June 14–20, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 15
Police offi cers’ cry for help
Green-light licenses for all
Children rescued from fi re
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
A raging inferno gutted the
top floors of a Crown Heights
apartment building on June
6, injuring two children, authorities
said.
The blaze erupted on
the fifth floor of the Union
Street property between Portal
Street and Ralph Avenue
shortly before 11 a.m., according
to a Fire Department
spokesman.
Emergency medical personnel
rushed two children
— who were spotted grinning
as paramedics wheeled
them out on a stretcher — to
nearby Woodhull Hospital in
stable condition, authorities
said.
The smoke eaters managed
to smother the blaze
by 11:30 a.m., according to
the department.
‘The quintessential gentleman’
Dyker Heights luminary Anthony DiMango dies at 95
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The New York Police Department
suffered two
shocking suicides in as
many days last week in Brooklyn
and Queens.
Assistant Chief Steven
Silks, a 38-year member of
the NYPD, took his own life
on a Forest Hills street on June
5; he was mere days from a
mandatory retirement from
the force.
The next day in Brooklyn,
Detective Joseph Calabrese
of the Brooklyn South Homicide
Squad also killed himself.
According to reports, it
happened a few hours after
his wife had been hospitalized
for a condition.
Some of us think of our
first responders as real-life heroes
there to protect us against
the bad guys. Of course, the
reality is that police officers
are humans, not comic book
characters. They grapple with
both the everyday issues life
brings us, but they are compounded
by issues unique to
their job.
They have seen crime scene
horrors no one should see.
They deal with high-pressure
situations that could threaten
someone’s life, or even their
own. Some have dealt with the
trauma of a close colleague being
killed in the line of duty,
while others have made tragic
decisions that cannot be reversed.
We urge our police officers
who are struggling with their
mental health to seek the care
they need. Don’t throw your
families into undue suffering.
It can get better.
New York granted driver’s
licenses to undocumented
immigrants up
until the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks.
Then-Gov. George Pataki,
in the wake of the disaster,
instituted new rules that
mandated that drivers have
a Social Security number to
request or maintain their licenses.
After years of struggling to
restore the benefit to undocumented
New Yorkers, the first
“green light” is finally visible
on a road full of stops.
This week, the Green Light
NY bill that would grant driver’s
licenses to undocumented
residents was approved by the
Assembly, but the legislation
has yet to be ratified by the
Senate to become law.
The fate of around 265,000
undocumented New Yorkers
hangs in the balance, but that’s
apparently not enough to motivate
the leaders of this legislative
chamber.
Although Senate Deputy
Majority Leader Michael Gianaris
has said he supports
the bill, the Democratic-led
Senate continues to refuse to
bring the bill to a vote. Immigrant
advocacy groups have
asked Gianaris to use his
power to convince the State
Senate to commit to passing
the Driver’s Licenses and Privacy
Act.
The legislative chamber
ends session in the middle
of this month, and that worries
immigrants who depend
on a car to commute to work
or school.
With or without this legislation,
undocumented immigrants
are driving.
Why not ensure that they
have licenses to boost the
economy while making roads
safer?
Legislators have an obligation
to do what is in the best
interest of public safety and
ensure that all drivers have a
driver’s license in the state, so
that each driver is trained, certified,
registered, inspected
and insured.
This would mean that thousands
of immigrants living in
the shadows can take their
children to school, go to medical
appointments and drive
to their jobs without fear that
a routine police traffic stop
can put them on the road to
deportation.
It’s time for the Senate to
act. Call Gianaris’ office at
(718) 728-0960 and tell him
to get this done.
EDITORIALS
By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
Anthony DiMango, a longtime
resident of Dyker Heights
and a revered oral surgeon,
died on May 31. He was 95
years old.
DiMango reigned over
Brooklyn dentistry, working
as a surgeon and a professor
for more than 50 years. In
addition to his private practice
in Bay Ridge, DiMango
served as a senior vice president,
chief of dentistry, and
co-director of Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgery at Lutheran
Medical Center (LMC), now
NYU Lagone, for decades.
DiMango also taught oral
Photo by Paul Martinka
Emergency medical personnel treats two children who were injured in a fire
on June 6.
surgery at Columbia Prebystrian
and NYU Lutheran,
and was an active member of
several dental societies, including
the 2nd district dental
society, the Greater New
York Dental Meeting, and the
Italian Dental Society.
DiMango was born in
Flatbush on May 21, 1924.
In 1944, he was drafted to
serve in World War II, where
he received medical training
and worked with wounded
soldiers. Upon returning
from the war, DiMango attended
Fordham University
and graduated from
the Georgetown University
School of Dentistry in 1953.
He received his training in
oral surgery at King’s County
Hospital.
“He was brilliant, warm,
caring,” said his daughter,
Justice Patricia DiMango.
In 1950, DiMango married
Mafalda Coccaro, a longtime
community and education advocate
in Dyker Heights who
died in August 2018. The couple
gave birth to two daughters,
Patricia and Joanne.
“He never made me feel
that because I was a girl I
couldn’t do something,” Patricia
DiMango said. “I have
to attribute my success in life
to him.”
She added that DiMango’s
legacy will live on not
only as an influential educator,
but as a kind and wellgrounded
role model.
“He taught me to love what
you’re doing and do what you
love,” Patricia DiMango said.
“He was the quintessential
gentleman.”
Anthony DiMango and his late wife, Mafalda Di-
Mango.
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