State troopers, NYPD descend on AOC's 'Red Light' neighborhood to clamp down on rampant prostitution, crime
New York state troopers have been deployed to help clean up a crime-infested seedy strip in Queens, part of which encompasses "defund the police" advocate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district, where prostitution, illegal vendors and robberies are rampant.
Some residents compare it to a Third World country.
The troopers arrived as part of a multi-agency crackdown spearheaded by embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams called "Operation Restore Roosevelt," which aims to crack down on miscreant behavior over the next 90 days and bring back law and order to the commercial strip, which one Democratic politician described as "having more brothels than bodegas."
The operation covers a nearly two-mile stretch along Roosevelt Avenue in the migrant-heavy neighborhoods of Elmhurst, North Corona and Jackson Heights, which has become known as a red-light district where those described as scantily dressed migrant prostitutes solicit sex during all hours of the day and night.
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Illegal street vendors clog the sidewalks to cook hot food in the open as other vendors push everything from used clothes to pots and pans or tools.
Last month, Fox News Digital cameras recorded a line of no less than 19 alleged sex workers on a sidewalk on one block along Roosevelt Avenue. Around the corner, there were at least seven more, and a woman on the next block was witnessed offering sex for $60. Fox News Digital even recorded an alleged sex worker and her client emerging from a well-known brothel that was raided the night before and raided again just last week.
Known to locals as the "Avenue of the Sweethearts," the area has become an epicenter of vice, and parents have raised the alarm about sex workers operating in the open near schools and local taekwondo centers.
"We will end sex trafficking in this area. We are not here for one day and go away. We're here for the problem to go away," Adams said at a press conference late Tuesday announcing the strategy while flanked by top NYPD brass, including NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry. Council Member Francisco Moya, a Democrat, also attended.
Adams said the beefed-up presence will consist of nine lieutenants, 42 sergeants and 176 police officers who bring together more than a dozen city agencies with state troopers.
Residents have been calling for the area to be cleaned up for years. Brothel raids attended by Adams in January seemed to have little impact on the dire situation, and residents told Fox News Digital this summer was worse than ever.
Earlier Tuesday, a large gathering of around 200 NYPD officers and state troopers gathered at Roosevelt Avenue near 83rd and 84th streets, according to Democratic politician Hiram Monserrate, who describes the area as an "urban crime zone." He said about 50 state troopers were in attendance. A spokesperson for the New York State Police did not say how many troopers were deployed Tuesday but told Fox News Digital the day-to-day numbers throughout the operation will fluctuate.
The boots on the ground were welcomed by Monserrate, who last week told Fox News Digital he had urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to intervene. He said the troop deployment was a victory for grassroots groups of citizens who have held countless rallies advocating for change.
"Today, true leadership stood up and began the process of taking Roosevelt Avenue back from the street gangs, cartels, human traffickers, street walkers and other criminal operations," Monserrate said in a statement. "We support our police, and the community is looking forward to seeing positive results. We need public safety and quality of life returned … and we will remain vigilant."
Monserrate, a former New York state senator and council member, said the police patrol in the area had been slashed by around one-third in recent years, which partly led to the area becoming a haven for crime.
"You got cartels, you got good street gangs, you got drug gangs, human trafficking rings. And they're running the whole operation," Monserrate told Fox News Digital. "We just don't have enough of a police force."
Monserrate, who is running for state assembly next year, said a lack of enforcement by police is also partly to blame for the dire conditions along the strip.
"This isn't just the guys snatching chains. These are organized operations. That's what we're confronting, and they've all descended on the Roosevelt Avenue corridor. But the fact remains, there are so many criminal elements there you just need more officers, and you can't do it without them."
Monserrate and the Let’s Improve Roosevelt Avenue Coalition, a local advocacy group he co-founded, wrote to Hochul earlier this month calling for more police and slammed other elected officials representing the area who they say have advocated for legalizing prostitution and defunding the police.
Monserrate also wants New York’s controversial bail laws backed by Democrats in the state capital of Albany to be fully reversed. The law ended the use of cash bail and jail for most cases involving misdemeanors and lower-level felonies.
"So the cops are not arresting the shoplifters," Monserrate said. "They're not getting bail, so they keep shoplifting, and they steal them. And they come right back to Roosevelt Avenue, and they sell the stolen items. [So], we see our shops and our pharmacies closing down. … [I]t's a vicious cycle of criminality, it really is. It has become an urban crime zone."
While police have been raiding brothels in the area, residents say few are ever prosecuted and some even reopen within hours.
Police say they raided a well-known suspected brothel off Roosevelt Avenue on Case Street Oct. 9 and arrested three women. But the same brothel was raided Sept. 18, when three arrests were made. When Fox News Digital arrived the following day, a sex worker and her client appeared to emerge from the premises. One 21-year-old woman was arrested on both occasions.
Earlier Tuesday, police said they raided a suspected brothel on the third floor of a building at 95th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Cortez's district.
This month, a suspected member of the notorious MS-13 street gang who lived in the "Squad" member's district pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a 17-year-old migrant girl he recruited out of a Queens shelter.
Cortez has yet to respond to several Fox News Digital requests for comment regarding the situation along Roosevelt Avenue. Rep. Grace Meng, whose district also includes the neighborhood, told Fox News Digital she shares the community’s concerns and thanks city officials and local law enforcement for their "ongoing work to curb illegal operations throughout the neighborhood."
Hochul’s office did not respond to a request for comment.