Democracy In Albany

This is an opportunity for the people of West Hill and all those who care about them and their community to empower themselves. This is their chance to demonstrate that a society that once had so little use for snitches has even less tolerance for inadvertent killers.

The alternative is unspeakable -- mourn one child and prepare to mourn others. Watch a night of gunfire on First Street lead to more like it. Watch a child's death become a neighborhood's death.

"We never had any complaints about issues at all until that situation the other night," Jennings said, referring to the robbery.

Yet the clubs' existence was widely known.

"City, county and state agencies were notified of the conditions and operations of the club after the attention they drew," said Raymond F. Joyce, a county legislator whose district includes that neighborhood. "Whatever operation they claimed to run at the premise was lowering the quality of life and posed serious safety concerns for area residents.

Chief James W. Tuffey declared no laws were being broken unless the "house" at North Allen Street was profiting from the gambling unfolding there. He said his department knew about the club but never launched an investigation.

Neighbors of the North Allen Street club said their pleas for help from police went unheeded.

One of the residents Joyce spoke with was a woman who lives nearby and said she has witnessed several disturbances. She asked not to be identified in this story because of concerns of retribution from club patrons.

Another Buchanan Street resident said he called police three times in the past two months because cars from club patrons were parked illegally on the east side of Buchanan Street. Thursday and Sunday were the big nights, he said.

"Sunday afternoons this street is a mess," said the man, a longtime city resident who asked not to be identified. "You can't even get in your driveway. I've called the cops. ... They came one time and ticketed one car."

The man said a police officer had told him he could not ticket the illegally parked cars because the city's "no parking" signs were installed on each end of the block but not in the middle, near the club.

"I'm glad this (robbery) happened," the man said, "because they're violating the law and the city wasn't doing nothing about it."

It was a daring heist. Four gunmen filed in silently under the faded maroon awning over the back door of a former Japanese restaurant on North Allen Street.

Dozens of poker players carrying wads of cash, some with expensive jewelry, paid little mind to the interlopers in hooded sweat shirts pulled tight to their faces.

They kept their eyes straight ahead as they filed downstairs to the basement card room. When the guns came out -- and the gamblers were ordered to empty their pockets -- the so-called secret of the Azzurri social club was exposed.