8
QUEENS WEEKLY, MARCH 17, 2019
City offi cials renew effort to shut down sex sales in Flushing
THE IDENTICAL TWIN SONS OF RICKY NELSON,
AND SON OF JACKIE WILSON, COME TOGETHER
TO PAY TRIBUTE TO THEIR LEGENDARY FATHERS.
Sunday, March 24, 2019, 3pm
TICKETS: $48, $42, $35
This performance will take place at: : Queensborough Performing Arts Center - QPAC : @visitQPAC
718-631-6311
WWW.VISITQPAC.ORG
The OLBS Theater
34-45 202nd Street
(Corner of 35th Ave. & 203rd St.)
Bayside, NY 11361
Free parking in adjacent lot and on the street.
ROCK
and
ROLL ROYALTY!
Queensborough
Performing
Queensborough
Per forming
Arts Center
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Once referred to as Flushing’s
“Restaurant Row,” 40th
Road off Main Street has
gained notoriety in recent
weeks as an unofficial red
light district where young
women aggressively solicit
sex 24/7 on the street
and even in nearby Bland
Playground.
Now local lawmakers,
business leaders and
the NYPD are stepping up
efforts to clean the area up.
City Councilman Peter
Koo updated the public on
March 8 at Bland Playground
about efforts to eliminate
prostitution in the area,
where dozens of girls have
solicited people for sex.
Koo was joined by the
Flushing Business Improvement
District, members
of the 109th Precinct,
and Councilman Donovan
Richards — the chair of
the Public Safety Committee
— to discuss the issue
at 40th Road in Flushing,
which has nearly two dozen
restaurants, the entrance to
the Flushing-Main Street
stop on the Long Island Rail
Road, Bland Playground
and numerous massage parlors
which have allegedly
doubled as illegal brothels.
The block of 40th Road
between Main and Prince
Streets is the same site
where, in 2017, a prostitute
committed suicide by leaping
from a building as she
was about to be arrested during
a NYPD sting, according
to reports.
In collaboration with
the 109th Precinct and the
Flushing BID, Koo’s office
has been working to expose,
identify and shut down several
brothels posing as massage
parlors on 40th Road.
Additionally, Koo has spoken
directly with several landlords
on the block to demand
that they evict tenants who
engage in illegal activity.
As a result, most of the
fake massage parlors have
now either been padlocked
by the NYPD or had their
locks changed by landlords,
Koo reported on March 8.
“We have made significant
progress in cleaning up
40th Road thanks to a combination
of police enforcement,
community engagement and
even media exposure,” he
said. “For too long, this pervasive
issue has plagued our
community, but we are here
to say that ends today. In the
past, crackdowns result in
the problem going away for a
little while only to resurface
again. This will take consistent
enforcement, and my office
plans to stay engaged on
this matter with police, business
owners, landlords and
the community.”
According to the NYPD,
in 2018 there were 24 closings
of legal and illegal massage
parlors conducting prostitution
within the 109th Precinct
and 52 closings in total
within the Patrol Borough
Queens North.
In a statement to
TimesLedger, NYPD spokeswoman
Sergeant Jessica
McRorie said the NYPD is
working to end prostitution
conditions and has shifted
focus on enforcement operations
to target pimps
and johns primarily during
anti-prostitution investigations
and arrests, and on the
closure of locations through
civil action taken against
landlords who are complicit
in the illegal business
of prostitution.
When arrests are made
for prostitution, those arrested
are delivered to a
diversion court where they
are offered help and services
in lieu of prosecution in
criminal court.
The NYPD also understands
that some of the
women involved in prostitution
are being “forced,
coerced or otherwise made
to against their will,” and
the department works with
its partners to offer services
to those who why may
be victimized, according
to McRorie.
“The NYPD facilitates
the work of our partners in
connecting the victims of
human trafficking with social
services,” said McRorie.
“The NYPD does this by conducting
operations where we
provide safe access for social
service providers to enter
these establishments and assist
the victimized without
arrests being made.”
Koo is currently planning
a sex trafficking seminar
with the NYPD and
local women’s shelter nonprofits
in order to educate
the community about sex
trafficking.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com
or by phone at (718) 260–4526.
City Councilman Peter Koo (c.) at Bland Playground in
Flushing, where prostitution has become an issue.
Courtesy of Koo’s office
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