Metro

Rage with the machine: NYPD and Occupy Wall Street stop Red Hook crime

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(Kirby Desmarais)

A surprising alliance of cops and activists in Red Hook pulverized crime and saved lives in the weeks after Superstorm Sandy devastated the waterfront Brooklyn neighborhood.

In the first two weeks after Sandy, residents in Red Hook didn’t have power or electricity — but they didn’t have to worry about lootings at their businesses, being mugged for their smartphones, or an attack by a sexual predator in the darkness of the blackout.

Despite desperate conditions in the Red Hook housing development and residences nearby, there was virtually no crime — and no storm-related deaths. Other neighborhoods like Breezy Point and Coney Island haven’t been as lucky.

Police sources have credited the drop in crime to an unlikely coalition that included the NYPD, Occupy Wall Street activists, and local nonprofits working together to keep storm victims safe.

“This crisis allowed us all to remove the politics and differences we had to do our job, and come to the aid of the people,” said a police source yesterday. “We all rose to the occasion.”

In Coffey Park, cops worked with Occupiers who set up tents to distribute food, clothes and medicine– and happily went home at the end of the day, rather than camping out. The NYPD blanketed Red Hook with cops, using their patrol cars to light up the powerless neighborhood at night.

“You could not walk down Van Brunt street for five minutes or less without seeing a squad car pass you with its lights on,” said Jerry Armer, president of the 76th precinct community council, at its meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Bloomberg got a glimpse of the fruits of the reconstruction efforts in Red Hook today, when he toured Red Hook, visiting Fairway and a cafe, where he met with small businesses and nonprofit leaders. It was his second visit to the neighborhood since the storm.

Kirby Desmaris, 26, an Occupy Wall Street activist and resident, said Red Hook has felt safer after the storm– and that she’d had the surprising experience of working in the same room with the mayor’s office, the NYPD, and the National Guard.

“It was intense, it was working, and it was awesome,” Desmaris, a volunteer coordinator for the Red Hook Coalition, said. “There was a shift in the energy in the community.”

Resident Patricia Ramirez, 50, said she was happy that the neighborhood had been spared the looting that other neighbors have faced. “It’s sad that it takes something horrendous to bring us together,” she said. “Maybe Sandy stirred up the goodness in people.”

A police source said would-be criminals were deterred by the high number of Good Samaritans in the area, as well as the increased cop presence.

“We had all these potential people who could call 911, in a heartbeat,” said the source. “All the volunteers were potential witnesses.”

Additional reporting by David Seifman