According to the Times, there is a common link between many of the robbers and thieves that have recently wreaked havoc on the streets of New York City. And that link can be found on their heads.
“A curious phenomenon has emerged at the intersection of fashion, sports and crime: dozens of men and women who have robbed, beaten, stabbed and shot at their fellow New Yorkers have done so while wearing Yankees caps or clothing…. Yankees caps and clothing have dominated the crime blotter for so long, in so many parts of the city and in so many types of offenses, that it defies an easy explanation. Criminologists, sports marketing analysts, consumer psychologists and Yankees fans have developed their own theories, with some attributing the trend to the popularity of the caps among gangsta rappers and others wondering whether criminals are identifying with the team’s aura of money, power and success.”
According to the paper, in the past decade, more than 100 people who have been “suspects or persons of interest in connection with serious crimes” in the city were wearing Yankees garb at the time of the crimes. (For comparison’s sake, only about a dozen wore Mets gear.) Of course, as noted in the article, it sometimes seems like there’s no one in this city who isn’t wearing a Yankees cap, which makes the finding somewhat less exciting. But it’s hard to knock a Times article which devotes four paragraphs to discussing something called “The Jay-Z effect.”
Update: The Smoking Gun responds with a slideshow of 60 Yankee fan mugshots.
Crime Blotter Has a Regular: Yankees Caps [NYT]
