Good Morning, Brooklyn: Friday, October 21, 2022

October 21, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NYPD 62nd PRECINCT HOLDS BUILD THE BLOCK MEETING THIS WEEKEND: The NYPD’s 62nd Precinct in Bensonhurst will hold a Build the Block / Sector B Meeting with the Neighborhood Coordinating Officers(NCOs) this weekend, Saturday, October 22, noon, at the Faith, Hope, Love Assembly of G-D, 7504 Bay Parkway. Build the Block meetings provide the opportunity for citizens to discuss neighborhood safety and have their concerns heard and questions answered.

Sector B’s boundaries are 86 Street to 61 Street, 20 Avenue to Bay Parkway, Kings Highway to McDonald Avenue.

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MAYOR CONVENES HIGH LEVEL SUMMIT ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Mayor Eric Adams’ administration will host a high-level summit at Gracie Mansion this weekend with a wide range of stakeholders — including members of the defense bar and the judiciary, advocacy group leaders, district attorneys, and law enforcement. Their goal, according to a statement from the mayor’s office today, will be to find common ground on efforts to keep New Yorkers safe and to identify actionable solutions to ensure that New Yorkers receive both safety and justice from the criminal justice system.

The administration believes that, by gathering experienced leaders and practitioners with a range of perspectives, they can identify areas of common ground and potential solutions on a range of issues, including the pretrial discovery process and the treatment of those with serious mental illness.

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FIRE DEPARTMENT HOLDS PARAMEDIC PROMOTION CEREMONY: The New York City Fire Department will hold a promotion ceremony on Monday for 41 EMS lieutenants and five paramedics. Five EMTs will be promoted to Paramedics, who are trained to provide the highest level of pre-hospital care, and who have extensive training in anatomy and physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology, as well as many critical lifesaving skills: intravenous therapy and medication administration; EKG monitoring and cardiac rhythm interpretation; and advanced airway management.

The ceremony, which takes place at the FDNY Training Academy, Field House, Randall’s Island, will also be livestreamed on the Department’s website, www.nyc.gov/FDNY.

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Kelly Carroll is the Atlantic Avenue BID’s new executive director.
Photo courtesy of Atlantic Avenue BID

ATLANTIC AVE. BID HAS NEW DIRECTOR: The Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District has appointed Kelly Carroll as Executive Director. An award-winning community relations professional with a decade of experience in the non-profit sector in New York City. Ms. Carroll previously served as the Director of Advocacy and Community Outreach at the Historic Districts Council, where she was instrumental in the designation of several New York City historic districts and individual landmarks.

Established in 2011 and representing more than 300 businesses in the vibrant neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill, the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District (AABID) is dedicated to promoting the long-term economic development of Atlantic Avenue from Fourth Avenue to the Waterfront.

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78^TH PRECINCT: MAN ARRESTED IN STABBING DEATH: Earlier today, police arrested a man wanted in connection with a murder within the 78^th Precinct, which covers Park Slope and a portion of Gowanus. Edwin Pedroza, 42, of Staten Island is a suspect in a September 20 argument and stabbing that took place at 248 4 Avenue, a commercial establishment, in Gowanus.

EMS first-responders took Perdroza’s victim, a 37-year-old male, to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

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GROUP LEADERS CHARGED IN INTERNATIONAL HARASSMENT SCHEME: The leaders of a group of seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China were arrested and arraigned today in Brooklyn federal court for participating in a scheme to harass and to cause the forced repatriation of a PRC national residing in the United States. The eight-count indictment against Quanzhong An, his daughter Guangyang An and five others charge them with allegedly acting at the direction and under the control of various officials with the PRC’s government’s Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, to conduct surveillance of and engage in a campaign to harass and coerce a U.S. resident to return to the PRC as part of an international extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”

Quanzhong An and Guangyang An were arrested this morning and were scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr., though the remaining defendants remain at large.

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MEETING NEAR BROWNFIELD DEVELOPMENT IN GOWANUS: Planned housing at the Public Place brownfield, considered to be one of the most toxic sites in the U.S., is the topic of an informational meeting that the Voice of Gowanus and community members are holding today, Friday, October 21 at 9 a.m. (Register via https://www.voiceofgowanus.org/climatefriday-102122_2022). They will convene at Dennett Place between Nelson and Luquer, in Carroll Gardens/Gowanus, one block from where the residential development is planned.

The bullet-point agenda includes presentations of the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation’s and the EPA’s proposed controls of the contamination sources in the neighborhood, and “Gowanus as it relates to Climate Change and Environmental Justice.”

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MAN ARRESTED IN BOERUM HILL GROPING INCIDENT: Police have arrested a man wanted in a groping and punching attack in the 76^th Precinct, which includes Boerum Hill. He is identified as Donald Sutherland (no relation to the Canadian actor), a 34-year-old male residing on Ocean Avenue in Flatbush, and charged with 2^nd degree assault (A Class D felony), forcible touching, 2^nd degree harassment and 3^rd degree sexual abuse (a class 3 misdemeanor).

Last Tuesday, October 11, Sutherland allegedly approached the victim from behind and touched her buttocks and, after an exchange of words, punched the woman on the left side of her face, causing swelling and pain.

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‘NYC GO PURPLE DAY’ LIGHTS UP SOME CITY BUILDINGS FOR DOMESTIC ABUSE AWARENESS: New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced that City Hall and a number of other municipal buildings around the five boroughs will be lit purple tonight for the ninth annual “NYC Go Purple Day” in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In Brooklyn. As of press time, the Parachute Jump in Coney Island is listed as the one Brooklyn site.

Last year, there were 93,735 calls to New York City’s 24-hour Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-621-HOPE (4673), with 6,970 unique requests for shelters. The NYC Hope website — where survivors can access resources and information — had 50,100 visits, an average of almost 140 visits a day.

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URGING BETTER PROTECTIONS FOR FOOD BENEFIT CARDS: Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-7^th District /western Brooklyn), and Rep. Grace Meng (D-6^th District/Queens) urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to better protect Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries who are at risk of having their benefits stolen through skimming scams. Skimming occurs when criminals place a “skimming” device on an ATM or POS (point of sale) device to capture a person’s PIN information and the data stored on the magnetic strip of the SNAP EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card, and use that data to duplicate the EBT card and to access the benefits in the SNAP beneficiary’s account.

At least nine states across the country, including New York, have reported a rash of SNAP benefits being lost due to skimming scams, with more than two thousand households affected and $312,000 stolen since June of this year.

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SETTLEMENT REQUIRES ICE CREAM COMPANY TO ACCEPT CASH PAYMENTS: Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has entered a settlement agreement with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, requiring the company to comply with the City’s Cashless Ban Law, and to pay $33,000 in outstanding civil penalties. Responding to dozens of consumer complaints, DCWP brought more than 90 cases at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) against Van Leeuwen for violations and its refusals to comply with the Cashless Ban Law that took effect in November, 2020. The ice cream company has several Brooklyn stores: Boerum Hill, Greenpoint, Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Williamsburg.

Cashless businesses discriminate against New Yorkers who lack bank accounts, which DCWP research shows at more than 300,000 New York City households.

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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS BOLSTERSLONG-TERM PUBLIC SAFETY: New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced a significant expansion of the city’s Precision Employment Initiative, which connects New Yorkers at risk of gun violence with career readiness and job placement programs. The program, which is run in partnership BlocPower and a number of community-based organizations, will increase its capacity to serve up to 3,000 New Yorkers, including in more Brooklyn neighborhoods spanning from East Flatbush and Flatbush, to East New York, thanks to the administration’s $54 million investment in the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Adopted Budget, helping to reduce unemployment, promote sustainability, and bolster long-term public safety in underserved areas throughout the city.

The program — called the Civilian Climate Corps — connects New Yorkers at risk of gun violence with job training opportunities in a variety of high-demand, good-paying green economy jobs, including solar, heat pump, and electric vehicle charging installation, as well as HVAC, energy efficiency auditing, and more.

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EPA TO SAMPLE MEEKER AVENUE SUPERFUND VAPORS: Beginning in November 2022, EPA will sample the indoor air and vapors beneath buildings at selected properties on the Meeker Avenue Plume Superfund site, to assess levels of chlorinated volatile organic compounds tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE), and vinyl chloride, that may be entering buildings as vapors from soil and/or groundwater contamination. EPA, which added the Meeker Avenue site to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in March 2022, is assessing the level of contamination and its impacts to people’s health; and the initial sampling will help the agency better understand the extent of contamination and to plan its additional sampling and cleanup efforts.

A community meeting about the site and the overall Superfund process is tentatively planned for December 1, 2022. EPA will inform the community once this meeting is scheduled.