Posted on May 6, 2013

Postal Workers Too Scared to Deliver Mail in Crime-Ridden Brownsville, Brooklyn

Jennifer Bain and Michael Gartland, New York Post, May 5, 2013

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Postmen are too scared to deliver letters and packages to one of Brooklyn’s most crime-ravaged neighborhoods, a US Postal Service worker told The Post yesterday.

“The neighborhood is bad,” the worker said outside the Brownsville Station Post Office on Bristol Street. “I wouldn’t want to go into those buildings.”

Snail mail that goes undelivered finds its way back to the post office, where it can stew for several days until a carrier decides to deliver it — or residents are forced to come pick it up.

“Have you seen this neighborhood? It’s on the news every day,” the terrified employee said.

About 50 angry residents — organized by the neighborhood chapter of New York Communities for Change — gathered in front of the post office yesterday to protest the epidemic of late mail and parcels that never arrive.

Letter-starved residents acknowledged their nabe — rife with gang violence — is frightening but said that’s no excuse for them to miss out on their mail.

“The postal workers have a right to fear for their life,” said Quantanya White, 38, a home health-care worker. “It doesn’t give them the right not to deliver the mail. Just because this place is bad, you’re not going to deliver the mail?

“But I do understand why the mailmen feel fear. If I feel unsafe going into certain buildings, they must also.”

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