Northeast corner of Second Avenue and East 42nd Street showing Jimmy Breslin co-naming sign. Inset: Wanted for shoving an interviewer. (
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With the advent of social media and other advances in technology, nearly everyone can be a reporter. While this was also true of the days of pen and notepad, and maybe a portable tape recorder, there remained the question of where to publish: newspaper, magazine, mimeograph, pamphlet?
A not yet fully explained incident that seems to involve a journalist, documentarian, or maybe an internet “content creator” somewhere between the two, showed up recently.
Whatever the case may be (cops are at present withholding information about the victim), the incident took place in a near perfect location for crime and journalism to meet. Details are as follows:
It was reported to the police that on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at approximately 9:30 a.m., a 45-year-old female victim was standing near the northeast corner of Second Avenue and East 42nd Street when an unidentified individual she was interviewing forcibly grabbed her microphone out of her hand, causing minor pain to her right shoulder.
The unidentified individual then fled on foot in an unknown direction to parts unknown. The victim did sustain a minor injury but was not hospitalized as a result.
While the police properly consider this incident to have occurred within the confines of the 17th Precinct, it’s worth noting this corner has two co-namings: Pix Plaza, in honor of the Pix 11 News Building on the corner, and Jimmy Breslin Way, honoring the great, often pugnacious journalist and truth teller (most of the time), who died in March 2017 at the age of 88. Born and raised in Queens, Breslin spent his last decades living on Central Park West with his wife, Ronnie Eldridge, and their combined families.
That May, the temporary co-naming ceremony was held here, the location having been chosen for its proximity to the Daily News building at 220 E. 42nd St., where Breslin did much of his best-known work. The Daily News itself reported the event with an ironic headline the tireless reporter himself surely would have appreciated: “De Blasio honors journalism legend Jimmy Breslin with street-naming ceremony, then refuses questions from press.“
Council Member Keith Powers subsequently sponsored a bill making the name change permanent. In October 2018, Our Town reported this landmark event in the psychogeography of Manhattan with a story headlined “The Breslinization of East 42nd Street.”
“Even when you were mad at him, you still went out and bought the paper,” said former Daily News columnist Denis Hamill at the unveiling ceremony. “You had to get your fix of Breslin in the morning.”
“No one—no one!—ever had a louder voice than my father,” said James Breslin, his namesake son.
The suspect in this most anti-Breslinesque crime is described as a male, likely Asian, with a light complexion, black hair, and eyeglasses. He was last seen wearing an American flag bandanna around his neck and a multicolored short-sleeve shirt.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.