Top 10 Crime Stories of 2011

It was one of the toughest questions to answer in Fort Greene-Clinton Hill this year: "" 

According to the latest crime statistics from the 88th Precinct, crime across several categories is down so far this year from 2010, including murder (2 so far this year, down from 6 in 2010), burglaries (123, down from 179) and grand larcenies (435, down from 459).

At same time, rapes, robberies and felony assaults are up—though still markedly down from the "bad years" of the early to mid-1990s.

Though it might have been a mixed bag for public safety efforts in Fort Greene-Clinton Hill, for the victims of the crimes mentioned here, there's no doubt: 2011 was a very dangerous year.

Here are our top 10 crime stories:

10. . In May, fears of Big Brother collided with public safety concerns as the New York Police Department installed its "Eye in the Sky" surveillance camera at the corner of Washington Park and Myrtle Avenue near Fort Greene Houses.

9. . A school safety officer received a puncture wound to the hand in a Dec. 6 attack by a 14-year-old Career Development Student.  

8. . Residents and law enforcement went on high alert after investigators linked three attacks—two of which occurred near the Brooklyn Academy of Music—to a suspect described by police as a white man in his 30s and approximately 6-feet tall.

7. Novelist in daylight mugging in Fort Greene Park. Arthur Phillips, the Cobble Hill-based author of "Prague" and "The Tragedy of Arthur," became a high-profile victim of a series of Fort Greene Park muggings on Sept. 17.

6. . In the afternoon of Nov. 10, a man identified by police as Nelson Sanchez, 43, threw an unknown substance on an 85-year-old woman at Whitman Houses, severely burning her.

5. . It isn't often that the police come calling on reporters for help keeping Fort Greene-Clinton Hill residents safe. But that's exactly what happened in August, when the 88th Precinct circulated a special warning to iPhone and other mobile electronics users to keep their devices out of plain sight.

4. . In September, police arrested Darryl Meacham, 50, after he confessed to an Aug. 17 armed robbery at a CVS on Myrtle Avenue. Police also linked Meacham to a robbery of Who's Your Doggy? and to a Fort Greene smoke shop.

3. . A 21-year-old woman told police that while she was sleeping in her apartment around 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 24, she awoke to find a man choking her and threatening to stab her if she screamed.

2. . Some crimes just seem so senseless, so cruel, that it almost boggles the mind. This July 17 incident at Fort Greene Houses, where a teen's $5,000 custom-made wheelchair was stolen while he used the restroom, definitely falls into this category.

1. . A teenage girl threw her newborn baby boy into the trash chute at her building at Whitman Houses. A building maintenance worker later found the baby alive. The incident, which shocked even crime-weary residents of Whitman and Ingersoll Houses, prompted a citywide campaign to increase awareness of New York's Safe Surrender laws to protect newborn infants.