FORT GREENE — An emergency meeting has been called to deal with after-school fighting in Fort Greene.
It follows an Oct. 9 fight outside Baguetteaboudit Bakery on Vanderbilt Avenue, near DeKalb Avenue, where more than 25 youths "began a terrifying brawl while local business leaders tried desperately to intervene," community advocate and former District Leader Renee Collymore wrote in a flier advertising the event.
This fight also comes in the wake of one that involved dozens of youths outside the nearby Barclays Center last month and an organized "fight club" outside Atlantic Center Mall in which dozens of kids gather for daytime brawls organized on social media.
Somebody fired a gun at one of the recent gatherings, according to police and residents.
The meeting will take place on Nov. 19 at P.S. 20 Clinton Hill. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Council Member Laurie Cumbo are expected to attend.
Baguetteaboudit owner Keith Goldberg described the recent fight as "out of control" and said that there have been an increasing number of incidents on the blocks near his shop.
Ronald Edmonds Learning Center (M.S. 113) and The Urban Assembly Academy of Arts & Letters are both located in nearby blocks.
"Something has been brewing around here," he said. "But this fight was different. There were about 30 kids punching and kicking each other in a fight that spilled into the street and onto the other side."
Collymore, who also witnessed the fight, said it was not the only one and there needs to be a real conversation on how to keep the neighborhood safe.
"The fighting is escalating and it has to stop," she said.
Both Collymore and Goldberg said the police were called on Oct. 5 and did not show up. The commanding officer of the 88th Precinct said he would look into the incident.
The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at 225 Adelphi St. in Fort Greene.
