Sex workers say mayor’s Roosevelt Ave. response goes too far
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Sex workers and activists rallied at Corona Plaza on Tuesday against the city’s recently begun operation to crackdown on issues on busy Roosevelt Avenue. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Sex workers and activists in Queens say that the city and state’s plan to send more police onto Roosevelt Avenue to quell quality of life issues is both an overblown and potentially dangerous response.
On Tuesday, a group of sex workers and their supporters rallied against “Operation Restore Roosevelt,” a 90-day policing plan on Roosevelt launched last week by Mayor Eric Adams, and Governor Kathy Hochul’s deployment of state troopers to the area. The protestors argued that the measures go too far, and will lead to over-policing of the very people they intend to protect.
“Operation Restore Roosevelt is a horrible policing campaign that has escalated policing and indiscriminately targeted some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” said Maxima Rodas, an activist with immigration group Make the Road New York. “This so-called quality of life operation targets sex workers, street vendors and migrant communities who live in this neighborhood. This is a racist and anti-immigrant attack from our communities.”
Last week, Adams, local Councilmember Francisco Moya and a host of law enforcement officials launched the operation, vowing to crack down on prostitution, drug use, illegal vending and other issues along Roosevelt Avenue. The officials said that the move was prompted by an increase in crime and complaints from the local community.
One of the main targets of the operation was to stamp out alleged sex trafficking on the strip, an issue that has been known in the community for many years.
“When you look at some of the sex trafficking, when you look at some of the actions against these women, we want to give them an alternative and a place out,” Adams said.
However, sex workers and activists on Tuesday said that they believe the issue is not as bad as Adams said it is, and that the policing will also target sex workers and immigrants in the community just trying to make ends meet.
“These savior narratives dehumanize sex and massage workers, either by victimizing them as human trafficking victims or by demonizing them,” said Fran Yu, an advocate from Queens-based advocacy group Red Canary Song. “Many workers walked across multiple borders to get here. Some workers are in huge debt. Some workers are proud of doing sex work and think that it's an intimate act of care. Many send all their earnings home to support their families.”
Other advocates said that many wind up doing sex work to make up for what they argue is a lack of provided resources.
“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,” Bianey Garcia, an organizer for the Trans Immigrant Project at Make the Road New York, said through a translator. “It is terrible that our communities are being persecuted by state police troopers as well as local police officers, where sex workers were not doing anything wrong. We are communities that are trying to make ends meet.”
Rodas from Make the Road told the Eagle that the city needs to address overcrowding at shelters, housing vouchers and other issues that often lead to individuals going into sex work out of circumstance, instead of sending more police into the area.
Activists, including Queens-native Laura Torlaschi, argued in favor of decriminalizing sex work.
“I believe we can live in a New York where everyone can live freely and safely, without the threat of police harassment or violence,” she said.
The issues on Roosevelt are well documented, and recently some locals have tried to bring them to the forefront, including Moya and his political foe, former elected official Hiram Monserrate.
“You have to have some compassion and empathy for everyone, everyone's confronted in different situations, and I understand that,” Monserrate told the Eagle on Tuesday. “But paramount to everything, to whatever anyone's personal situation might be…the community is clear that they did not want to live in a zone that was lawless, and that's what this neighborhood had become. We need those cops to maintain control here, and to confront the organized crime that's operating on our streets.”
“We have to help them, but they have to obey the rules and obey the law,” he added.
Advocates argue that introducing more police on Roosevelt Avenue will not safely address the issues on the strip. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
Monserrate was in attendance at Corona Plaza on Tuesday, but was promptly chased out of the plaza by protestors following him, holding signs and shouting slogans.
Pushback to the mayor and governor’s operations came quickly after the announcements were made.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and State Senator and mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos both questioned the city’s new plans, and said they were eerily similar to measures that were attempted before.
“There's been traffickers along Roosevelt Avenue for nearly all of the 40 years of my life that I have known, and that I have seen,” Ramos told the Eagle. “[The mayor] could have started an operation to help the women being trafficked and exploited years ago, when he first took office.”
A spokesperson for the governor defended the executive’s actions on Tuesday.
“Community members were crying out for help and Governor Hochul listened, deploying members of the New York State Police to support Operation Restore Roosevelt, a multi-agency enforcement initiative aimed at addressing public safety concerns in the Elmhurst, North Corona, and Jackson Heights neighborhoods of Queens,” the spokesperson said. “The NYPD is the finest local police force in America, and State Police will continue partnering with them to fight crime and protect the public.”
City Hall also defended the new operation.
“Public safety is the prerequisite of prosperity, and the residents that live around Roosevelt Avenue in Queens deserve a community free of crime, disorder, and exploitation,” a spokesperson for the mayor said. “This important work on Roosevelt Avenue is driven by numerous concerns raised from the community, and brings support from more than a dozen city agencies to build on our public safety and quality-of-life initiatives in other parts of the city.”
