re doing everything to help law enforcement except taking the erotic services section down’ excuse…

    A Craigslist spokeswoman said the site recently implemented new measures that reduced the number of erotic services ads by 80 percent, and other improvements have eliminated a high percentage of other objectionable content.

    “The misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is completely unacceptable to us and we are continuously devising new means of detecting and blocking such activity,” spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mailed statement.

    Again, if it was so unacceptable they’d do away with the section.

  • More Tarheel shenanigans in the Big Apple

    More Tarheel shenanigans in the Big Apple

    Craigslist pimp from Queens busted:

    Carlton “Privilege” Simons, 25, of Queens, and Shernett “Divine” Reevey, 24, of Charlotte, N.C., were convicted late Friday of luring the teenage student from her home with promises of money and introductions to rap celebrities.

    Once in New York, however, the 18-year-old woman was physically and verbally abused, forced to pose for provocative photographs later posted to Craigslist and to prostitute herself at hotels and at a “track,” or a location frequented by sex workers and their customers from Lexington to Park Avenue on 48th Street.

    Still think prostitution is a victimless crime?

  • Pimp MySpace…No really (Part II)

    Pimp MySpace…No really (Part II)

    Saved from pimp:

    Senate majority leader Joe Bruno’s missing granddaughter was found yesterday wandering the streets of Times Square with a self-declared pimp – who uses the Internet to entice young women into selling their bodies, police sources said.

    Rachel Bruno, a beautiful 20-year-old blond, ran away from her parents’ upstate home last week after meeting the married grifter, John Savage, on MySpace.com, the sources said.

    Images of half-naked women and piles of money decorate Savage’s MySpace page, which declares: “pimpin at its best.”

    “I believe that I’m the solution for those who r lost or need elevation to there situation,” Savage writes. “My name is Jazzo and my interests in myspace is to meet beautiful young women that want to travel and get down wit a playa.”

    Police were investigating if the admitted 30-year-old pimp had committed a crime relating to Rachel Bruno’s disappearance. He was arrested on an unrelated outstanding warrant.

    Cops found Bruno on W. 45th St. near Broadway shortly before 2 a.m.

    Savage – who lists his occupation as “entertainment” and his income as “$60,000 to $75,000” on MySpace – was idling nearby in a new SUV. The cops asked Bruno to call him and tell him to drive over. When he did, they grabbed him, sources said.

    “She was relieved to be home and scared to death and afraid she would be harmed,” the Republican added, before saying his granddaughter suffers from anorexia and “serious emotional problems” that affect her judgment.

    Savage was being held by cops on a probation violation. He has been on probation since pleading guilty to attempting to bribe Bronx cops, offering them $690 for information on prostitution sweeps in 2002.

    I was unable to find Savage’s MySpace at this time. Any help with that would be appreciated.