Local New York leaders from the hometown of liberal Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are demanding an FBI investigation into illicit activities consuming AOC’s district.
A large group of Queens, NY bipartisan activists known as the Restore Roosevelt Avenue Coalition have called on FBI Director Kash Patel to use federal resources to purge a rash of illegal activities happening under the nose of AOC’s hometown district.
The grassroots group have held several separate protests in recent weeks outside what they said are well-known brothels that continue to grow within AOC’s district.
The brothels are located near the troubled Roosevelt Avenue corridor in Queens, a two-mile commercial strip which has been plagued with crime, prostitution and violence for years, so much so that it’s often referred to as a red-light district despite repeated crackdowns by the NYPD.
NYPD officials told Fox News they’ve arrested 350 people so far this year for prostitution-related offenses in and around the now infamous strip.
According to reports, one brothel hides beside a bodega, while another moonlights as a massage parlor.
During a weekend protest, one of the seedy locations had its run-down doorway plastered with “Shut it down” signs as demonstrators urged the feds to wipe out the illegal and dangerous locations once and for all.
“We are writing to your agency again, requesting an investigation and enforcement action regarding the ever-worsening situation on the Roosevelt Avenue Corridor,” the Restore Roosevelt Avenue Coalition wrote in a recent letter to Patel. The group advocates for improving the quality of life and ensuring safer streets in the predominantly immigrant neighborhood.
The group identified eight locations they said are known brothels, seven of which are in Ocasio-Cortez’s district, while the other is in fellow progressive Rep. Grace Meng’s district. The group flagged at least five street corners where they said sex workers operate.
The activists praised police efforts but insist the problem is so entrenched that only federal intervention can knock out the gangs and allow families to live without fear.
This isn’t the first time local activists have pleaded with federal officials to help them crackdown on crime in the Queens area.
According to previous reports, they wrote to Patel in previous weeks, and the FBI — working with the DEA and other agencies — arrested eight suspected members of the violent 18th Street gang for allegedly carrying out brutal beatings and stabbings to maintain control of the strip.
“We request that you initiate an investigation into what we understand are gangs engaging in criminal enterprises including human trafficking, illegal narcotics sales and the mass distribution of fraudulent documents which poses a national security threat,” wrote Rosa Sanchez, head of the Restore Roosevelt Avenue Coalition, and Democratic district leader Hiram Monserrate in an Aug. 14 letter to Patel, which was obtained by The New York Post.
The coalition said the arrests showed federal authorities had listened to their past appeals, but insisted only a broader crackdown under federal racketeering and trafficking laws can dismantle the well-entrenched crime networks.
“The rampant prostitution that we see on our streets 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is having an adverse effect on the mental and spiritual health of our children and families,” Rosa Sanchez, the group’s spokesperson, said at last week’s rally. “There is no reason that our children should have to bear witness to the human tragedy of women being forced to sell their bodies for the profits of traffickers and pimps. It is happening in front of our homes. It must stop.”
FBI officials — and AOC’s team — have not commented on the requested resources at the time of publication.
However, the lawlessness has been on official’s radar for a long time, including Democratic NY Gov. Kathy Hochul last year dispatching state troopers to assist the NYPD in policing the area.
The rampant crime has also become a hot-button issue in the polarizing NYC mayoral race.
NYC Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said he would target the landlords who are renting space to pimps and prostitutes.
“You go on the side streets. It’s open-air prostitution in which the girls lure you upstairs. So the number one problem is with the landlords,” said Sliwa, who appeared at the press conference in front of a brothel.
“The landlords openly and knowingly rent their establishments to houses of prostitution, whether they’re on onsite landlord or they’re a landlord who’s not around, you know, a missing-in-action landlord, they should be the ones that are made culpable because these gals would not be able to function if they didn’t have a place to take the johns into.”
He noted Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani had backed legislation to decriminalize prostitution, and claimed Mamdani wouldn’t address the problem.
“I would deal with the problem. I’d go right after the landlords — padlock the buildings….You padlock his facility, you fine him, you threaten to take the building away. Watch how fast they’ll keep the prostitutes away…As mayor, I’m making sure it’s closed down everywhere,” Sliwa said.