A couple of weeks ago, two brothers walking down Valentine Avenue, near East 194th Street, were viciously attacked by a handful of unknown assailants. Both siblings suffered serious stab wounds. One required some stitches in his back and remains in the hospital, police say.

Crime statistics remain down overall in the 52nd Precinct (Norwood, Bedford Park, University Heights and North Fordham), including a significant drop in murders and shootings. But this violent incident, in a perennial high-crime area, is a reminder that the precinct’s hotspots are resilient and don’t always jibe with precinctwide statistics.

Gauging crime in specific precinct sectors isn’t possible without a statistical breakdown, which the NYPD won’t willingly provide. Precinct officials said the Norwood News would have to file a Freedom of Informational Law (FOIL) request for the information. The request is pending.

But there’s no mistaking the precinctwide numbers, which are much better than the boroughwide figures.

Boroughwide, crime is up; murders (up 8.1 percent, from 98 last year to 106 this year), rapes (up 11.1 percent, from 243 last year to 270 this year), and robberies (up 6 percent, from 3,539 last year to 3,754 this year) have all increased.

But in the 52nd Precinct, murders fell by nearly half (11 last year, to six this year), rapes by 7.6 percent (26 last year, to 24 this year), and robberies by 5.8 percent (428 last year, to 403 this year). Shootings have also dropped from 29 at this point last year, to 20 so far in 2008.

“We’re actually doing better than any other precinct in the borough,” said Lieutenant Charles Hammer of the 52nd Precinct.

As for persistent crime in local hotpots, without a neighborhood breakdown, the only indication is anecdotal evidence wearily provided by community leaders or individual incidents cited by police.  

In sector D (police divide the precinct into sectors for statistical purposes), a hotspot that includes the area north of Fordham Road between the Grand Concourse and Jerome Avenue, two young men were shot on Oct. 5. Both are expected to survive.

Sector D also includes St. James Park where local residents say the prostitution trade is bustling. One local mother, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said prostitution had slowed earlier this year, but was back in full force. Both young women and men hang out on the streets surrounding the park at all hours of the night looking for johns, she said.

“It’s been going on since my son was in elementary school, and he’s now a junior in high school,” she said.

Community Board 7 District Manager Fernando Tirado said his office has received several complaints about prostitution at St. James. “Some of these girls, people are telling me, are 12 or 13 years old,” he said.

Monsignor John Jenik, an outspoken critic of the NYPD and the pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Church, which is in the middle of Sector G (north of Fordham, between Webster and the Grand Concourse), said that crime is as bad as it’s ever been in his area. He said his congregation is full of victims.

Several people in the area, which is where the brutal stabbing of two weeks ago, occurred, acknowledged its violent history, but said they didn’t notice it getting any worse, or better.  

Hammer acknowledged the troubles in Sector G and said police try to keep extra patrol cars in the area. Still, he said, it’s hard to say which sector is the most crime-ridden because it tends to move like a defensive boxer.

“We hit them in one spot and they move on,” Hammer said.

Tirado gets the monthly sector breakdowns. He was directed by the NYPD not to give out the stats to the public, but he did offer some analysis from looking at them.

“If you look at [sectors] D and G together, that’s where the vast majority of our crime is happening,” Tirado said. He added that the area around Williamsbridge Oval Park, in Norwood, is showing up as another hotspot.

“We have to do something to increase our presence in and around our parks,” he said.

With the city’s economy faltering and valuable programs in danger of being cut, some are anticipating an increase in crime and gang activity.

Don Bluestone, who runs the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in Norwood, the biggest youth center in the area, said this past summer was one of the quietest he’s seen in years. But lately, he’s noticed an increase in gang-related activity and worries that if critical programs are cut, it will leave more kids on the street.

Tirado agrees.

“Just from a historical perspective, crime tends to go up when economic times are bad,” he said. “But there should be an attempt to help the kids. We need to do our part to keep them off the streets.”