Chaos erupted in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New York City district on Tuesday when a Democrat politician was chased out of a public square because he backs a recent police crackdown on illegal sex work plaguing the area.
Hiram Monserrate, a former New York state Senator who is running for state Assembly, was giving interviews to the media praising the police when he was set upon by raging protesters who had been holding a rally calling for the NYPD and state troopers to stop shutting down brothels – as well as illegal street vendors who sell hot food and flog other merchandise without permits.
The Queens neighborhood is well known as a “Red Light” district, with some residents comparing the unsanitary and seedy conditions to a “Third World” country.
The demonstrators say residents need to accept prostitution and vendors as a way of life in the neighborhood.
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“More resources, no more raids,” the group chanted while surrounding Monserrate, who was speaking to press about 50 feet away from where the rally was simultaneously taking place at Corona Plaza.
As the chants grew louder, Monserrate stopped speaking, hoping the crowd would temper down, but Mateo Guerrero – who had been directing the rally for a local migrant nonprofit and later called for sex workers and residents to coexist – began getting in Monserrate’s face.
The ex-lawmaker then attempted to walk away but Guerrero and other members of the group chased after and heckled Monserrate, who at first walked to the front of a store and then turned around and made his way through the outskirts of the square.
Guerrero continued roaring while demonstrator Biney Garcia got in front of Monserrate holding a sign reading, “Do not decide for sex workers” while wearing a nonprofit’s T-shirt with “Here to stay” emblazoned on the back. Garcia and Guerrero say they are members of the trans community.
“You are against me, against my community and you have been doing that for many years,” said Garcia, who previously worked as a sex worker on Roosevelt Avenue, which has garnered the nickname “Avenue of the Sweethearts” due to the number of sex workers who line the streets there.
“You are never going to get our vote, never… You can leave now,” Garcia fumed, directing Monserrate away from the square. “You are not welcome here. Get out of here.”
Monserrate, accompanied by local activist Ramon Ramirez at that point, eventually fled the square.
As they crossed the road, the crowd shouted “sex work is work” while another fuming protester yelled, “God does not exist” in Spanish and English.
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Fox News Digital later caught up with Monserrate and Ramirez, who took cover on the next block out of sight from the angry crowd.
“There was actually more cameras than activists and the majority of the people there weren’t even from this community,” Monserrate said, playing down the heated exchange.
“What’s important here is that there’s obviously a lot of energy, there’s anger, but the fact of the matter is Roosevelt Avenue has been under a crime wave, it’s an urban crime zone. And these police officers that we got from the city and the state troopers are incredibly necessary to just get a handle on the crime in this community, which has been unprecedented.”
Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched “Operation Restore Roosevelt,” which aims to crack down on miscreant behavior over the next 90 days by deploying more than 200 extra police officers to the area, including state troopers.
Last month, Fox News Digital cameras recorded a line of at least 19 alleged sex workers scantily-clad on a sidewalk on one block along Roosevelt Avenue. Around the corner, there were at least seven more, and a woman on the next block was witnessed offering sex for $60.
Fox News Digital even recorded an alleged sex worker and her client emerging from a well-known brothel that has been raided at least twice in recent weeks.
“We have more brothels than bodegas. We have brothels in front of schools, next to churches, 24-hour sex workers walking the streets freely at all hours of the day while parents are taking their kids to school. It’s unacceptable,” Monserrate told Fox News Digital.
“And so the community stood up… We called on the government and we called on the mayor and they responded. We are here to say we support our police. We want them here on Roosevelt Avenue.”
He called on residents to attend a rally on Sunday at 3 p.m. in support of the police who have been busy raiding brothels since the operation went into effect.
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The Roosevelt Avenue strip is represented by “Squad” member Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrat Rep. Grace Meng. Ocasio-Cortez has not responded to requests for comment on the situation in her district. Monserrate said neither Meng nor Ocasio-Cortez have responded to his requests to attend rallies to clean up the streets of Roosevelt Avenue.
The battle between sex workers and illegal vendors on one hand, and law and order proponents on the other, has been brewing in the neighborhood for years.
Many sex workers and illegal vendors who operate in the area are migrants. With limited English and difficulty accessing legitimate work, they say they are forced onto the streets to survive and maintain that what they do does not hurt anybody.
They are often drawn to the area since various migrant nonprofit groups, such as Make The Road New York, which organized the rally, provide resources and help them with immigration advice and obtaining work permits.
Law and order proponents like Monserrate say the illegal activity has transformed the two-mile strip of Roosevelt Avenue into a crime-ridden and dirt-infested neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Guerrero, who is originally from Colombia and is Make The Road New York’s trans justice and leadership program manager, according to the group’s website, returned to the rally and condemned the police crackdown, saying “State troopers in our streets are terrifying.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital afterward, Guerrero was unapologetic for confronting Monserrate and called for the raids to end.
He’s not listening to our communities. What our communities are saying is we need housing, we need health care, we need employment, we need education, we don’t need more police.”
“I’ve lived in Roosevelt Avenue my entire life. This is the area where I grew up and this is a community space. This is where grandmothers and kids and street vendors and sex workers learn to live together.”
“Sex workers have always been in Roosevelt Avenue. This community has been here since the 70s. Sex workers are a part of the community,” Guerrero said.
After the rally had ended, Garcia and other Make The Road activists were seen a couple of blocks away handing out leaflets in support of Proposition 1. The measure would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Critics say it will pave the way for illegal migrants voting in elections.
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“No work is illegal,” Garcia told Fox News Digital, adding that trans people find it harder to secure regular work because of who they are, which forces them into the sex industry. “If you are choosing your body to sell your body to do sex work, that is a way to survive, nobody is pushing you to do it because New York City is too expensive.”
That sentiment was echoed Cathy Lopez, a trans woman and current sex worker who’s been working the streets of Roosevelt Avenue for 10 years.
Lopez, who moved to New York from Colombia 25 years ago, worked previously in a beauty salon but went into prostitution to earn more money.
“Sex work is good because you are not doing nothing bad for nobody,” Lopez said.
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