It’s A Front Row Ticket To The Best Show On Earth

It’s more than just a job, it’s Randy Cohen come alive, where the NYPD conducts advanced experiments on human nature in the Sutphin Boulevard subway station:

The bait is a cheap handcart carrying groceries and $5 in a purse left on a subway platform.
Cops watch nearby, waiting for a would-be thief to snag the items.

It’s a crafty ploy that netted 14 people in its first setup two weeks ago. But while authorities crow that among those nabbed are many serial criminals — including one man previously busted 57 times — critics blast it as everything from entrapment to a costly example of wasted police manpower.

Officials said those busted in Operation Lucky Bag face raps of petit larceny and possession of stolen property, both misdemeanors. They already had a total of 146 prior busts on their criminal records, including grand larcenies, robberies and the attempted murder of a cop, authorities said.

One man, 39-year-old Keith Myers of Brooklyn, previously was arrested 57 times for crimes including bank robbery and grand larceny. He also has a pending drug rap against him.

When Myers was nabbed Feb. 16 outside a Jamaica subway station with his “loot,” he allegedly also was carrying hypodermic needles and spat in the face of the arresting cop, Lt. Gary Abrahall.

“It has been a very successful program,” said police spokesman Chief Michael Collins. “The type of people we find who commit the larceny of removing this bag we leave out are the type of people who are committing all kinds of crimes.”

. . .

One police source disgruntled with the program . . . blasted it a waste of manpower.

The source said there were 10 cops — one sergeant and nine officers — involved in the Jamaica sting that nailed Myers and no other perps during a three-hour surveillance.

This Is How You Repay Us?

Displaced Hurricane Katrina victims staying in Brooklyn deal dope out of their motel:

Two Hurricane Katrina victims living in a Brooklyn motel have been busted for dealing heroin, police sources said yesterday.

David Townsend, 27, and Nicole Smith, 31, were nabbed in their room Friday at the Golden Gate Motor Inn in Sheepshead Bay after cops were tipped that the two were dealing and sent a plainclothes officer who made a buy, according to the sources.

The couple moved to the motel soon after losing their home in the storm.

Red-State Revolution Nearly Complete

NASCAR is moving forward with plans to expand to Staten Island, Wal-Mart’s popularity is strong and getting stronger and Evangelical Christians are making inroads on the Upper East and Upper West Sides of Manhattan:

In the twilight of the biggest snowstorm in New York City’s history, the pews of a rented Baptist church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan were packed for the Rev. Timothy J. Keller’s fourth sermon of the day.

The 600 or so who braved the snow for the evening service got what they had come to expect — a compelling discourse by Dr. Keller, this time on Jesus’ healing of the paralytic, that quoted such varied sources as C. S. Lewis, The Village Voice and the George MacDonald fairy tale “The Princess and the Goblin.” It was the kind of cogent, literary sermon that has helped turn Dr. Keller, a former seminary professor whose only previous pulpit experience was at a small blue-collar church in rural Virginia, into the pastor many call Manhattan’s leading evangelist.

Over the last 16 years, Dr. Keller’s church, Redeemer Presbyterian, has swelled to 4,400 attendees, mostly young professionals and artists who do not fit the prototypical evangelical mold, spread out across four different services on Sundays.

. . .

The Rev. Stephen Um, whose church in Boston, Citylife, began four years ago and now attracts about 500 people every Sunday, said he and other pastors had embraced Dr. Keller’s emphasis on delving into the prevailing culture almost as much as into the biblical text. Along these lines, Dr. Um is just as likely to cite a postmodern philosopher like Richard Rorty or Michel Foucault in his sermons, as he is, say, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.

Arborcidal Maniac Speaks After Thousands Perish

The Post follows up over the weekend about the horticidal-arborcidal maniac now in custody — “Whacker Out of His Tree”:

“All trees and nests must die and be controlled!”

That’s what a kooky shrub-drubber said when cops grilled him on some $24,000 in damage he allegedly caused by breaking tree branches and upending bushes in Union Square Park.

“I did it!” David Sasson, 34, of East 14th Street, boasted when cops caught him Thursday morning, as he was allegedly continuing his three-week spree. “I’ve done this to thousands of trees!”

The alleged shrub schlub’s police statements were released yesterday, as a Manhattan judge ordered him to Bellevue.

Just Imagine What Would Have Happened If Saddam Had Attacked Us With It!

Even though it’s naturally occurring and accidental, it’s still dangerous:

The authorities widened their investigation into possible anthrax contamination yesterday to include an apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and medical officials were giving antibiotics to seven people who could have been exposed to the spores.

An eight-member team from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including two epidemiologists, along with F.B.I. agents, took samples yesterday from the Manhattan apartment of the man who had contracted anthrax, the Brooklyn warehouse where he used animal skins to make drums for his African dance troupe and a Dodge van that he is believed to have used to transport the skins, which are a suspected source of the bacteria. The results of the laboratory tests might not be available for several days, officials said.

The anthrax patient, Vado Diomande, 44, has been hospitalized in Pennsylvania since he collapsed after an African dance performance at Mansfield University on Feb. 16. He was in stable condition yesterday at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa. Officials believe he inhaled the anthrax while working with untreated animal hides brought over from Africa.

. . .

In Manhattan, the police sealed Mr. Diomande’s fifth-floor apartment in Greenwich Village, but other building residents were allowed to enter and leave. The authorities also sealed the Brooklyn building where Mr. Diomande worked, an eight-story warehouse at 2 Prince Street, near the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. While the building is mostly used as storage, it also contains several recording and art studios.

Investigators from the federal team — four industrial hygienists, two epidemiologists, one biologist and one laboratory scientist — collected samples from the apartment and the van, while F.B.I. agents took samples from the warehouse. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is analyzing the samples. A C.D.C. spokesman, Thomas W. Skinner, said officials expected to collect more samples today.

. . .

Officials continued trying to reach people who had contact recently with Mr. Diomande or the animal skins he had handled. They reached four of his associates on Wednesday and three more yesterday. One of the seven people taking antibiotics is Mr. Diomande’s wife, Lisa, who accompanied him to the musical performance on Feb. 16 and has been with him since.

A Crown Heights man who reported contact with the animal hides is being given preventive treatment along with his family, the city said in a flier distributed last night at the man’s building, 1100 Dean Street. Neither the man nor anyone in his family is ill, the notice said, but city and federal health officials cordoned off the building late last night. None of the seven people are believed to be at risk of contracting anthrax, Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that antibiotics were an appropriate cautionary measure.

Then there’s the understatement of the week:

“Obviously, the fact that anthrax got into the country and it got through Customs without being detected raises questions,” said Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “We will have to have an after-action report to find out what happened and what has to be changed in the future.”