|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Bklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field Neighbors Roiled Over Migrants’ Lawlessness’
By: Ilana Siyance
Residents near Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field have been outraged by the chaos, shoplifting, and panhandling that has enveloped the New York City neighborhood.
Since November, the site has been used as a makeshift shelter to house over 2,000 migrants who crossed over from the Southern borders. As reported by the NY Post, locals have been complaining that the once-serene site has turned into an eyesore, at which crime, brutal brawls and smoking pot have become routine. “This s#-t is out of control,” said a long-time NYPD officer, referring to Floyd Bennett Field’s current state. “That’s all these people do is rob and steal. They should feel lucky that they’re here, but they’re out there committing crimes. We don’t know anything about them. We don’t know what they’ve done in these other countries.”
Video by Assemblywoman Jaime Williams of NY. She recorded the towing of pricey vehicles which are owned by migrants staying at Floyd Bennett Field tent shelter. #BorderCrisis #NewYork #BorderInvasion #unit pic.twitter.com/zZqnZTiaLH
— mysteriousgreeneyes70 (@cheri_dimi57977) January 10, 2024
Since spring 2022, some164,000 illegal border crossers have been bused into New York. Roughly 68,000 of the asylum seekers are currently in the city’s care. In August, President Joe Biden’s administration authorized the federally-run site to be used as extra housing for the flood of incoming migrants in NYC. The former historic airfield, situated in the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn, was opened in 1930 for use by the United States Coast Guard and United States Navy, lauded as NYC’s first municipal airport. By 1998, however, it lay mostly vacant and while there was much talk about developing the site into a housing complex or amusement park, not much was done there. In total the area consists of over 1,300 acres of grassland, salt marshes, tidal mudflats, with a marina and airfield.
Per the Post, since the tent complex was opened, fist fights have become common place at Floyd Bennett Field. There were four migrants arrested there in December, with charges including menacing, assault, weapons-possession, and endangering children. “It’s a small space with a lot of people in it, so people argue like this, and they fight about things like food and clothes,” said a 36-year-old Ecuadorian staying at the tent center with her three children. “They also get mad about other people being too loud, not watching their kids. I’ve seen women get into fights about clothes. They pull each other’s hair.”
“Take care of your own first” – I spoke to rally attendies outside Floyd Bennett Field, who were upset, drawing comparison between how migrants are treated and homeless.
Curtis Sliwa led the rally demanding that unsafe ‘Tent City’ migrant facility shuts down. pic.twitter.com/20WrvL2O9P
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) January 11, 2024
Stealing has also plagued nearby grocers and retailers. Per the Post, at the Target near Kings Plaza, one security guard estimated that up to 10 migrants a day steal bread, rice, and other groceries. He added that they come in as a family to create a diversion. “Thieves will walk in an aisle where there’s not a lot of cameras to conceal [the pilfered items] and put it in their jacket and walk out,” said the guard, adding, “it’s always a family, a single mother with her kid who has a toy … I feel sympathy but that could be [a distraction tactic].”
A manager at the local Primark store spoke of similar “family style” migrant shoplifting of clothing, undergarments and other “necessities.” “They’ve had to resort to kids hiding the items in their clothes, the kids walking out, and [the parents] following behind,” said the Primark manager at Kings Plaza.
Other crime is also up in the area. NYPD records for the 63rd Precinct, which covers the neighborhoods near Floyd Bennett Field, show a 37% increase in car thefts, 29% increase in robberies, and 8% uptick in petit larceny from Nov. 27 through Jan. 7, compared to the same time frame last year.
Migrants also gather along Flatbush Avenue for panhandling and scams including running into the street, pretending to get hit and trying to exhort hush money, The Post reported.
The tent city has no smoking signs throughout, but it reeks of pot, as migrants disregard the rules. “People smoke all the time here,” Edison Sanchez, a 37-year-old Ecuadorian told the Post. “I don’t, but I see people smoking weed. And the bathrooms smell because they’re always in there smoking.”
A rep for Arrow Security, who provides security at the site, declined comment
