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You’ve been warned, New Yorkers. As the calendar lurches toward Halloween, it’s going to get scarier.
For perfectly sane women, living in Brooklyn has turned from a pleasant pastime into a recurring episode of “The Walking Dead.’’ Freaks and nutcases lurk around every corner. Watching. Waiting. Ready to feed.
A pal who lives in the heart of Park Slope tells me her life has devolved lately into a daymare in which she can’t walk out her front door without imagining eyes on her body. Creepy.
“I thought I was paranoid,” she said. “Then my neighbor told me she won’t go out without a can of Mace or a large dog.” She hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in months.
“The worst thing is the neck strain I’m getting from whipping my head around every time a man passes. I can’t stand it.’’
Panic and fear has ripped Park Slope, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace and surrounding nabes — for an incredible seven months.
Since March, at least 20 sexual attacks have slammed the Slope. One was a rape. Several were attempted rapes. And an escalating number of women have been subjected to unwanted episodes of groping that have left them feeling helpless. Tense. And frightened.
But despite a big increase in police presence, and last week’s capture of one admitted serial groper — a 26-year-old Mexican immigrant and married father — cops don’t seem close to ending the reign of terror.
“My patients are frantic. They’re afraid to walk out of their houses,” said Bonnie Eaker Weil, Ph.D., a Manhattan psychotherapist who treats patients in Brooklyn.
“They can’t afford cabs, and have to work overtime. Nobody feels safe anymore because of terrorism. Everyone worries about money. The only safe thing was going and coming from work and taking the kid to school. Now we don’t have safety anywhere.”
It will only increase.
Months of publicity, coupled with the seeming impotence of cops — who responded to the attacks by warning women not to wear short skirts — has emboldened bad guys. Over three days last week, three new attacks, not believed to be connected, rocked the area. Women believe sexual-predator copycats are coming out of the closet.
“The more scared women get, the more they’re interviewed on television, the more enticing it is to the bad guys,” said Weil. “It’s causing a contagion of all the weirdos to come out. As we get closer to Halloween, we’re going to see a lot more.”
What possesses a man to turn into an active perv?
“People who are angry or enraged at women, or see women as objects,” said Dr. Alan Hilfer, chief psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center, who admits he has little success treating patients who act compulsively on “urges.”
Adolfo Martinez, arrested last week for allegedly groping an 18-year-old Sunset Park woman, used the word “urges’’ to describe his need to touch women sexually.
“I do think the longer they get away with this stuff, the more chances they’ll take,” said Hilfer.
“It becomes a whole macho mentality with these guys. They say, ‘These police, they’re not catching me — let’s see if I can get away with a bit more.’ It seems to be escalating.”
We’re looking at a bona-fide crime wave. Even after the arrest of Martinez, police spokesman Paul Browne said, “There are enough differences in the descriptions of the suspects in other incidents for detectives to conclude that there are probably two or three other suspects.”
He was adamant that cops never blamed victims for the attacks. “It was simply pointed out that in looking for things in common among the incidents, most involved women who were wearing either skirts or dresses.”
Months after the first attack, we’re at square one.
“Detectives have gone door-to-door in the vicinity of the attacks to find any potential witnesses, and to obtain video from stores that might prove useful,” Browne said. “There’s a $12,000 reward.”
It’s not enough. Take no chances, Brooklynites.
With Halloween coming, stay off the streets or hang in groups. You don’t know who’s under that mask.
Pols only fanning the flames
Just whom do these morons think they represent?
The Occupy Wall Street insanity grew predictably violent Friday as the owners of Zuccotti Park, lately used as a bed and toilet, backed off plans to temporarily move protesters, remove their sleeping bags, and hose down the place. Mayor Bloomberg was livid.
He said elected officials deluged park owners Brookfield Office Properties with calls threatening the company to halt the cleaning — or they’d “make your life more difficult.’’
The mayor didn’t name names. But last week, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer demanded that the city negotiate an exit strategy with the urban terrorists. Christine Quinn urged publicly that protesters be allowed to stay. And Public Advocate Bill de Blasio stopped at the park to give aid and comfort to the derelicts.
It comes as no surprise that emboldened protesters stormed city streets Friday. There’s no stopping them now.
Thanks a lot.
A kiss, yes. But a rapist? Moi?
Dominique Strauss-Kahn just got a freebie.
French authorities last week dropped a rape inquiry into the ex-International Monetary Fund chief, accused of attacking writer Tristane Banon in 2003.
There is a punch line.
Had prosecutors charged DSK with attempted rape, he’d be screwed. But, they decided he may have merely sexually assaulted the lady. In Gay Paree, the statute of limitations on sex assault expired five years ago.
Strauss-Kahn admits he grabbed Banon and tried to kiss her. He also said he had “consensual’’ sex with a Manhattan maid who cried rape before charges were dropped.
His wife must be proud.
Poison ivy’s Rash of cash
It’s a wonder Columbia University has kept the Wall Street protesters from storming its gates.
The uptown campus last year made a staggering 24 percent (!) return on its investments, topping the Ivies, outpacing Wall Street, and making a mockery of my pitiful money-market account, where I’m lucky to earn less than .5 percent. Now Columbia’s endowment has bloated to $7.8 billion. Where does it all go?
True, Harvard has a richer endowment, at $32 billion, as does Yale, at $19.4 billion. But those universities give back to the middle class: Yale discounts tuition for families earning up to $200,000 a year. Harvard doesn’t take a dime from folks who bring in $60,000 or less.
I’ll make a deal, Columbia — share your stock tips, and I won’t tell anyone how rich you are.
Nude photos not suited for phone
The lessons of sextaholic Anthony Weiner didn’t take. Sumptuous Scarlett Johnansson is the latest starlet to have nude photos stolen from her computer and leaked on the Internet by a creepy hacker “addicted’’ to peeling back the bed sheets of the famous and gorgeous.
Protect yourself, people. If you must pose in the buff, take hard copies. Step away from the phone.