FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 1, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Women’s ride on March 25
for rights & bike lanes
Queens cyclists will be taking a special ride next month
that not only celebrates the women, girls and gender
nonconforming people who bike in New York City,
but also advocates for the continuation of the Queens
Boulevard protected bike lanes.
Th e Women’s Ride will take place on Sunday, March
25. At 11 a.m., participants will gather in Long Island
City at the Queensbridge Park Greenway. Th e sevenmile
long ride will start from Queens Plaza North, travel
up Skillman/43rd Avenue to Queens Boulevard and
fi nish at the newly rededicated Women’s Plaza outside
Queens Borough Hall.
Th e event will fi nish with a brief rally that will highlight
the gender gap in city cycling and improving
cycling infrastructure, both of which are crucial to providing
transportation, environmental and economic
equity for all New York City residents.
Th e ride is free to attend, however all riders must reserve
their spot. To RSVP, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
womens-ride-queens-boulevard-tickets-42850430792.
Emily Davenport
Cuomo: Trump SNAP cuts
will devastate New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo urged Congress on Feb.
23 to protect New York families by rejecting the federal
government’s cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional
Assistance Program (SNAP).
SNAP helps 2.8 million New Yorkers, or nearly 1.6
million households, get food on the table by off ering
assistance to eligible, low-income individuals and families
and provides economic benefi ts to communities.
Nearly two-thirds of SNAP participants are in families
with children.
Forty-three percent of recipients are in families with
older adults or someone who is disabled, and twenty
seven percent of total SNAP participants are in families
that are working but earn too little to feed themselves.
Under President Trump’s proposed budget, funding
for SNAP would be reduced 30 percent. Th ere are also
plans to shift from the current system and a portion
of their benefi t would be placed in a prepackaged food
called “Harvest Boxes,” which would include items such
as shelf-stable milk, ready-to-eat cereals, pasta, peanut
butter, beans and canned fruits and vegetables.
Th e proposal, according to Cuomo, would cut millions
of New Yorkers’ spendable benefi ts in half will both
have a massive eff ect on the state’s economy, and severely
limit families’ ability to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables.
Emily Davenport
Queens Library will stop
handing out plastic bags
Th e Queens Library will take a big step toward becoming
“the greenest way to read” this summer when it stops
giving out free plastic bags to its customers.
Th at’s how Queens Library President and CEO Dennis
M. Walcott put it when the library announced on Feb.
23 that all 65 locations in the borough will stop distributing
plastic bags on June 30. In light of a national eff ort
to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags, Walcott said
the decision also comes in response to feedback from
Queens customers who reject the use of the bags.
“We appreciate that plastic bags are convenient, but
the consequences of convenience are too great,” Walcott
said in a statement. “Plastic bags harm the health of
wildlife, humans and marine life, litter our streets, sidewalks,
trees, parks, yards and beaches and are costly to
produce.”
Ryan Kelley
Photo by Suzanne Monteverdi
Hate crime charges for vandal who
smashed fi gures at Bayside church
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Cops have collared a suspect
who was caught on tape vandalizing
two statues outside of a Bayside
church.
On Feb. 23 at around 6 p.m.,
an unidentifi ed suspect vandalized
two religious statues outside of
American Martyrs Church, located
at 79-43 Bell Blvd. Th e incident was
captured on the church’s surveillance
system.
According to pastor Father Frank
Schwarz, a Blessed Mother statue
was dragged 25 feet from its base
near the church’s rectory and left
face down on the ground.
Th e suspect then took the shell of
a Sacred Heart of Jesus statue nearby
and threw it down a fl ight of
steps leading to the rectory basement.
Th e statue dropped about 12
feet and shattered at the bottom.
Th e entire incident lasted about six
minutes in total.
“He just walks away like it’s nothing,”
Schwarz said while watching
footage of the suspect fl eeing the
scene on foot.
But two hours aft er the incident,
law enforcement sources said they
caught the alleged vandal, identifi
ed as 26-year-old Sung Lee
of Bellerose, standing outside of
American Martyrs. He was charged
with criminal contempt, aggravated
harassment and criminal mischief.
Detectives later tacked on additional
charges of aggravated harassment
and criminal mischief, both as
hate crimes, which would add jail
time upon conviction.
Police sources said they did not
yet know what spurred Lee to
allegedly vandalize the church statues.
American Martyrs, which serves
a congregation consisting of about
1,200 households, has been the target
of vandalism before, according
to Schwarz.
In August, a young man through
bricks through one of the church’s
windows and was later apprehended
by police. In December, the fi ngers
of a statue of St. Isaac Jogues
in the church’s prayer garden were
discovered bent backwards. In
October and earlier this month, the
church’s large “Bingo” sign along
Union Turnpike sustained damaged.
Schwarz said he informed the
congregation about the vandalism
during the weekend Masses.
“When I told the congregation,
you could hear the sighs,” he said.
“A lot of people were visibly upset.
We still have the statue out the
back, and when Masses let out, people
went by to pray.”
Th e pastor noted that some community
members have already
approached him about paying to
replace the statues.
“I realize that it’s only a statue,
but it has value to us because it’s a
representation of something that’s
very dear to us Catholics: the blessed
mother and the Sacred Heart of
Jesus,” he said. “Th ese are things we
have great devotion to, and to just
blatantly damaged something like
that would be upsetting for anybody.”
Robert Pozarycki contributed to
the story.
Father Frank Schwartz of American Martyrs Church in Bayside