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Thursday, September 5, 2024

Merchants on infamous NYC block overrun with crooks, hookers begs for help

 Enough is enough.

Fed-up Queens merchants on Thursday made a desperate plea for help as migrant hookers and unlicensed peddlers have turned a once-thriving stretch of Roosevelt Avenue into a lawless nightmare.

“It just continues to get worse and it seems like there’s no end in sight,” community activist Ramses Frias said during a press conference on the strip.

The number of sex workers roaming Roosevelt Avenue in Queens has doubled in the past two months, locals said.NYPJ
Migrant merchants have continued to peddle stolen goods without a license on Roosevelt Avenue, despite NYPD raids.NYPJ

“The residents are frustrated. Everyone is tired of what’s happening here and we’re coming together with business owners to let you see that this has to end immediately,” Frias said. “We cannot continue to have this trend, and what’s happening here, happening every single day.”

As they spoke, illegal vendors set up shop across the street to peddle stolen goods while dozens of sex workers roamed the sidewalks — in plain sight of city kids returning to local schools.

“We try to serve the community,” Victory Pharmacy owner Mireya Gutierrez told reporters. “That’s our goal all the time, but we have been stopped by all these immigrants.

“I’m not against them,” she added. “I was an immigrant myself. But the problem is that they covered the whole sidewalk. They covered my entrance and nobody can get in. Every single day we have to come and talk to them and tell them, ‘Please move over. Why are you doing this?'”

The Post blew the whistle on the chaos on the strip in April, reporting on rampant prostitution, thievery and illegal vendors who drive customers away from legit businesses who are now under siege.

The Post first blew the whistle on the lawlessness on Roosevelt Avenue in April, and followed up with this July report.
Roosevelt Avenue retailers say migrants are selling items stolen from their shops right outside their doors.NYPJ

Locals and merchants said the number of hookers along Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst has doubled in the past two months alone, while shoplifters have become more brazen.

Stolen goods — everything from shoes to toys to power tools — are peddled at a discount on sidewalks, steps from the stores where they were stolen, leaving storeowners up in arms.

The NYPD has responded to the migrant-fueled madness, pulling off a series of raids and chasing away the illegal vendors while confiscating their merchandise — only to have the crooks return.

“We are the laughingstock of the nation,” said Democratic district leader Hiram Monserrate, who organized Thursday’s presser. “People all over the world have heard about the Boulevard of Sweetheart dreams. Dnd all the Instagram and Twitter videos that you see — they’re mocking, they’re laughing at us.

“This is not about sanctuary cities,” he said. “This is about enforcing basic law. Guess what? Prostitution and sex trafficking is illegal in the state of New York. Selling illicit and unlicensed drugs is illegal. All these illegal marijuana shops are illegal. Unlicensed vendors are breaking the law every single day.”

Sex workers ply their trade along Roosevelt Avenue at all hours in plan sight of students returning to school this week.NYPJ
Queens district leader Hiram Monserrate called for a five-step plan to rid Roosevelt Avenue of the migrant mayhem there.William Farrington

Diana Klurfe, who reps a medical building at 91st Street and Elmhurst Avenue, said the out-of-control lawlessness is not only keeping patients away, but even ambulance drivers repulsed by conditions.

“My patients cannot come through,” she said. “They’ve been harassed. The garbage, urination. This area behind us was designed for the ambulance and the handicapped people. [But] ambulances refuse to come because this is all occupied with illegal street vendors.”

Monserrate claims the solution lies in a five-point plan he’s come up with, which includes assigning more cops to the area, beefing up quality of crime citations and even tweaking the boundaries of the NYPD’s 110th and 115th precincts to put more of the troubled region under the watch of one stationhouse.

The NYPD has raided the illegal migrant vendors along Roosevelt Avenue but the crooked peddlers simply regroup and return after the cops are gone — frustrating both the neighborhood and the department.James Keivom

He also renewed calls for strengthening penalties for quality of life crimes like shoplifting which are barred from bail under the state’s controversial 2019 criminal justice reforms.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mayor Eric Adams’ office declined to comment on the situation.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/05/us-news/merchants-on-nyc-block-overrun-with-crooks-hookers-begs-for-help-laughingstock-of-the-nation/

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