FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 18, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19
Miller seeks
bill to assist
crime victims
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Hoping to put power back in the hands
of crime victims, Assemblyman Michael
Miller announced that he helped pass a
legislative package that included measures
to support victims of human traffi
cking, broaden the defi nition of rape
and protect individuals who report
crimes to keep the fear of repercussions
from standing in the way of justice.
“Th e trauma that stems from surviving
a crime, be it physical, emotional or psychological,
can take years to begin healing,”
Miller said. “We must remember
the hardships these victims have gone
through and treat them with compassion.
Th is legislation provides the support
and resources that let crime victims
get back on their feet and know they are
not alone on the path to healing.”
To alleviate the fi nancial burden for
victims and their families, the package
includes a measure allowing courts to
direct all or a portion of antitrust fi nes
to the Offi ce of Victims Services, creating
another revenue source to fund its
victims’ assistance and victims’ award
programs. Another bill makes domestic
partners of homicide victims eligible
for crime victims’ compensation and
expands benefi ts to include out-of-pocket
expenses, such as counseling.
To support victims of rape and sexual
assault, Miller helped pass a measure
to remove the penetration requirement
from the defi nition of rape. Th e bill also
expands to defi nition to include other
forms of nonconsensual sexual conduct
that are currently recognized by the law
as criminal sexual acts.
“Th e level of sexual violence that continues
to plague our country is staggering
and heartbreaking, and all too oft en,
we see those responsible walk freely due
to technicalities,” Miller said. “Victims
of sexual abuse deal with unimaginable
amount of physical and emotional pain.
By updating an outdated criminal statute
and recognizing that ‘rape is rape,’ this
legislation will help ensure their perpetrators
face justice.”
Th e package also includes a measure
to ensure victims of human traffi cking
aren’t unjustly penalized for crimes
committed against them. Th e legislation
exempts those convicted of a prostitution
off ense, or who are identifi ed as victims
of traffi cking, from having to provide
DNA to be included in the state
database.
Th e package also includes legislation
to expand eligibility for awards from
OVS to victims of unlawful surveillance
and dissemination of an unlawful surveillance
image. Another measure would
expand the list of crimes for which a
child victim, who endures or witnesses
certain violations, may receive awards.
Backlash over Queens protest at property owner’s temple
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@qns.com
@QNS
Queens City Councilman Rory
Lancman condemned the Glendale
Middle Village Coalition’s protest on
April 13 aft er QNS reported that the
protesters marched outside the Long
Island synagogue of the man who owns
a defunct Glendale factory being eyed as
either a public school or homeless shelter.
“Protesting outside a person’s synagogue
on the Sabbath because they
might not develop their private property
the way you want is a grotesque act
of anti-Semitism and fully deserves our
unqualifi ed condemnation. Th e so-called
‘Glendale Middle Village Coalition’ members
should be ashamed of themselves,
and should apologize for their repugnant
conduct,” Lancman wrote in a press
statement.
Lancman represents central Queens
and is currently running for Queens district
attorney.
Two coach buses full of protesters drove
to Temple Or Elohim in Jericho, where
Michael Wilner, who owns the factory at
78-16 Cooper Ave., sits as the synagogue’s
president. Before they ended up at the
synagogue, the group began the protest at
Wilner’s house to demand that the abandoned
factory in Glendale be developed
into a school instead of a shelter.
Th e following video, captured by Lee
Rottenberg, who was one of the protesters,
shows the group walking through
synagogue’s parking lot and being confronted
by one of the congregants.
Mike Papa, one of the protest’s organizers,
dismissed Lancman’s charge and
stressed that it had “nothing to do with
religion.”
“Lancman is probably just using this
situation to get his name in print, however
I will not allow him to turn this peaceful
rally to promote a plan sponsored by
our District Councilman Robert Holden
to build a school for handicapped children
in our community into another fabricated
case of anti-Semitism. Th is has
nothing to do with religion and everything
to do with community,” said Papa.
Papa added that the coalition had
“many Jewish neighbors” participate in
the rally that day and that he was not trying
to hurt or disrespect any Jewish members
of the community.
For his part, Holden echoed Lancman’s
message to the protesters.
“When I found out that the protesters
went to the synagogue, I immediately
condemned the organizers for it in person,”
said Holden. “I agree that it is repugnant
conduct and the organizers of the
rally should apologize.”
Asked for a response to Holden’s statement,
Papa said that Holden had “condemned
no one” when he met them aft er
the protest on April 13.
LIC mourns the loss of its ‘mayor,’ Frank Carrado
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Long Island City bid farewell to its
unoffi cial mayor on Tuesday as hundreds
attended a Mass of Christian Burial at
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on
Vernon Boulevard.
Frank Carrado was a beloved link to the
past of what is now the fastest-growing
neighborhood in the country prior to his
death last week following complications
from a stroke. He was 89.
Before there were towering luxury
apartment buildings along the waterfront
along the East River, Long Island City was
the gritty soot covered industrial center of
Queens where Carrado grew up and lived
his entire life. He watched the neighborhood
change over the decade through the
viewfi nder of his camera and his photography
hangs in building lobbies, bars and
restaurants around the neighborhood.
“I go so far back in this town that I
remember there used to be a community
bathhouse,” Carrado said in a 2014 interview.
“It used to be right next to the Fire
Department on 47th Road. Nobody had
their own showers back then.”
Th e “mayor of LIC” recalled a time
when he was a young boy back in the
1930s and 1940s when factory smoke
stacks belched out so much soot it would
cover the entire neighborhood.
“It would be everywhere, on the cars,
the buildings; you could not even hang
out your laundry on the clothes line
because it would get all black,” Carrado
wrote in a letter to QNS in 2011. “If you
walked out of your house you would
think you were walking on the moon as
the soot would cover the sidewalks, too.
Th at was really something to see.”
Carrado saw much during his life in
Long Island City and he loved to talk
about his memories such as the East
River being so polluted “you could walk
on top of the garbage.” As a 10-year-old
boy, Carrado and his buddies would wait
down by the railroad between Vernon
Boulevard and Fift h Street like Spanky in
the old Our Gang TV series.
“When a train would come in, my
friends and I would climb up on the
train and get a 50-pound bag of coal. We
would carefully get down and carry the
bag around to our neighbors’ houses,” he
wrote. “Coal was very important because
it was the way people would heat their
houses back then. We would go around
and sell the coal for 50 cents. Th at was a
lot of money to us back then. We had a
great business going.”
Back then, the neighborhood was primarily
Irish and Italian, Carrado recalled.
“Everyone intermarried. Th e Irish
women didn’t like the Irish men’s drinking
habits, so they married the Italians
and the Italian women didn’t like the
Italian men’s temperament, so they married
the Irish,” he said.
Carrado watched as the Irish and the
Italians began to age and die out to be
replaced by a much younger demographic
soon aft er 2000.
“Th at’s when all the factories started
coming down, the old Pepsi factory and
Admiral TV, they all came down and
these high-rise apartment building started
going up,” Carrado said.
Unlike many of the neighborhood’s
elder gentry, Carrado enjoyed the company
of the newcomers to Long Island City.
He would even show them the ancient
manhole covers in front of the 108th
Precinct on 50th Avenue.
Carrado’s wife predeceased him,
and he is survived by his daughter and
three grandchildren. His interment was
at Calvary Cemetery, not far from the
neighborhood he loved his entire life.
File photo
Photo: Max Parrott/THE COURIER
/WWW.QNS.COM
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