Safeguarding the Five Towns, police say, ‘bother us’

Dealing with drugs, avoiding thefts around the holidays and securing the local synagogues and yeshivas, were some of topics that Insp. Joseph Barbieri, commanding officer of the 4th Precinct, discussed at the Nov. 20 Lawrence Association meeting at the Lawrence Yacht & Country Club.

“We care about the world, but we also care about the world that is Lawrence,” said Paris Popack, the Lawrence Association president, when she introduced Barbieri. “Globally we’re concerned with the threat of terrorism to our religious and public institutions, but locally we are concerned about out quality of life that includes such comparatively mundane but nevertheless significant issues for us. The car break-ins, graffiti and traffic enforcement.”

Barbieri noted that the 4th Precinct stretches from East Rockaway to Oceanside and includes all of the Five Towns, Atlantic Beach, Atlantic Beach Estates, Bay Park, Island Park, Lido, North Long Beach and Pt. Lookout.

He spoke on ways for people to protect themselves from accidents — lock up your personal guns — keep an eye on the medicine chest — and genuine advice that covers everything. “Call us for suspicious people,” he said. “There’s nothing worse than when people say they don’t want to bother us. Bother us.”

After speaking, Barbieri took questions, and unsurprisingly in this heavily populated Jewish community with many synagogues and several yeshivas, the Oct. 27 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed and six injured, including four police officers, was a topic of several questions.

Barbieri said that he, Administrative Supervisor Sergeant Charles Sollin and Problem Oriented Policing Officer John Zanni, who were both also in attendance, had been and will continue to meet with the administration of the Five Towns shuls and Jewish schools.

Susie Davis and Blanch Lerer, both Lawrence residents, cited their concern over the shooting as motivation for attending, as well as how to avoid robberies during the holiday season. “I know that this is a very difficult time with the shopping and the holidays,” said Davis. “[Thefts] are expected and people have to be wary of that.”