Spring in South Queens is off to a despairingly dangerous start,
particularly with targeted muggings of elderly Indian Sikh men in the
same vicinity that’s located on Lefferts Blvd near a Guawdara Temple one
block west. First was a violent assault on a 70-year-old man going on
an early morning stroll and a little over a week later two other elderly
Sikh men were mugged and robbed by two men on the same corner around
the same time. In both incidents, the criminals knocked their turbans religious headwear off their heads, giving credence to Sikh community leaders theories of being hate crimes against them.
The two men involved in the brutal attacks eventually got arrested after being on the lam for a few weeks, one of them who was involved in both crimes. Yet something caught my eye from the Queens Chronicle report after the young man involved in the second attack:
Two Sikh men were attacked Tuesday morning in Richmond Hill near where a hate crime against a member of the same community occurred last week. One man is in custody and another is still at large.
The incident occurred near the intersection of 95th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard just after 7 a.m., according to police, a block from the Sikh Cultural Society gurdwara.
Officers found the two men, 76 and 64 years old, with minor injuries to the head and body. A preliminary investigation determined that the victims were approached by two men who struck them both on the head and body with closed fists and a wooden stick. The victims were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
The assailants removed religious headwear from the men and stole their money. The incident is being treated as a robbery and a hate crime, according to police.
Hezekiah Coleman, 20 years old, who police say was squatting at 95-54 Lefferts Blvd., was taken into custody and charged with robbery, assault, hate crimes and aggravated harassment, officials said.
Police believe the suspect they have not caught also committed last week’s assault against Nirmal Singh, 70, said Community Affairs Officer Scott Adelman of the 102nd Precinct at the Community Board 9 meeting on Tuesday night.
The 102nd has a directed post at 95-54 Lefferts Blvd., which appears to be abandoned. It is believed that both suspects were squatters there.
“That car will not leave until the perpetrator is caught,” said Adelman.
Sukhjinder Singh Nijjar is the chairman of external affairs and the elections commission at the Sikh Cultural Society. He says the society is working with the precinct and hate crimes unit in the aftermath of the attacks.
He hopes to see increased police presence and is working to get a car permanently assigned for the temple area. On Wednesday, he and a group of about 15 community members met at the temple at 3 a.m. to patrol.
“We’re exploring all these avenues to see if we can have this area covered, not only for our local Sikh community, but also many other multicultural communities in this area,” he said, adding that the society will continue to hold elected officials accountable on delivering on their promises.
Strong words indeed, especially to elected officials who continue to remain insouciant to the rapid rise of crime in Queens and the other four boroughs and most of all to the party all the time mayor Eric Adams. But in the case they should hold the Queens Chronicle accountable for getting the address of the house were the suspects were squatting in (twice in the same article). The actual address is 94-54 Lefferts Blvd, and this house has a sordid past and currently is casting an ominous aura. I covered this house exactly one year ago right after a man was found dead on the porch one morning, a result of being bludgeoned in the head by two other homeless men.
Evidently, this abandoned house has got even worse and more squatters are occupying it even if they can’t get inside.
8 comments:
One mans trash is another mans treasure.
At least those Sikh men have a safety helmet for protection. Not everyone has that much.
This really shows the local politicians, the police, and owners of the abandoned looking out for the citizens safety in that neighborhood.
Abandoned home constantly being invaded by violent homeless men should have been on the HPD, and the police radar. Especially when one dead homeless individual was found there.
But as usual, that area is ignored by the "elected officials" and city agencies who are supposed to be looking out for the people they serve.
From the NYC.Gov website:
How NYC is tackling the problem of ‘zombie homes’
November 25, 2019
By Valeria Ricciulli (Read the story in Curbed)
according to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD). These properties, which HPD calls “zombie homes,” often fall into disrepair when owners fall behind on mortgage payments. Aside from being neighborhood “eyesores,” these properties often attract squatters, and can become overrun with rodents and trash. (Last week, three men died in a fire in an abandoned property in Queens.)
To prevent these homes’s foreclosures and crack down on “zombie properties” the state legislature passed a package of laws in 2016 requiring lenders to inspect, maintain, and report zombie homes to the state. In order to help the state, in the fall of 2017, HPD launched a “Zombie Homes Initiative” to track and identify these properties, conduct exterior surveys, provide resources to homeowners at risk of foreclosure, and create new approaches to “return zombie homes to productive use.”
One of those possible productive uses is affordable housing—which New York City is in dire need of as it faces a homelessness and affordability crisis.
“There should be no vacant and abandoned homes in a city undergoing a housing affordability crisis,” a spokesperson from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, which is advising HPD on transforming these properties. “We would like to see these properties repaired and returned to the market as affordable homeownership opportunities for New York families.”
This new law dealing with "zombie homes" in NYC fell through the cracks, just like so many other laws on the books.
Urban Decay at it's best with some good old lawlessness caused by DemOrat Electurds.
How much is the rent in that place ?
What happened to making America great again. Did that not happen after 4 years?
In any red state these homes would be restored and gentrified.
In NYC the paramount concern is a safe haven for potential blue state voters. This requires anything that obviously once had charm (but would attract the wrong voter) needs to be allowed to decay so that souless ugly barracks are put up with citizens (?) to vote the right way or more likely not vote at all.
Move on folks there is nothing to see here but to allow nature (and nuture) to take its course.
America was made great again for career criminals, rapists, sex predators, billionaires, bankers, wall street, real estate greedy developers, gang bangers, gun makers, mass shooters, thieves, lowlifes, and drug addicts.
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