Brooklyn Today for August 21, 2012
Good morning. Today is the 234th day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of August 21, 1901, reported on criminal activity on Warren and Congress streets near the Brooklyn waterfront. Gangs of unruly men “of the lowest type,” the article commented, congregated there for no reason but to steal from the several hundred sailors of the German-American Line, which docked nearby. Even the Eagle reporter was set upon by a group of homeless men who tried to rob him. “We got a keg of beer dat needs filling,” the paper quoted one of them as saying, “and you’re just de guy who’s going to do it.”
Well-known people who were born today include singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon (“Put a Little Love in Your Heart”), Kenny Rogers (“The Gambler”), actor-director-playwright Melvin Van Peebles (“Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death”) America On Line founder Steve Case and former football player Jim McMahon.
Today, Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and members of his staff will distribute school supplies to the chidlren of ComALERT clients at the Brooklyn Municipal Building. Established in 1999, ComALERT provides assistance and services for parolees returning to the community, including drug treatment, mental health counseling and GED training.