Gerritsen Beach seems about as far from our part of the world as it’s possible to go — and still be part of New York City. You can’t get there on a subway, but that’s true of many neighborhoods. There’s a volunteer fire department — I have no idea how unusual that is, but it seems odd. But what gets me is this story, from the blog GerritsenBeach.net, about teenaged hooligans locking patrons in a laundromat that’s owned by a Chinese woman; they do this “at least once a day” for the fun of winding her up. NYPD does not appear to be much of a presence in Gerritsen Beach.

Reading a spate of recent blog entries, however, we came across nothing to do with Tim Stellon’s story about Daniel Cavanaugh, the man behind the blog, and the trouble that he’s in with neighbors who would prefer that the larger world continue to ignore goings-on in their enclave.

At 8:48 the next morning, he posted “No Police Response Despite Massive Damage by Local Teens.” It included more than a dozen photos of the offending youths, along with images of public Facebook profiles. Status updates described pelting the police and breaking bus windows.

Two days later, when the property owners’ association held its monthly meeting, the audience railed against Mr. Cavanagh.

In a video of that meeting posted on the blog Sheepshead Bites, Renee Sior-Cullen — whose son had been shown on Mr. Cavanagh’s blog — said the boy was just a 12-year-old trying to impress his older brothers. Ms. Sior-Cullen also charged that what Mr. Cavanagh did with her son’s Facebook posts was criminal.

“It is illegal for a grown man to take a minor’s post and copy it and repost it,” said Ms. Sior-Cullen, who did not respond to requests for an interview.

Ms Sior-Cullen is worthy of Melissa Leo’s Alice, in The Fighter.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 6:00 pm.