13 arrested at protest against Creedmoor shelter
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Protests outside the Creedmoor shelter site earlier in August. 13 individuals were arrested at a similar demonstration on Wednesday night. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
13 protestors including former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa were arrested while protesting the Creedmoor migrant tent shelter in Queens Village on Wednesday night.
The protest, the third of its kind against the 1,000 bed shelter which officially opened on Tuesday, was advertised by local groups as “Save our neighborhood! Save our children!” and took place at Detective William T. Gunn Playground on Hillside Avenue, directly across from the shelter site.
The rally was mostly concerned with the safety and security of the surrounding suburban neighborhoods as migrants move in.
City officials said on Tuesday that there has only been a very small amount of safety issues related to migrant shelters since the city began housing large numbers of asylum seekers that have come to the five boroughs since last year.
Bob Friedrich, a local Glen Oaks community leader who helped organize the protest, told the Eagle Wednesday afternoon that the protest would be the “largest in the city” against migrant shelters. According to the NYPD, there were 400 protestors at its peak.
During the peak of the protest, several individuals began to block the gate which leads to the shelter, and were ordered to disperse by the NYPD.
Police say 13 individuals were arrested, including Sliwa. 12 of the 13 were issued violations for disorderly conduct and released with a Criminal Court summons.
Hours before the protest, a release through WABC Radio and sent to reporters by Sliwa’s sister and public relations representative said “Curtis Sliwa will be locked up tonight,” and said that Sliwa is “among the many who say they will chain themselves to entrance of a new migrant tent city in Queens tonight.”
Also according to the release, Wednesday night was his 78th time being arrested.
The thirteenth individual, a 40-year-old woman and Jamaica resident named Fauziya Sani was issued a Desk Appearance Ticket with the added charge of resisting arrest.
This is not the first time that a protest against the Creedmoor migrant shelter was more than uneventful.
On Aug. 8, anti-shelter protestors clashed with a contingent of locals who were counter-protesting and looked to welcome the migrants. There were at least two minor physical altercations and several verbal altercations between the two groups.
The shelter itself will continue to accept asylum seekers, with the first 100 on Tuesday and more expected to come this week.
At the shelter’s opening on Tuesday city officials expressed the dire straits in the city’s efforts to find adequate housing for the more than 100,000 migrants that have come to the city since the crisis began.
“We're out of good options, we're out of even okay options,” said Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy. “These are the only options left, and it's a question of do you want people sleeping on the street, or do you want people sleeping in a cot?”
