Big Apple gets back to violent norm

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 10

Big Apple gets back to violent norm

NZPA-Reuter New York New York has come crashing back to reality. For four days as host of the biggest party in American history — a SUS 32 million ($59.84 million) celebration in honour of the Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday — nothing went wrong. A few pickpockets were arrested, a man was talked out of jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, and a man leapt from the George Washington Bridge and was rescued unhurt.

The city was as safe as houses, a one-in-the-life-time urban Disneyland where six million sightseers gathered, rode speedy, cleaned-up underground trains, ate 750,000 hot-dogs, drank two million sodas, watched the tall ships sail proudly up the Hudson River, and saw the Statue of Liberty’s torch relighted. Patriotism and good cheer were the order of the day. The party was over yesterday and there was trouble from one end of town to another.

A scaffold on the Upper East Side of Manhattan fell 14 stories, killing a construction worker.

A building collapsed on the Lower East Side, sending tonnes of masonry into the street. A truck on the Upper West Side hit a car, an empty school bus and several pedestrians, killing a man and a woman. But the worst event of the day was on a majestic Staten Island ferry as it glided past the Statue of Liberty with about 500 people aboard. A homeless, mentally ill Cuban refugee unwrapped a sword he had hidden in

newspapers and ran amok.

He stabbed 11 people, killing two of them before being subdued by a 65-year-old retired policeman who still carries his gun.

The former policeman, Edward del Pino, shot one bullet into the air and frightened the killer, who dived for cover under a seat.

Then Mr del Pino put his gun to the man’s head and warned him he would kill unless he pushed his sword away. The man, identified as Juan Gonzalez, did. As the day wore on, Gonzalez’s story emerged. He had entered a city shelter for the homeless in late June and then was expelled after he began hearing voices telling him to kill. He was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed as being deranged but let go. He was released, the police said, because he said he was feeling better and had agreed to outpatient treatment. On Monday he was taken off a Staten Island ferry for throwing stones at passengers. On Tuesday he was taken off and arrested for going on a murderous spree.

The May of New York, Mr Edward Koch, said he went to see the injured and one couple had told him they did not hold the city responsible because “it could have happened anywhere.” But it happened in New York, where for four days nothing happened but a good time.

New York was back to normal — which is not necessarily normal elsewhere.