The 106th Precinct in Ozone Park, Queens is egregiously obstructing commuting public space on both sides of the street with police vehicles and their cars, notably on top of a handicap cut curb ramp. by a public park named after a cop who died in the line of duty. The cop the park was memorialized for, Officer Nicholas Demutiis, got killed trying to stop a car thief that ran him over on that same block.
This falls in line with what the NYPD has been doing at their other
precincts as they turn the areas around their taxpayer funded buildings into makeshift fortresses,
especially with all the frequent protests that has occurred in the last
five months along with a majority of citizens calling for defunding and
abolishing of the police and the budget cuts that followed in July. A
recent incident that got some viral attention involved a reporter from
bike advocate news site Streetsblog who got stopped, questioned and also
threatened for arrest when she exposed the NYPD using a playground as parking lot for their vehicles (with permission by the NYC Parks dept).
But the 106th truly stands out for their brazen territoriality of public space. And to show that their annexing of sidewalks isn’t a new thing, this precinct has been parking vehicles on this sidewalk and the one across the street for quite a while now.
Update:
Now it's clear why auto body shops and car dealers have been getting away with curbstoning all these years.
