Addressing the Situation

Last night, at the informal Common Council meeting, Chief Ed Moore of the Hudson Police Department spoke about the unsettling recent events in the city and HPD's response. 

He began by cataloging the specific incidents: an assault on a senior citizen by some juveniles in October; a home invasion at Hudson Terrace on November 29, also involving juveniles; shots fired in the street on the afternoon of December 2; shots fired in the street in the early morning of December 10. Three of these incidents have gotten a fair amount of media coverage; the first has not. The victim, whom Moore described as a "senior citizen," is a man in his early 60s. According to his deposition, here's what happened at about 8:40 p.m. on Friday, October 14, near the corner of Warren and Second streets. I have edited out names, descriptors, and some obscenities.

. . . I was walking down Warren Street on my way to Hudson Brewing with my friend. . . . As we approached 2nd Street, coming down Warren Street, on the odd side of the street, we encountered a group of kids blocking the sidewalk in front of the 2nd and Warren Store. As we got closer to the group I said "can you make a path so we can get through" in which the whole group made a path but then began to yell at us. The group began to make statements like "what do you think you're from the city and can do whatever you want?" "Who the fuck do you think you are, this is our town." [We] continued to walk down Warren Street on the 200 block, Approximately 10 or 11 of them began to follow us down the street, continuing to make statements towards us . . . in which I replied "You're the one with the problem . . . I grew up in this town" and pointed towards my house.

As I was pointing, one of the subjects . . . who was standing in front of me, punched me in the left side of my face with his right closed fist, causing me to fall to my knees. At that time, the rest of the group of kids . . . joined in and began to punch and kick me in the stomach and head. I then got up and walked out into the middle of Warren Street as the group continued to hit me, this was my attempt to get the group off me.

People in the area then noticed and I began to call 911. At that time the group of kids ran in all different directions.

Some of the kids involved in the assault later posted about their exploit on social media.

At the Council meeting last night, Moore said that the police have identified the juveniles involved in the assault and explained that juveniles cannot be arrested for "nonqualifying crimes" (it seems qualifying crimes are violent felonies), but HPD is moving forward with a civil action against them, working with the county attorney to address the charges in "Family Court, probation, or whatever." 

Regarding the incident that occurred at Hudson Terrace on November 29, Moore said they had identified the people involved in that incident as well--mostly minors but also some adults. 

Moore said that HPD had contacted local law enforcement and all had agreed to have some kind of roundtable or task force, to include representatives from the Hudson City School District, youth groups, and perhaps members of the Common Council, to sit down and identify some of the "hard cases" and "see if there are some kind of alternative approaches that we can use to address the problem." Moore said they were in the middle of setting up this roundtable when the two instances of shots fired occurred, on December 2 and December 10. He spoke then of more visible foot patrols in the area of the city below Third and north of Warren and the command post being established at Third and Columbia streets. He assured the Council that "every asset available will be used . . . to get to the bottom of this and prevent it from happening again." 

Responding to a question from Councilmember Theo Anthony (Fourth Ward) about the proposed roundtable or task force, Moore said, "We see our limitations within the current legal system to rein in certain behaviors so we wanted to take an approach that wasn't just what the police department could do." He acknowledged that the problem involved "only a small minority of our kids."

Commenting on the situation, Claire Cousin, county supervisor representing the First Ward, said she "puts the responsibility back on the City and the County, on how how we invest in our youth." She spoke specifically of a "lack of programs that catch all our youth."

The video recording of the meeting, available on YouTube, can be found here. The relevant part of Moore's report begins at 28:06.

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