In recent months, an old crime has started to reappear…on the border of Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant: a spate of muggings that has caught some in the neighborhood by surprise. People walking or biking alone have been attacked with punches, kicks — and in one case, a baseball bat — and then had their cellphones or purses stolen before they could recover…The 88th Precinct, which covers Clinton Hill, has recorded a 26 percent increase in robberies so far this year, from 99 in 2007 to 125, for the period ending on June 29.–NYT