Queens sex workers, vendors protest NYPD’s Roosevelt Ave. crime crackdown

Sex workers and their supporters are pushing back against an industry crackdown along a stretch of Roosevelt Ave. in Queens, saying that the effort unfairly targets the communities’ most vulnerable members, including immigrants and transgender residents.
Instead of shelling out more money for heavy-handed police units, the city should be investing in community-based programs to support sex workers and street vendors, workers and advocates said.
“These so-called quality-of-life operations target sex workers, street vendors and migrant communities who live in this neighborhood,” said Maxima Rodas, a member of Make the Road New York’s Trans Immigrant project. “This is a racist and anti-immigrant attack on our communities.”
Chanting “No more raids, more resources,” sign-holding supporters lined a stretch of Roosevelt Ave. in Corona to protest the clampdown, which targets brothels, unlicensed vendors and other illegal businesses that have popped up in recent months.
The multi-agency Roosevelt Avenue Task Force launched last week hours after the NYPD raided a brothel at 95-45 Roosevelt Ave., where women were being sex trafficked, according to Mayor Adams. Another brothel was raided nearby a day before the rally.
Officials said the new push, staffed by members of the NYPD, FDNY, and departments of Health and Sanitation, will run through the end of the year, and will focus on Roosevelt Ave. from 74th St. to 111th St.
The neighborhoods affected include Corona, North Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said cops were working to rescue and support victims of sex trafficking, and would work with social service organizations, including the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) to provide safe housing.
But the community advocates said the push was nothing more than a smokescreen to divert attention from the mayor’s legal troubles. Adams is facing federal corruption charges, but has vowed to continue running the city while he and his lawyers prepare for his criminal trial.
“We are not going to be that distraction,” said Bianey Garcia, a Trans Immigrant Project organizer. “Many people in our community are doing sex work because they need to be able to pay for rent. They need to be able to do this as a form of survival. And it is terrible that our communities are being persecuted by State Police troopers as well as local police officers in New York State.”
Much of the crowd’s wrath was aimed at former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who joined business owners and some community leaders in the call for a police crackdown.
Demonstrators surrounded the disgraced pol, chanting in his face. They followed him along the street until he walked away from the gathering.
Monserrate was expelled from the state Senate in 2010 following a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction.