Three-card monte scam artists return to midtown

NY Post ^ | December 26, 2014 | Philip Messing and Steve Cuozzo

[C19fan]

Is this Christmas 2014 — or 1974?

A stark reminder of New York City’s bad old days appeared on the streets of Manhattan Thursday , as three-card monte dealers turned out in force on Fifth Avenue.

An army of the shady gamblers — offering both crooked card and shell games — set up between West 53rd and 56th streets, fleecing Christmas tourists like hapless rubes in an old-time movie.

[C19fan]

Di Blasio in a just a year is reversing two decades of hard work by Giuliani/Bloomberg making NYC livable again. The libertarian politics, especially soft policing, of the Paulites might work in rural and suburban areas with lots of social capital but we are seeing what happens in a major urban area when the police let up.

[Paladin2]

Doesn’t one have to volunteer to be a Mark?

[cripplecreek]

Illegal gambling?

Exactly the sort of thing police shouldn’t be wasting time on and there is nothing libertarian about that sentiment.

[Doogle]

NEW YEARS EVE...along with the pick pockets...expected banner year this year

[b4its2late]

It’s only the beginning.

[TalBlack]

If this reappearance is a sudden new thing I’d guess that someone is trying to provoke something.

[9thLife]

Coming soon: bread lines!

[C19fan]

Stopping the three card monte and the squeegee men were hallmarks of the Broken Windows policing that worked. Yes the police should stop these little things in urban areas before they become big things.

[Herodes]

“Illegal gambling?”

“Exactly the sort of thing police shouldn’t be wasting time on and there is nothing libertarian about that sentiment.”

Great point Cripplecreek...why don’t we let the hucksters set up shop on your street? What’s good for the goose...

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Maybe we'll see the pimpmobiles of yore.

[Dr. Sivana]

That big Caddy has a measly six-banger under the hood?!

[mylife]

I thought Obama was in Hawaii?

[discostu]

Awesome. I’ll “play” monte, not to win, but because a good monte guy puts on a great show. I treat them like any other street entertainer.

[ClearCase_guy]

NYC is ready to party like it's 1977!!

[fieldmarshaldj]

Exactly, and those three-card monte “games” are nothing more than openly robbing tourists.

[.45 Long Colt]

Are the guys with briefcases full of knockoff watches still around?

[Rodamala]

Hey I’m going down to 42nd Street to take in a peep show. Anyone need a fake ID while I am there?

[cripplecreek]

Doesn’t one have to volunteer to be a Mark?

Yes but apparently a lot of people are really stupid or utterly lacking in self control so they need the government to smack their patties.

I blew $5 on 3 card monte in Detroit a few years ago. I knew I wasn't going to win so I considered it paying the guy to perform his act. He was no less honest than a casino aside from the fact that he wasn't paying taxes or protection money to a city council member.

[C19fan]

I was in NYC visiting the parents in early Dec and yes there are guys with the briefcases. The big business now is the illegal vendors selling the knock off hand bags. The women including my wife go crazy over them. We joke with friends that my wife bought a bag on Fifth Avenue...from a street vendor.

[Jim Noble]

Yes the police should stop these little things in urban areas before they become big things...Exactly the sort of thing police shouldn’t be wasting time on...

The greatness of Broken Windows policing (for NYC) was the realization that the minority population was composed of a modest number of criminals, and a very large number of non-criminals, that the distinction between "big criminals" and "petty criminals" was to some degree arbitrary, and that if you started sweeping up, interrogating, searching, and warrant checking all the squeegee men, dope smokers, three-card monte artists, and taggers that you would find a lot of people who you could send to Attica for 20+, making everybody a lot safer.

Wilson and Giuliani did not understand the familial and tribal relationships among the criminal and non-criminal people, and I don't know that Rudy ever "got" why blacks hated him for making their persons and property so much safer, but it is what it is.