Cops aim to ramp up security at 2020 Santa Rosalia Feast
BENSONHURST – The recent 43rd Annual Santa Rosalia Festival, a celebration of Italian-American pride that drew tens of thousands of people to 18th Avenue to munch on sausage sandwiches and rice balls and enjoy rides on the Ferris wheel, was plagued this year by rowdy young people bent on causing trouble, according to police.
Things got so bad that police had to order the street fair to close down early on three of the 10 nights it took place, Capt. Anthony Longobardi, the commanding officer of the 62nd Precinct, told Community Board 11.
“The feast is over. It was taxing, to say the least,” Longobardi told the community board at a meeting on Sept. 12. “We had to shut it down early three nights.”