Sirens blare and a slow heartbeat pounds. A projection screen on stage flashes an all-too-familiar and unsettling scene: a steady downpour descends on a makeshift memorial of cardboard boxes housing flickering candles and damp letters. This is the cold aftermath of violence that begins “Ain’t Easy.”

If crime is news in the Bronx, then there is news in North Fordham – or Sector George as police call it – every day and every night, even if network news cameras aren’t there to record it. In their place, 24-hour surveillance cameras in many area apartment buildings continuously document the criminal activity in real time.

Just before 11 a.m. last Thursday, a man passed a note to a female bank teller at a local bank on the corner of Kingsbridge Road and Jerome Avenue. Police said they immediately suspected an inside job. They were right.

Two weekends ago, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Nov. 3, a man walked out of the pizzeria underneath the Woodlawn 4 train station and bumped into three teenagers, all of them Hispanic. After a brief argument, one of the teenagers shot the man in the lower back. It was the first shooting in the Five-Two in three weeks.

A 31-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach last week at the corner of Bainbridge and Van Cortlandt avenues. The victim was taken to Montefiore Medical Center with less than fatal injuries.

Marcus Nunez, 25, of the Soundview section of the Bronx, confessed to burglarizing the Aqueduct Avenue apartment and police linked him to 15 other burglaries in the borough. One cop at the 52nd Precinct called Nunez, "A bad guy, a real bad guy,”

After taking a hard look at the city’s explanation of the massive cost overruns for the Croton Water Treatment plant being built in Van Cortlandt Park in the northwest Bronx, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz says the numbers simply don’t add up.

Congressman Jose Serrano of the Bronx and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez urged President Bush to send aid for those hit hardest by Tropical Storm Noel. The joint letter points to the devastating loss of life and property in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Meanwhile, local Bronx leaders are doing their best to help out.

Bronx Congressman Jose Serrano voted against the proposed free trade agreement with Peru last week. Traditionally, Democrats have mostly opposed free trade agreements, but this time they were split over the issue.