Police crack down on East Village nightlife

Police are cracking down on unruly people in the East Village, and some in the neighborhood say this couldn't come soon enough.

The NYPD is set to deploy between eight and 10 new officers to patrol the nightlife scene within the Ninth Precinct, covering the East Village and parts of the Lower East Side, after complaints from the community about bar-goers causing chaos late at night, DNAinfo.com reported.

"It's been a long time since cops on the beat have been present in the East Village," said Celia Bressack, 53, who lives at Third Avenue and Avenue A. "There are lots of kids getting drunk and getting rowdy; it seems like there's no grown-ups around."

"It's a very good idea . . . all kinds of things go on down here under the wire," said John Arthur Windsor, 71, of the East Village. "They have the wrong elements circulating around here."

The announcement came at a Ninth Precinct Community Council meeting, where Capt. John Cappelmann said police would be on late-night shifts to handle crime and quality-of-life issues related to bars and nightclubs.

Complaints from area businesses and residents about the nightlife scene are not new, and many residents turned out for the meeting to plead with the NYPD to do something about the unruly crowds that flood the streets at night.

"I'm definitely aware of the issues here," Cappelmann told DNAinfo. "It's not something you can fix overnight."

Paul Purvine, manager of V Bar at First Avenue and St. Marks Place, welcomes the increased police presence because his customers are sometimes "accosted" by rowdy bar-goers.

"There are drunks running around here and big loudmouths," he said of the neighborhood, adding that it's good that the police patrols will start after midnight because "those are the hours we have troublemakers."

Still, for some locals, the rowdiness is just part of living there.

"It's the East Village," said Evan Fable, 36. "Nightlife is a major component of [its] character. I'd be disappointed if that were shut down."

The NYPD didn't return requests for comment.