NYC tells family of murdered woman they should have known public housing was dangerous

If a slumlord in the private sector got sued for not doing enough to keep his tenants safe after one of them — a college girl — got murdered, would it be a good idea to defend himself in this way?

“Hey, she should have known I’m a slumlord. What do you expect when you move into cheap housing?”

We aren’t arguing the merits of that defense; the merits may or may not be sound. But we’re pretty sure that a private landowner who tries that approach would get a heck of a lot more resistance than a government entity that, when sued for the same reasons, defends itself in exactly that fashion.

That’s what the City of New York is telling the family of Olivia Brown. Brown, a 23 year-old college student, was murdered at her East Harlem housing project in 2013, allegedly by a female vagrant who was able to access the property and “roam the grounds,” according to the New York Post, before randomly starting an argument with Brown.

The family is suing the city for not providing adequate security at a housing project that, they say, sorely needed it. But the city is asking the court to dismiss the case, because, at the end of the day, it’s the dead girl’s own fault.

From the Post:

… NYCHA [the New York City Housing Authority] says it couldn’t have prevented the tragedy.

“Such damages and injuries are attributable, in whole or in part, to the culpable conduct of the plaintiff’s decedent and/or third parties,” the agency’s lawyers wrote in response.

Crystal Brown also ripped Mayor [Bill] de Blasio, who, with other mayoral candidates, spent a night at the Lincoln Houses three days before the July 2013 shooting as part of a campaign stunt.

Brown, 51, said cops have since beefed up security, adding two police towers and installing security cameras in their building.

Strange to be putting up cameras and police towers after a murder — if, that is, the murder was unavoidable in the first place, as the city claims.

“I can’t believe they’re saying she’s responsible for her [own] murder,” Crystal Brown, Olivia’s mother, told the Post.

“Everybody has a right to be safe in their home. Why wasn’t my daughter safe? Because we’re poor and live in public housing?”

Regardless of the merits, those are damning-sounding, common sense-sounding words. Imagine what will happen when the Brown family’s attorneys take that same sentiment and run with it — straight at the city’s pocketbook.

Here’s hoping they argue that a private landlord couldn’t get away with the same defense the municipal government is trying to use.

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