5 men crap out
Brooklyn cops bust dice game, then find gun
Five men found playing dice and passing a bottle of Patron tequila on a Brooklyn street are all facing gun possession charges after cops found a pistol within the gamblers’ reach, police said Saturday.
Police from the 83rd Precinct were credited with the gun arrest — the second the five officers had made within 24 hours, according to officials.
Sgt. James Welbert and his team of plainclothed cops were patroling Bushwick when they spotted the dice game on Menahan St. near Central Ave. at about 9 p.m. Friday, officials said.
They were about to give the five men tickets for the dice game and the open container of alcohol — until they found the.40-caliber pistol.
“Nobody fessed up to the gun, but one did admit to playing the game and drinking,” a police source said.
The dice game arrest came as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is fine tuning a letter to the City Council about its plan to decriminalize quality-of-life violations like urinating in the street, turnstile jumping, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk and drinking on the street.
The plan could lead to an overhaul in the city’s “broken windows” policing strategy by turning these criminal violations into civil charges.
The letter will be sent to the City Council on Monday, Bratton said.
“It will be a statement of our position,” he said of the letter. “The line in the sand for us is that we need to maintain the ability if necessary to make an arrest. . . to keep the nature of the issue in the criminal realm so we have the ability to stop, ask for identification and check for warrants.”
If the Council gets its way, violators of these quality-of-life crimes would receive a ticket to one of the city’s administrative courts, such as the Environmental Control Board, instead of criminal court. Cops could no longer make arrests for those offenses or, in some cases, ask for identification.
Critics argue the broken windows policing model unfairly targets blacks and Latinos — they received roughly 81% of the summonses issued since 2001.
About six hours after arresting the gambling quintet, the 83rd Precinct team arrested a man and two others threatening people with a gun on Wilson Ave. near Palmetto St.