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Crime in New York City                                         Written By Pak Ping Ng                                   1    2

Living in New York City, different people have different experiences and feelings

New York is a world famous and important city. It is a center of economic activity, a center of trade finance, and manufacturing in the world. People her find it easier to get a job to support their life. Many people in other countries of the world hope to come to live here. New York is a good city, a first choice for immigrants to live in, but like most big cities in the world there is a lot of crime her every day. Crime takes place at any time and any place. It is a serious problem to New Yorkers, especially to new immigrants.

We new immigrants easily become crime victims, because we are strange her and we cannot speak English. Most immigrants do not know what to do when a crime comes to them, and they never report the crime to the police. It is a serious mistake.

I have been in New York for over ten years and I was robbed five times. Most of them occurred when first came here. The crimes took place on the street, at work, in daytime, in nighttime-anywhere and anytime. Crime is difficult to prevent and it is a serious problem in my life. Today, I would like to write down my experiences of crimes. I hope this can give new immigrants to the U.S. some help, in order to make them know what to do for their safety.

When I first came to New York, one day my wife and I took our children to the hospital for a checkup. After the checkup, I waited in the hospital for medicine, while my fife took our children to play and wait for me the park next to the hospital. To help my children play on the slide, my wife put her handbag down on the ground. Just a moment later, a young man walked up to her. Suddenly he grabbed my wife’s bag and ran away quickly. The man’s action was so fast my wife was very scared. She did not know what to do. She just looked at the man run away. This was the first time a crime occurred to us.

The second time was a month later on a Sunday, when I was going to take a subway to work. I walked into the subway station and walked down the stairs into the hallway. Two men walked toward me, and when they were close to me and they saw that nobody else was there, one of them suddenly pushed me down and the other one took my wallet from my pocket. Then they ran away quickly. I could not see where they were when I stood up.

Another summer night at 12:30 AM, I was coming home from work by subway. When the subway arrived at the station near my house, I got off the train, left the subway station, and started to walk. After I walked two blocks, I saw two men standing on the corner. I wondered why they were still standing there so late at night. They must no be good men. When I was trying to think of how to protect myself, the two men suddenly rushed toward me. They tried to hold me down and take my possessions. With my umbrella (that day, the weather looked like rain and I had my umbrella with me), I struck the man who was holding me. Then I yelled for help. I ran away from the sidewalk into the street in order to make car drivers notice and help me. The two men saw what I had done and ran away. After the men ran away. I started to run home.

When I reached my house and tried to open the door, I saw that the men had been following me and were right behind me. Before I had a chance to open the door, they caught up with me. Again, I yelled for help. They started to hit me and I tried to fight back. While I was struggling with them, my neighbors fortunately heard my cry for help. Some of them immediately came to help me. When the men saw my neighbors, they tried to run away. One neighbor caught one of the men and held him down, but the other man ran away. Someone called the police and they came in five minutes. They arrested the man and sent me to the hospital.

Crime in  New York City: Part II                                                              Written By Pak Ping Ng                                          1    2

I was robbed three times in the first two years I was in New York City. It made me feel that New York is not a safe place for people to live. We lived with fear every day. I thought that I had to find a way to solve this problem. Some of my friends gave me advice. They wanted me to contact the police for help, so I started to look in the newspapers and contacted police for information about how to live safely. I also attended a police-residents’ meeting. The police officer taught us some ways to fight crime and explained the robbers’ thinking at the time they were committing a robbery. Robbers want to take people’s possessions and money, but they are afraid of being arrested by the police. The police officer told us to do the tings on the list below. Every day:

1.  Always pay good attention to the actions of strangers around you. 2.  Don't walk in an slley where nobdy else is walking. 3.  Don't walk on a street after midnight by yourself.

When the crime is happening:

1.  Try not to be nervous; keep calm. 2.  Look closely at the robber.  Put his picture in your brain. 3.  Yell for help at the apropriate time. 4.  Report the case to the police and help them to solve it.

I thought that the police guide was right. I got it and acted accordingly. The crime against me calmed down. Although I was stilled robbed twice, I didn’t lose anything

I am writing down my crime experiences because I hope it can give new immigrants some help in living safely. New immigrants are strangers here and they can’t speak English. When crimes occur, they don’t know how to deal with them and what to do about them, so they easily become crime victims. They live with fear and need help to live safely.

Safety is the most important thing for people. I think that our government should hire more police and should do their best to support safety. Also, all people should work hard with the police to fight crime together and make sure all people live peacefully.

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