This is an email I sent to Community Board 1 on January 30th, 2009 regarding the stabbing incident that occurred in and in front of Biddy Early's on January 23rd, 2009 at approximately 2am EST:

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From: <name removed>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 5:29PM
To: cb1@cb1.org
Subject: Biddy Early's Complaint

To Whom It May Concern,

Biddy Early's (43 Murray Street) has become too rowdy and too dangerous and needs to be shut down. Multiple nights per week, there are dozens of underage drinkers loitering on the sidewalks, urinating and vomiting on doors, and often bar brawls break out and spill onto the streets. The drunken fights not only regularly generate noise that disrupts sleeping children and infants living at 50 Murray Street, but worse leaves all tenants vulnerable to being caught in the violence that has been regularly occurring throughout its existence.

On January 23rd, 2009, at approximately 2am, I watched in horror as a 30-person brawl spill onto Murray Street and two people were stabbed. Cops swarmed the block and cordoned it off with police ribbon as they went on a neighborhood manhunt for the perpetrators. Several dozen cops arrested the drunken brawlers and ambulances took away the victims of the stabbings. On one hand I was happy to hear that one of the victims (who I thought at the time had been killed) has survived and is in stable condition. On the other hand, the violence regularly occurring at Biddy Early's has gone way too far and must be stopped.

Please urgently use your power as representatives of our community to resolve this problem. The owners of Biddy Early's regularly advertise at Pace University. It is known as a destination where underage drinkers can go and order pitchers of beer and play "beer pong" until they are too drunk to stand. In addition, there have been health code violations, and tenants at 50 Murray Street regularly file complaints with the city via 311. These issues alone should be enough to shut them down. With the above incident having occurred, we ask that you immediately do what you can to stop the drunken violence from continuing to escalate, perhaps eventually resulting in not just serious injury, but in the death of a human being.

Our community is full of parents who choose to raise young children here because of the many parks, services, and excellent schools that are available in the neighborhood. The existence of Biddy Early's casts a dark cloud over it, serving as a regular source of stress, sleep deprivation, and anxiety. Worse, with last week’s incident, it has now become a threat to the safety of community members who are now more vulnerable than ever to injury or death if caught in the wrong Biddy Early’s bar brawl. Please make it stop.

Best Regards,

<name removed>
50 Murray Street
New York, NY 10007