My View of the Village
By Roger Paradiso
NYU Plans to Scale Safety Measures, Logs Campus Crime in Annual Report
Credit: Kyra Reilley for the Washington Square News.
Excerpts reprinted from Washington Square News, October 14, 2026 by Rache Hu, Copy Editor
Campus safety officers said they aim to improve safety on campus alongside local law enforcement, following shooting, bomb and hazing threats within the last year. NYU reported fewer sexual assaults, liquor law violations and robberies on its Washington Square campus in 2025 — alongside an uptick of aggravated assault and gender-based violence, according to its latest Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
There were four rape cases last year, half the number reported in 2024, and eight fondling reports, down from 12 instances the year prior. Meanwhile, there were 46 aggravated assault cases in 2025 — contrasting 12 in 2024 and 14 in 2023 — and 40 of which NYU attributed to a “single act that involved bear spray.”
Proposal That Could Add Gates for Washington Square Park Advances
Excerpts reprinted from The Spirit, May 27, 2026 by Sarah Gassel, Washington Square Park
The proposal to implement an alternative closure design at Washington Square Park passed a full Community Board 2 vote on May 21.
CB2’s Parks and Waterfront Committee expressed its desire to consider options to replace the police barricades that are currently used to enforce the park’s curfew. The meeting drew citywide attention and controversy over the possibility of permanent gates.
Now, the discussion is advancing. The full CB2 voted to send a recommendation to the Parks Department to draw up alternative designs.
As CB2’s Parks and Waterfront Committee Chair Rich Caccappolo emphasized, this doesn’t automatically mean gates for Washington Square Park. A range of closures, whether it be a chain or rope, is being considered. Caccappolo said, “We’re just trying to get some options on the table.”
However, several members of the board and public were upset that gates were still one of those options. Though many in attendance opposed the idea of gates, there were some supporters.
The park is closed from midnight to 6 a.m. In 2021, the park began enforcing this curfew through the use of police barricades following mounting complaints of loud late-night gatherings and debris in the park.
Many say the barricades are unappealing and are ineffective. George Vellonakis, Washington Square Park administrator from 2017 to 2021, said ornate gates would be a better solution.
However, several disagreed and said that permanent gates would be a hostile architecture, which discourages groups of people, such as the youth and the homeless individuals.
“None of these addresses why people are in the park overnight,” said Georgia Silvera Seamans, the director of Washington Square Park Eco Projects. “Using a different type of gate infrastructure does not help solve the situation that people seem to be trying to solve. It just moves the problem somewhere else.”
The resolution passed….and though board members may have contrasting opinions of what the new closure should be, many would like to see the police barricades replaced.
A new design would have to be approved by the Landmarks Committee, as the park is in a historic district. Whatever type of gate the Parks Department eventually draws up, that proposal would have to go back before the full CB2 board.
Leonard Peltier: Paintings
By Reverend Billy Talen
Leonard Peltier on the multi-plex size Zoom screen at the 500-seat Quaker Meeting House. Photo: Reverend Billy.
After spending 50 years in prison for a crime many say he did not commit, Leonard Peltier’s paintings were on display at the Quaker Meeting House on October 4 where the artist joined via Zoom. The event was hosted by Reverend Billy Talen, Savitri D, and the Stop Shopping Choir, which sang a song to Peltier with the lyrics from his poem “The Eagle’s Cry.”
Peltier was speaking from his home on the Turtle Mountain Ojibwa nation, on the North Dakota/Canadian border. His son, Chauncey, and grandson, Cyrus, were in the Meeting House theater. They were joined by Holly Cook McCarrow, a central figure in persuading President Joe Biden to commute Peltier’s sentence.
Peltier is a Native American activist long associated with the American Indian Movement (AIM), whose case is one of the most disputed and politically charged in U.S. history. He was a political prisoner convicted in 1977 for the murder of two FBI agents who recklessly drove onto the Pine Ridge Reservation. This resulted in a gunfight between 250 law enforcement agents surrounding a small number of braves from AIM. Even the federal prosecutor stated (in a dramatic scene in the new Netflix film) that Peltier was innocent.
While in prison, Peltier became an inspiration to many and that continues today. On October 4, he was urging peaceful resolutions, appealing to Mother Earth, and possessed of a surprising sense of humor. It was an unforgettable afternoon for the 350 followers who assembled before this great American.
