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4 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 April 17–23, 2020 Cops cuff man for alleged attack on ex-girlfriend 1 Metrotech Center North, Third Floor, Brooklyn NY 11201 (718) 260–2500 Online at www.BrooklynPaper.com Brooklyn Paper incorporates the following newspapers: Brooklyn Heights Paper, Downtown News, Park Slope Paper, Sunset Park Paper, Windsor Terrace Paper, Carroll Gardens–Cobble Hill Paper, Fort Greene–Clinton Hill Paper, Bay Ridge Paper, Bensonhurst Paper, Bushwick Paper, Greenpoint Paper, Williamsburg Paper Published weekly at PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Victoria Schneps-Yunis CEO AND CO-PUBLISHER Joshua Schneps EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Meaghan McGoldrick (718) 260–4505 DEPUTY EDITOR Aidan Graham (718) 260–4577 ARTS EDITOR Bill Roundy (718) 260–4507 STAFF REPORTERS Rose Adams (718) 260–8306 Kevin Duggan (718) 260–2511 Jessica Park (718) 260–2523 Ben Verde (718) 260–2525 ADVERTISING STAFF DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES Gayle H. Greenberg (718) 260–4585 Jay Pelc (718) 260–2570 Andrew Mark (718) 260–2578 PRODUCTION STAFF ART DIRECTOR Leah Mitch (718) 260–4510 WEB DEVELOPER & ILLUSTRATOR Sylvan Migdal (718) 260–4509 E-mail news and arts releases to newsroom@schnepsmedia.com E-mail calendar listings to calendar@schnepsmedia.com To e-mail a staff member, use first initial last name @schnepsmedia.com HOW TO CONTACT THE PAPER © Copyright 2020 Brooklyn Courier Life LLC. All Rights Reserved. Unsolicited submissions become the property of Brooklyn Courier Life LLC and may be used, copied, sublicensed, adapted, transmitted, distributed, publicly performed, published, displayed or deleted as Brooklyn Courier Life LLC sees fi t. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, Brooklyn Courier Life LLC will not give any PUBLISHER EMERITUS Ed Weintrob compensation, credit, or notice of its use of unsolicited submissions. NURSES... Continued from page 1 to the new conditions, according to one nurse, who said that staff were given scant preparation to fight the virus. “There was no retraining, no anything,” said Dalia Branford. “It was an absolute nightmare. I literally cried at the end of my shift.” Branford has been working as a pediatric nurse for the past decade, but had to relearn treating adults when she found her pediatric unit had been converted into a coronavirus facility. “I had to relearn it while I have a patient who is my responsibility,” Branford said. Another nurse in the hospital’s intensive care unit said that she and her colleagues are spread troublingly thin as the nurse-to-patient ratios have more than doubled, forcing nurses to care for upwards of four patients at a time — many of which are in serious conditions. “You do what needs to be done, but you now have to split your time between four patients. You move from one to the next, it’s almost like an assembly line,” said Coleen Peters. “Sometimes it’s so busy you don’t have time for bathroom breaks or lunch.” The hospital has also struggled to provide the necessary amount of personal protective equipment, such as masks, face shields, and gowns, according to Branford. Staff are only provided with one N95 mask and one pair of scrubs per 12-hour shift, and she said she’s had to use the same medical face shield for the past five shifts. “If I’m perspiring through it where it’s literally clinging to my skin, you can’t ask me to re-wear it,” Branford said. “It’s not sanitary. I’m going to make myself ill, my co-workers, and my patients.” The protesters demanded that more frontline healthcare workers get tested for COVID-19, because of their high chance of exposure to the virus, which has already cost the life of one of their coworkers, said Branford. “This is horrible given that we live in the 21st century and in a first world country,” she said. The hospital — which registered the first coronavirus related death in New York City on March 14 — has been struggling to secure resources as it competes with other larger healthcare providers, according to a press release by the New York State Nurses Association, which organized a rally to highlight the issue on April 10. Protesters demanded that Governor Andrew Cuomo fast-track distribution of tests and protective equipment to the hospitals hardest hit by the health crisis, and for President Donald Trump to authorize the Defense Production Act, which would allow the federal government to force private companies to produce medical equipment to combat the pandemic. Cuomo announced that same day that he was ramping up antibody testing and that the state is on track to conduct 1,000 of those per day by April 17, and double that the following week, but said that the government would need to scale up to testing “in the millions” in order to tackle the virus. Wyckoff Heights Medical Center did not respond to requests for comment. Wheels For Wishes benefiting Make-A-Wish® Metro New York We’re still accepting donations and pick ups Your Car Donations Matter NOW More Than Ever! Free Vehicle Pick Up ANYWHERE We Accept Most Vehicles Running or Not WheelsForWishes.org 100% Tax Deductible Minimal To No Human Contact Call:(917)336-1254 �� STAY INFORMED! Get daily updates on all the news in your neighborhood by signing up for our daily e-mails at BrooklynPaper.com/updates 88TH PRECINCT Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Domestic violence Police arrested a man for allegedly slashing and choking his ex-girlfriend inside a Vanderbilt Avenue apartment on April 6. The victim told police that her former beau allegedly cut her hand and chest at the residence between Park and Flushing avenues at 9:50 pm, before choking her, which caused her to lose consciousness for five minutes. Cut it out! Police arrested a man for allegedly cutting a woman’s face with a bottle of cologne at their Cumberland Walk apartment on April 11. The victim told police that the suspect accused her of breaking his bottle of cologne, leading both of them to get into an argument at Carlton Avenue around 2:40 pm, before the man allegedly grabbed the bottle and hit her in the face with it. Deep cuts Police cuffed a woman for allegedly cutting another woman’s finger at a Carlton Avenue apartment on April 11. The victim told police that the suspect took a blade and cut her finger at Park Avenue at 2:30 pm. Police arrested the suspect on the scene and charged her with felony assault. Emergency loot Burglars looted an emergency backpack, drinks, and supplies from a Greene Avenue apartment on April 6. The victim told police that the two menaces broke his locker and stole a bag, tools, a large pack of toilet paper, seltzer, and sodas before hightailing toward Classon Avenue at around 3:40 am. Slice and dice A bandit broke into a Classon Avenue pizzeria on April 4. Police found that the lout smashed the window of the eatery at Greene Avenue around 3 am with a rock, but they didn’t see if the purloiner stole any goods. Crosstown joyrider A carjacker stole a sports car on Willoughby Avenue and drove it across three boroughs before cops found it again on April 6. The victim told police that he parked his Dodge Charger at Clinton Avenue around 6:30 pm and when he returned to find it stolen — and licence plate readers later caught the car crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, before cops found it parked in the Bronx. — Kevin Duggan POLICE BLOTTER Find more online every Wednesday at BrooklynPaper.com/blotter By Rose Adams Brooklyn Paper A COVID-19 testing site has opened in Flatbush, and two more will open in Brownsville and East New York as part of an effort to help minority communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. “We are going to increase testing and open new testing sites to collect more data in African-American and Latino communities so we can better understand why this virus kills and has higher fatality rates in certain communities, and what we can do to address it,” announced Gov. Andrew Cuomo on April 9. Black people account for up to 28 percent of coronavirus related deaths in New York City, although they make up only 22 percent of its population,. The Flatbush facility, located in the Sears Parking Lot at 2307 Beverly Rd., has been offering drive-through testing since its opening on April 11. The state-operated site, which is appointment-only, is prioritizing residents who are atrisk or experiencing symptoms, officials said. Later this week, state officials will open a walk-in testing site in Brownsville, according to a spokesman for the New York State Health Department, who said that the agency is still nailing down its exact location. The new facilities are two of nine state Health Department testing sites statewide, five of which are New York City. All sites are appointment only: To schedule a test, call (888) 364–3065. On April 12, Mayor Bill de Blasio followed in Cuomo’s footsteps when he announced the opening of five city-operated COVID-19 testing facil- By Kevin Duggan Brooklyn Paper A group of non-binary political candidates sued the Brooklyn Democratic Party and the city’s Board of Elections because their ballot petitions only allowed for male or female gender designations, demanding the party drop gender parity rules originally intended to bring more women into the political sphere. The six Brooklynites running for county committee membership of the party — the lowest rung of elected office — allege that the party and the government body violated their right to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, according to the April 3 lawsuit. One plaintiff said he was disappointed by the lack of recognition for non-binary identities in the political process. Brooklyn gets three new COVID-19 testing sites Non-binary political candidates sue Dems “For me as a trans person trying to engage with local politics, it was disheartening that there were only two options at county level. You have to declare that you’re male or female,” said Derek Gaskill, who identifies as trans masculine. Gaskill and his fellow plaintiffs all filled out petitions with signatures from local voters to run for county committee in the June and November elections. However, they left the gender field blank because the sheets only had the options of male or female. They identify across a spectrum of gender non-conforming identities, including non-binary, genderfluid, genderqueer, or transgender, according to the lawsuit, which was organized by the reform club New Kings Democrats. They allege that the Board of Elections then filled out the gender designation without their consent, assigning them false genders based off of their names. A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment on pending litigation. The plaintiffs argue that the Kings County Democratic County Committee must strike down its gender parity rules, based off of state election law, which mandate that each county election district and each state assembly district must have a certain number of men and women representing the areas. For example, each assembly district has to be reped by one male and one female district leader. While these rules were originally intended to encourage more women to join the historically male-dominated political sphere, they further the exclusion of non-binary people, according to Gaskill. “I think it’s important to discuss and honor the progress that was made with these rules, but it’s equally important to remember that a lot of women’s rights movements have excluded trans people,” he said. ities in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. “We see a clear disparity in the impact, who’s been hit hardest, communities of color, lower income communities, immigrant communities, folks who are vulnerable already because they haven’t had the health care they needed and deserve throughout their life,” the mayor said in a press conference on April 12. “So by the end of next week, we will create community testing sites and these are targeted to have the biggest impact.” De Blasio’s plan includes one testing center in East New York, which will most likely operate out of Gotham Health, East New York on Pitkin Avenue by Pennsylvania Avenue. Elderly residents or locals with pre-existing conditions from the community will be prioritized for testing, the mayor said. Oficials have not yet announced the East New York site’s opening day, or how to make appointments. The testing sites open after weeks of delays, when various medical facilities were given differing instructions on whom to test for the virus. Derek Gaskill, who identifies as trans masculine, is one of six plaintiffs suing the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Photo by Derek Gaskill The state opened a COVID-19 testing site in Flatbush on April 11. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell Checking up /www.BrooklynPaper.com /www.BrooklynPaper.com link link link /www.BrooklynPaper.com /www.BrooklynPaper.com /WheelsForWishes.org /updates /blotter link link