March 1, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAG E 11
Several former offi cers accused the chief of the Sea Gate Police Department of excusing harassment and racism within the department. Photo by Derrick Watterson
The Sea Gate blues
Gated community calls for police chief to resign amid corruption allegations
BY ROSE ADAMS
Residents of a southern
Brooklyn gated community
are calling for the chief of
their private “police department”
to resign after years of
promoting nepotism and racism
within the department,
according to several former
members and community residents.
Chief Jeffrey Fortunato —
who’s led the Sea Gate Police
Department since 2008 — has
allowed officers to distribute
illegitimate parking placards,
ignore 911 calls, and
bully anyone who speaks out
against the corruption, several
former members told the
Brooklyn Paper.
“It’s run by corrupt liars,”
said Curtis Rogers, a Sea Gate
police officer who said the
leadership has harassed him
for speaking freely about the
rampant bullying. “There’s
prejudice, nepotism, favoritism
— and those are some of
their good qualities.”
The Sea Gate Police Department
— a private law enforcement
agency funded by the
community on the Coney Island
peninsula — draws many
retired NYPD officers and
young locals seeking an easy
patrol job, officers said. The
agency operates outside the
jurisdiction of the city’s police
force and employs “peace
officers” who require less
training than the city’s police
force, although they are permitted
to carry firearms and
make arrests.
Many retired cops join the
pseudo police force only to
discover that Fortunato hires
and protects his friends, often
at the expense of the rest of the
LANE BLAME
DOT reconsidering
Canarsie bike lane
after pushback
BY JESSICA PARKS
When transportation offi -
cials announced plans to install
10 miles of protected bike lanes
throughout the borough this
year, only three streets in southern
Brooklyn were earmarked for
new cycling paths — but even that
was too much for local civic leaders,
who successfully lobbied the
city to reconsider their plans for
a bike lane on Canarsie’s Remsen
Avenue.
“Maybe eventually we will
need bike lanes when people are
going to be forced off the streets
and forced to ride bikes, scooters,
and roller skates,” said Dorothy
Turano, the district manager of
Community Board 18 . “Until that
occurs, we don’t want bike lanes
on Remsen Avenue. It serves no
function.”
The city’s chief street designer
Polly Trottenberg unveiled
the slate of green-painted
paths, which would separate bikers
from vehicular traffi c with a
physical barrier, as part of Mayor
Bill de Blasio’s Green Wave plan
to open 80 miles of protected lanes
citywide by the time he leaves offi
ce in 2021.
Hizzoner’s renewed push for
safer streets comes amid a deluge
of traffi c fatalities in the fi ve boroughs
— where motorists fatally
struck 29 cyclists in New York
throughout 2019, including 18 in
Brooklyn.
But many residents of southern
Brooklyn, where locals are
disproportionately dependent on
car usage, have long resisted efforts
to alter roadways in favor
of bikers, arguing that the added
congestion is a deal breaker.
So when the transit department
announced a 1.3-mile pro-
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