As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jets across the U.S. to battle oligarchy, her Queens district pleads with FBI chief Kash Patel to fight prostitution and drug chaos at home
Live Events
Why are Queens leaders turning to the FBI?
FAQs
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel
As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushes her national agenda, her own district is raising the alarm. Queens residents are pleading for federal assistance to combat rising crime, prostitution, and gang activity.Following a brief NYPD crackdown, locals now want the FBI to intervene to prevent what they call an escalating crisis.While AOC promotes her anti-oligarchy tour across the United States, her constituents in Queens beg for assistance at home.A former Democratic state senator and other local leaders wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel last week, urging him to deploy agents to address the raging problem along Roosevelt Avenue, a 2-mile commercial strip that has been compared to both a red-light district and a Third World Country, where it is common to see instances of prostitution, as quoted in a report by Fox News.They claimed that the gangs had transformed Roosevelt Avenue into the marketplace for their 'well-oiled criminal machine.' Roosevelt Avenue has more than just a gang issue. It is now considered gangland.They also assert that the brutal 18th Street Gang has taken over illicit activities there, displacing other gangs such as Tren de Aragua following a large-scale police operation that resulted in hundreds of arrests.Hundreds of city and state troopers descended on the neighborhood as part of that police crackdown, known as "Operation Restore Roosevelt," which began in October.With more than 1,800 arrests and more than 15,000 summonses, the NYPD told Fox News Digital that the crackdown has led to a 37% year-to-date decrease in crime in the Roosevelt Avenue zone.Former Democrat state senator Hiram Monserrate and the two organizations, Neighbors of the American Triangle and Restore Roosevelt Ave., urged Patel to look into the "ever-worsening situation" they are facing.Local leaders claim Roosevelt Avenue has become a hotspot for gangs, trafficking, and drug dealing, and they want answers. Now, all eyes are on FBI Director Kash Patel to take action.After leading the vigorous 90-day police blitz, New York City Mayor Eric Adams received a tonne of praise from local activists and residents.Locals, however, claim the blitz was short-lived and that bars have been transformed into makeshift brothels where prostitution can be easily negotiated in dingy rooms downstairs after a dance.According to the leaders, a large number of prostitution workers are immigrants."The NYPD's Operation Restore Roosevelt did lead to arrests, but our street sources say the gangs replaced their foot soldiers within days," the advocates said.The dance floors remained open, the money kept flowing, and the prostitutes returned in full force. This issue is not unique to Queens; it serves as a model for how traffickers, cartels, and gangs can easily take over a community, as per a report by Fox News.The 18th Street gang has marked their territory with gang insignia. According to Monserrate, the gangs are engaged in a wide range of violent crimes, illegal gun sales, identity theft, drug and human trafficking, and the distribution of fake Green Cards.According to his sources, there are at least 20 brothels in the region, some of which are located close to educational institutions.Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., who represents the neighborhood in her district, told Fox News Digital that she keeps a close eye on the NYPD's continuous efforts to enhance the neighborhood's quality of life and public safety.Residents are urging the FBI and DEA to intervene and address the rising crime, sex trafficking, and gang activity that has taken over parts of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.A 90-day NYPD blitz provided temporary relief, but residents report that the gangs quickly returned, and illegal activity resumed, transforming bars into brothels and streets into gang territory.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
Jeffrey Epstein files release: U.S. President Donald Trump named by accuser
Agencies In a lengthy post, Trump claimed "all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax." It was the summer of 1996 when Maria Farmer went to law enforcement to complain about Jeffrey Epstein. At the time, she said, she had been sexually assaulted by Epstein and his longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Farmer, then in her mid-20s, had also learned about a troubling encounter that her younger sister -- then a teenager -- had endured at Epstein's ranch in New Mexico. And she described facing threats from Epstein. Farmer said that when she discussed her concerns with the New York Police Department, then with the FBI, she also urged them to take a broader look at the people in Epstein's orbit, including Donald Trump, then still two decades from being elected president. She repeated that message, she said, when the FBI interviewed her again about Epstein in 2006. Her account is among the clearest indications yet of how Trump might have come to be named in the unreleased investigative files in the Epstein case, a matter that has generated another political uproar in recent weeks. Donald Trump, Bill Clinton In interviews over the past week about what she told the authorities, she said she had no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Epstein's associates. But she said she was alarmed by what she saw as Epstein's pattern of pursuing girls and young women while building friendships with prominent people, including Trump and President Bill like the ones that targeted Epstein often explore a wide range of tips, evidence, recollections and relationships, little of which ends up being used in court records or as the basis for criminal prosecution. Epstein's voluminous investigative file contains many records that have not been made public, but that became the focus of claims, long stoked by Trump's allies, that authorities might have covered up the involvement of other rich and powerful men. Now, after his attorney general and FBI director abruptly abandoned their earlier promises to reveal everything about the Epstein files and said, in effect, that there was nothing to see, Trump's ties to Epstein are under renewed scrutiny, leading to questions about what so-far-undisclosed appearances he might have in the investigative record. Farmer said she has long wondered how law enforcement agencies handled her complaints in 1996 and she said she has been wondering in particular whether federal authorities did anything with her concerns about Trump. She said that she raised his name both times, not only because he seemed so close to Epstein but because of an encounter, which she has previously described publicly, that she said she had with Trump in Epstein's New York Chit to Donald TrumpThe story of Farmer's efforts to call law enforcement attention to Epstein and his circle shows how the case files could contain material that is embarrassing or politically problematic to Trump, even if it is largely extraneous to Epstein's crimes and was never fully investigated or it underscores the complexities of opening up to scrutiny all the leads that investigators pursued, the evidence they gathered and the interviews they conducted, little of which ever went before a judge or enforcement agencies have not accused Trump of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and he has never been identified as a target of any associated investigation. Trump last week called for relevant grand jury testimony in the prosecution of Epstein to be publicly released, and has repeatedly dismissed any notion that he has something to hide. Even if that testimony is released, it is unlikely to shed much light on the relationship between the two men, which did not figure prominently in Epstein's criminal cases. Q1. What are Epstein files?A1. Jeffrey Epstein's crimes are listed in Epstein files. Q2. Who is President of USA? A2. President of USA is Donald Trump.
Economic Times
6 hours ago
- Economic Times
USA-Russia war may happen due to Donald Trump, Vladmir Putin?
Live Events FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel U.S. President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that Russia is open to peace with Ukraine, but achieving its goals remains a priority. Peskov and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected accusations from Kyiv and its Western partners of stalling peace talks. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to intensify its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, launching more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to President Vladimir Putin 'has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy,' Peskov told state television in an interview. 'The main thing for us is to achieve our goals," he said. 'Our goals are clear.'The Kremlin has insisted that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022, but never fully captured. It also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces — demands Kyiv and its Western allies have his nightly address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his officials have proposed a new round of peace talks this week. Russian state media on Sunday reported that no date has yet been set for the negotiations, but said that Istanbul would likely remain the host threatened Russia on July 14 with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration following unsuccessful negotiations aimed at ending the war. The direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul resulted in several rounds of prisoner exchanges but little U.S. president said that he would implement 'severe tariffs' unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but suggested they would target Russia's trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global addition, Trump said that European allies would buy 'billions and billions' of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country's supplies of weapons. Included in the plan are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and were recently raised about Trump's commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U.S. stockpiles were running Ukraine's air force said that it shot down 18 of 57 Shahed-type and decoy drones launched by Russia overnight into Sunday, with seven more disappearing from women were wounded in Zaporizhzhia, a southern Ukrainian region partly occupied by Russia, when a drone struck their house, according to the regional military administration. Two more civilians were wounded in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv province, after a drone slammed into a residential building, local Ukrainian officials Sunday, drones struck a leafy square in the center of Sumy, wounding a woman and her 7-year-old son, officials said. The strike also damaged a power line, leaving around 100 households without electricity, according to Serhii Krivosheienko, of the municipal military Russia's Defense Ministry said that its forces shot down 93 Ukrainian drones targeting Russian territory overnight, including at least 15 that appeared to head for Moscow. At least 13 more drones were downed on the approach to the capital on Sunday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. One drone struck a residential building in Zelenograd, on the outskirts of Moscow, damaging an apartment, but caused no casualties, he said.A1. President of Russia is Vladimir Putin.A2. President of USA is Donald Trump.
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Time of India
'Why are you doing this?': Sen Booker erupts, Dems walk out after clash with Chairman Grassley
Chaos erupts in the Senate Judiciary Committee as Sen. Cory Booker blasts Sen. Chuck Grassley over the rushed vote on judicial nominee Emil Bove. Democratic Senators walk out in protest as tensions hit a boiling point over the controversial confirmation. Show more Show less
