By Connor Adams Sheets
City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) had not learned anything new as of Tuesday into an unannounced law enforcement raid on Willets Point last week that led to the arrests of more than a dozen workers, according to her spokesman.
“We haven’t received any more information from the NYPD, so I think things are pretty much the same,” Seth Barron said Tuesday morning.
Ferreras was working to uncover the details surrounding the Dec. 8 morning raid that brought business to a halt in the district Dec. 8.
Next week she will hold a meeting with Willets Point tenants and Department of Housing Preservation and Development representatives to hash out issues involving leases on some properties there.
Ferreras held a protest in the neglected neighborhood last Thursday morning to decry the raid, which crippled commerce there for the remainder of the day as most shops kept their doors closed until Thursday morning.
“These are businesses — these people need to keep their doors open. Willets Point was completely shut down yesterday because of fear,” Ferreras told a group of workers and tenants who joined her at Willets Point Boulevard and 37th Avenue to protest the raid. “Enough is enough. We’re here to say Willets Point is open for business.”
A multi-agency sweep of the pothole-ridden, bustling home of car repair shops, junkyards and bus lots in the shadow of Citi Field led to the arrests of at least 15 people, according to Marco Neira, a local shop owner and president of the Willets Point Defense Committee, a group of Willets Point tenants and workers. Ferreras said she was told that some of the arrested may have been customers passing through.
The raid, conducted by government agencies, including the NYPD and the city Buildings and Housing departments, began about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, when an estimated 200 law enforcement officers in more than 50 vehicles arrived at the Iron Triangle, blocking several entrances and exits and stopping anyone from coming or going for more than six hours, Neira said. Ferreras said “dozens” of officers participated.
“I tried to drive up the street [into Willets Point] and the police said, ‘This is a secured area, you can’t come in.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? I live here,’” the Iron Triangle’s only resident, Joseph Ardizzone, recounted Thursday. “I was running up and down the streets telling everyone to close up since they were coming through to ticket everyone.”
The officers proceeded to arrest six people for dismantling cars without a license, four people for falsifying business documents, two people for illegal possession of a forged instrument, two for having a suspended license, one for interfering with the investigation of an officer and one for bribing authority, according to an official report obtained by the newspaper El Diario. As many as 100 vehicles were confiscated for having no registrations or plates, including a broken-down ice cream truck, according to Ardizzone.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, and Ferreras said even she had not been able to get the police to fill her in on the specifics of the raid as of Thursday afternoon.
Many workers and local landlords believe the raid was directly related to the fact that the city plans to build a multibillion-dollar development project at Willets Point. The city wants to relocate existing businesses and maybe even use eminent domain to clear the land in pursuit of its development goals, which area tenants and landlords say leaves them up against a wall.
“They were harassing us. I have no intention of selling or giving anything to [the city] Economic Development [Corp.],” Ardizonne said. “I think it’s wrong. I don’t think this is a democracy anymore, I think it’s a dictatorship.”
EDC spokeswoman Julie Wood vehemently disagreed with the insinuation that the EDC’s plans to redevelop the area had anything to do with the raid.
“The allegation that this raid is in any way related to the development is absolutely false, and that is not the way the city does business,” she said.
Ferreras said she had been told that the raid was aimed at cleaning up auto theft and “chop shops” in the area, a goal she applauded but that she believed was pursued in the wrong manner, as the sweep mostly led to minor arrests, some of which could cause major headaches for the heavily immigrant workforce.
“No one is surprised that Willets Point has those who are undocumented here, and the fact that you arrest them on something that should have been a desk appearance, and now they may very well be facing deportation — that’s not what this city is about,” Ferreras said. “If there is any impropriety in Willets Point, we applaud the fact that they’re focusing on auto theft here in Willets Point. However, there should be a tactic that is smarter, a tactic that is timed properly.”
Julia Sandoval, owner of WJ Auto Repair on 127th Street in the Iron Triangle, said the simple fact that she had to close for the day had an impact on her bottom line.
“We need to support our families. I’m a single mother and I have to support four children, but they came yesterday and shut everything down,” she said. “All we ask is for someplace to be relocated so we can keep working.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
