Fridge-jacking exposes division in Rockaway Beach
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The stolen fridge. Photo via Facebook
By David Brand
For a few days this month, Rockaway Beach residents in need of a meal could stop by a refrigerator stocked with free food, no questions asked, at Beach 91st Street. The fridge was established and maintained by the Rockaway Mutual Aid network to help neighbors experiencing food insecurity amid the COVID-19 financial crisis.
On Friday, the fridge went missing. It was found hours later atop a jetty in the surf.
At least one person had swiped the appliance and dragged it through the sand to the rocks. The theft was congratulated on some Facebook groups, with one person calling it “legendary.”
No one has yet copped to the fridge-jacking, but community members suspect the same neighbors who praised the prank and who had, for several days, complained on social media and in conversations about the appliance.
The critics said a refrigerator shouldn’t be left outside with the door attached. It was dangerous, it violated city codes, it could attract vermin, they said. Others mocked a “save the world” attitude among the local do-gooders.
But Rockaway Mutual Aid members and other social justice advocates in the area say those nuisance complaints mask something more sinister on a peninsula where social stratification is stark. There are significant income disparities between the predominantly Black and Latino eastern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula and the predominantly white western end.
People who complained about the fridge were really complaining about the people who use the fridge, said Rockaway Revolution organizer Marva Kerwin.
“I think it’s definitely classism, and when you think about poor people in the Rockaways, a majority are Black and brown folks,” Kerwin said. “There is segregation here.”
Kerwin said RMA and mutual aid networks throughout Queens have done “wonderful work” providing food and support to people in need during the pandemic and corresponding financial crisis.
“They decided to go and help the marginalized community members by providing them a resource to get fresh food,” Kerwin added. “I think it shows compassion and shows people we have your back.”
RMA had already agreed to move the fridge, even before someone did it for them. Since the fridge-jacking, the group has committed to stocking more food for neighbors.
The incident ended up compelling more people to learn about the aid network and volunteer to pitch in. RMA runs another community fridge on Beach 72nd Street.
“We’re going to grow from this,” said local Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato. “Maybe folks didn’t understand what it does and what it means to other people. But we can help grow resources for the community.”
Organizers are also using the theft to drive a conversation about equity and injustice on the peninsula.
“Fighting to dismantle systemic inequality and racism begins with challenging this kind of cruelty from within our own community,” Rockaway Revolution wrote in a statement responding to the theft.
“We call on all community groups, leaders, and stakeholders in the West End of the peninsula to come together and begin a dialogue with each other about systemic oppression, racism, and the role each person plays when they silently watch their friends, neighbors, or relatives perpetuate hatred.”
