FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 29, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19
Queens community speaks out against hateful graffi ti
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Jamaica Estates is no place for hate.
Th at was the message residents and
elected offi cials delivered outside the former
Holliswood Hospital on Friday, June
23, aft er racial and anti-Semitic graffi ti
was discovered there last week.
During the June 23 press conference,
Assemblyman David Weprin,
Councilman Barry Grodenchik, state
Senator Leroy Comrie and the neighborhood’s
religious and civic leaders railed
against the painted and carved symbols,
including a KKK symbol and swastikas,
discovered on the facade of the building.
Additional graffi ti was also discovered
inside the hospital containing hateful
language directed toward African-
Americans.
Th e hospital, located at 87-37 Palermo
St., was closed in August of 2013. Th e site
has been abandoned since.
According to Weprin, the hateful graffi
ti was fi rst discovered on Sunday, June
18, and the incident is being investigated
as a hate crime by both the NYPD’s
Hate Crimes Task Force and the 107th
Precinct. Authorities from the Hate
Crimes Task Force have since been on
site three or four times and are currently
looking into a potentially suspicious
car seen on the premises, the assemblyman
continued.
At the press conference, Weprin called
the acts of vandalism an “assault” on the
diverse community’s values.
“Th e people of Queens stand together
as a community against each and every
incident of hate, and I thank my colleagues,
religious clergy and civic leaders
for joining me today to speak out
against these despicable acts of vandalism,”
Weprin said.
“Th e despicable actions of the vandals
who defaced the Holliswood Hospital site
neither represent nor have a place in our
community,” Comrie added. “Queens is
a bastion of harmonious diversity —
and that’s what makes us great. I thank
Assembly Member Weprin for bringing
the community together to reaffi rm this.”
In the wake of the incident, members
of the community at the press conference
called for increased surveillance in the
neighborhood, as well as lighting outside
of the abandoned site.
Rabbi Moshe Taub of Young Israel of
Holliswood also spoke out against the
hateful incident.
“Queens in general and Holliswood
in particular is known for its diversity,”
he said. “On the weekends one
fi nds in Holliswood Sikhs, Muslims and
Jews — the three main demographics of
Holliswood — walking with their families.
Th is act was a stain on this beautiful
and diverse community. Th is is not to
mention the survivors of the Holocaust
who already have their arms painted by
the Nazis and who now must also have
to witness a sign painted on the walls
of their neighborhood that brings them
back to years of torture. Sad and infuriating.”
Weprin’s offi ce will work with the
building’s owner to see that the graffi -
ti is removed.
Queens pols react to mayor’s Rikers closure ‘roadmap’
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in
March that he would begin to take steps
to shut down Rikers Island and on
Th ursday, he released a 53-page plan to
outline his next steps.
“Smaller, Safer, Fairer: A roadmap to
closing Rikers Island” describes the mayor’s
plan to close the violence-plagued
prison and replace it with a network of
smaller jails in the boroughs.
“We are not off ering a quick fi x. Rikers
Island cannot be closed overnight,” De
Blasio wrote in a letter. “It will require the
work of many–city and state criminal justice
agencies, elected offi cials, prosecutors,
defenders, courts, program providers,
New Yorkers and their communities–
to ultimately close Rikers Island. Th is will
be a long and diffi cult path.”
Before offi cially closing the prison, the
city will focus on reducing the prison
population. Currently, there are an average
of 9,400 people in city jails but there
is only room for 2,300 in borough facilities.
Th e city plans to reduce that population
to about 7,000 in fi ve years and
eventually reaching 5,000 before it closes
Rikers Island.
To do that, a Justice Implementation
Task Force with city and state offi cials
will be created to implement certain programs
and initiatives. Elizabeth Glazer,
Director of the Mayor’s Offi ce Criminal
Justice and Zachary Carter, Corporation
Counsel of the City of New York will
chair the task force.
For example, to make Rikers Island
smaller, they city will work to make it easier
to pay bail, replace short jail sentences
with programs that reduce recidivism,
reduce the number of women and people
with behavioral health needs in city jails,
expand pre-trial diversion to allow more
defendants to wait for trial in the community
instead of in jail and more.
Starting in July, the city will invest
$3.5 million per year in new programs
in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan
to reduce the number of people held in
jail for 30 days or less. Judges will be able
to sentence people to programs such as
community service, transitional employment,
case management and behavioral
health treatment.
Money will also be invested into
decreasing the number of women in jail.
Every year, approximately 510 women
who are homeless are admitted to city
jails.
To make city jails safer, the city plans to
use the more than $1 billion in the city’s
capital plan to make improvements to all
city jails, triple the number of housing
units designed for individuals with serious
mental illness, build a new training
academy for correction offi cer training
and implementing full camera coverage
in all city jails by the end of 2017.
Lastly, the city aims to make the culture
in city jails “fairer” by off ering everyone
in city custody fi ve hours per day
of education, vocational and therapeutic
programming by the end of 2018, providing
reentry support and transitional
employment programs, improving visiting
hours and better support for correctional
offi cers including peer mentoring
and services to help deal with distress
and trauma.
“For far too long, both inmates and
corrections offi cers at Rikers Island have
lived through an untenable situation,”
said Congressman Joe Crowley. “Shutting
down this outdated facility in favor of
smaller, more modern and humane facilities
is a complex endeavor but the absolute
right thing to do.”
Some are arguing that the 10 year timeline
is too long and steps can be taken to
shut down the jail sooner.
“Th e mayor’s ‘plan’ barely expands
supervised release, abdicates responsibility
for the siting of new jails, and is overly
reliant for keeping people out of jail on
an updated ‘fl ight risk’ assessment tool
that currently does not even exist,” said
Queens Councilman Rory Lancman. “Let
there be no doubt: New York City can
close Rikers Island in less than ten years,
if we have the leadership and political will
required to do so.”
Glenn E. Martin, President and Founder
of JustLeadershipUSA and member of the
task force originally tasked with fi nding
improvements to the city’s criminal justice
system, argues that “10 years is way
too long.”
“Many of the barriers to speedy closure
are not questions of feasibility or
aff ordability, but of political will, and
thus far the Mayor has been nothing
short of unwilling,” Martin said. “He has
been reluctant to work with oppositional
voices, even when they are the very people
who have been most harmed by his
policies. If de Blasio is truly committed,
action will begin now.”
Richmond Hill man
admits to fatally
stabbing his cousin
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com / @QNS
Police have arrested a man who
allegedly stabbed his roommate
to death in Richmond Hill early on
Monday morning.
At 2:27 a.m. on June 26, offi cers from
the 102nd Precinct responded to a 911
call of a person stabbed at 94-28 117th
St., between Atlantic and 95th avenues.
Upon their arrival, police found
a 26-year-old man, who has been identifi
ed as Sharanjit Singh, unconscious
and unresponsive with a stab wound in
his neck.
EMS responded to the scene and
transported the victim to Jamaica
Hospital, where Singh was declared
dead on arrival.
Pursuant to an ongoing investigation,
police arrested Lovedeep Singh,
24, the victim’s cousin and roommate
in connection to the stabbing.
According to charges, Singh admitted
to police that he fatally stabbed his
cousin in the neck and torso.
Singh was charged with murder
and weapon possession charges and is
being held without bail. If convicted,
he faces 25 years in prison.
Photos provided by Assemblyman David Weprin’s offi ce
Hateful graffi ti found on the exterior and interior of the abandoned Holliswood building.
Photo by Robert Stridiron