These two 60-something men began beating each other with what seemed to be aluminum rods, while heckling crowds watched safely from the street corner. One man, clearly inebriated, knocks the other over behind a car and wails on him before dropping the pole and walking away. The crowds yelled homophobic abuse at him, but backed up as he came close to them.
He crossed the street in front of a moving vehicle, and then as he began frantically trying to open my trash-area fence, his face covered in blood, I stop filming to tell him to get away from my house. He opened the gates, grabbed two wine bottles from the recycle bin, and stomped down the street in the direction the other man had retreated.
The police were called during the fight, and the two were picked up by EMTs in front of the Housing Authority Police Station at Central and Forrest.
Tony Torres July 28th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
HA! Absolutely nothing has changed in Bushwick. The bum fights and the coquito woman pushing her cart down Central Avenue. These were summer time staples when I was a kid. By the way Jeremy, looks like that storefront across the street is still vacant. It’s been over a year now. No takers?
Jeremy Sapienza July 28th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Well they finally did rent the corner to a new bodega which is clean and while not yet well-stocked, the owners are extremely nice. As opposed to the toxic dump Willy’s across the corner, staffed by assholes and caked in filth. The other storefront we hear mgiht be a laundromat, which, whatever, the co-op board is clueless. Around the corner is rumored to be a Montessori school.
andrei July 29th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
WTF? Kudos to the guy in blue for withstanding such a beating and then getting up to chase his attacker away – pretty disturbing…
chillinoncentral July 29th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
On the bright side, at least neither had a knife or other weapon more dangerous than an aluminum rod. Nice video-preparedness! =]