BY THE VILLAGE SUN | The young woman who plunged to her death from an East Village rooftop party early Saturday morning has been identified as Cameron Perrelli, 24. She worked in banking.
As The Village Sun previously reported she lived on Delancey St. According to the Daily News, she grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut, and always had a love for New York City, and had just started her career at an investment bank. She graduated from the University of Florida.
Perrelli was at a rooftop party at 202 Avenue A, the Topanga, between 12th and 13th Sts., early Saturday when she fell down an airshaft just after 3 a.m. She was extricated from the narrow space by Emergency Service Unit police officers and declared dead shortly afterward at Bellevue Hospital.
According to EV Grieve, rents at the Topanga — which opened last year after a gut renovation and expansion, complete with a stylish new rooftop party deck — start at $12,000 a month.
Local politicians and neighbors held a press conference in front of the building Sunday morning, calling for greater oversight and enforcement on rooftops. Councilmember Carlina Rivera has two pieces of legislation that she says will help address the ongoing problem of overcrowded elevated parties. Neighbors said dangerously jam-packed and noisy rooftop bashes have been plaguing the neighborhood since well before the pandemic.
Sidebar comment. P.C. Shea: Relieve the C.O. of the 9th.
In the early 1980s I called the 9th Precinct one afternoon to report that Willie, one of the local dealers on my block, was dancing around in the middle of the street wearing nothing but tighty whities and his glasses and waving a loaded .45, threatening to kill anyone who crossed his path. (Luckily, in those days there wasn’t much foot traffic when the sun was up, so no one died.) I sat on my fire escape and waited for the cops to show — they never even sent a squad car to check it out. Feels like olden times.
I have contacted the 9th Precinct directly, and 311 directly to report the rooftop parties starting last year, and now this year.
Last week the desk sergeant at the 9th Precinct told me they have no jurisdiction to go up on roofs… and screamed at me…saying they can’t do anything about it.
Earlier efforts to get some help directly from the precinct resulted in them telling me they would get there as soon as they can, with the caveat being a timeframe of up to 8 hours.
When I called 311, they actually told me to call 911. I was incredulous…and told them so.
After arguing with 311 for 15 minutes, I did call 911. The only thing they asked me was if I saw a gun.
Last week at an outdoor cafe, an angry, somewhat deranged man came up to us. He was yelling at the waiters, then us. He said he had a gun, and taunted us about calling the police. My friend did call the police, but they never showed up…even though we told them about the gun.
In the wake of George Floyd and the criticism of the police department, the Blue Wall has gone up. The police are no longer protecting anyone.
I have come to suspect that the police are ignoring us intentionally, as a way to manipulate the voters to vote in a law-and-order candidate. It’s working. We have Adams and Garcia up there in the polls.
(Not to say that the police were ever very responsive to quality of life issues.)
All of that said, however, wouldn’t the FDNY be the more appropriate responder to a 911 call respecting roof parties?
Hi Lora,
Sadly, I believe you’re exactly right and you can thank the PBA for these tactics.
While their influence is waning (please note the dearth of candidates seeking or accepting PBA endorsements) they still have too many adherents in the rank and file.
I would like to think the average voter or citizen could see through this farce but I ain’t counting on it. I know far too well how scare tactics are such successful prime motivators in elections (think Trump, Giuliani, etc) so I’m beginning to despair that the forces of evil will prevail.
There are a number of good plans out there to right-size our police force and their bloated budgets. Maya’s is the best plan out there in that she proposes a $1 billion funding redirection which would free up cops to specifically deal with solving crime and allow other professionals to deal with mental health issues; provide housing; provide jobs; provide alternatives to our youth and to petty crime offenders. The current ‘known’ budget for the NYPD is north of $10 billion and our 37,000 member police force makes them equivalent to the 7th largest army in the world.
Think about the cost-benefit ratio – for all that money, for all that force, far less than 50% of crimes are solved and a very tiny percentage of crimes are prevented.
The right plan would turn that around and actually benefit good police officers in many ways. But when you look at all the private interests involved (including the NY Daily & NY Post, which thrive on crime reporting) we should realize what an uphill battle lies before us.
But don’t despair. Vote! And spend as many waking moments as you have available to help elect the candidates who will turn this around.
We simply cannot let them win — again!
Thank you kindly