Even as I approached Astoria World Manor before this meeting, something was different. A bunch of guys in dopey red caps and jackets—the Guardian Angels, started by Curtis Sliwa—were hanging around outside the hotel. Someone who got to the meeting early told me that some of the elderly regulars had been complaining, before the meeting started, about the influx of younger people into community meetings. The old guard thinks we’re “socialists” trying to create the “People’s Republic of Astoria.” More disturbingly, one of these senior citizens brought a gun to the meeting and complained about how NY’s gun laws forbade him to bring it. Apparently it was an old silver revolver that wasn’t loaded and couldn’t do anything. From what I heard, it was still confiscated.
There were donuts provided this time (Deputy Inspector Kenneth Gorman was self-aware enough to make a joke about cops and donuts). The president, Ann Bruno, started the meeting off with her usual fare about how it was nice to see everyone in person and could we all stand for the pledge of allegiance. The Guardian Angels filed in wearing their silly uniforms and sat quietly on the side. Representatives from the offices of State Sen. Mike Gianaris and Queens DA Melinda Katz were there. Captain Janine King from the Internal Affairs Bureau was the first to speak this time and provided the following contact information to report corruption and misconduct: 212-741-8401 or iap@nypd.org.
Then we had the Cops of the Month: two newbie officers, fresh out of the academy, who identified a guy from a WANTED poster for committing hate crime graffiti, and facilitated his arrest and his buddy’s for the hate crime graffiti and a burglary.
After all this, we had our star performer, Kenneth Gorman, commander of the 114th precinct. Only he didn’t seem entirely happy in the role this time. He went through his usual rundown of crimes and answered a couple of questions about the homicide on Steinway and whether Astoria is a hotbed of fentanyl (it’s not). But then u/VanillaSkittlez asked a good question, which Gorman lost no time in delegating the job of answering.
Specifically, u/VanillaSkittlez referenced the killing of 16-year-old cyclist Jayden McLaurin. He noted that the 114th Precinct is the leading precinct in Queens in bike deaths by a “good margin”; however, it is the second highest in number of bike tickets in Queens and the second fewest in the number of moving violations issued for cars in Queens. He noted that in February there were only 12 moving violations issued by the precinct. He asked about the enforcement priorities reflected in these statistics. Gorman said the driver who hit Jaydan was arrested and the investigation was pending. He then said that because of the “traffic enforcement” discussions in the last couple of meetings, he had brought the “traffic safety sergeant” to the meeting. Interestingly, he also said he had tried to bring the DOT to this meeting and hadn’t managed it but hoped to bring them to the next, and had told them about certain recommendations, including for 31st St and Hoyt.
The “traffic safety sergeant” then took the podium. He was Sgt. Sansai Hongthong, and he said he tracked every “collision” and the locations at which they took place. He said he tries to educate people when his officers pull them over, including by handing out Vision Zero pamphlets. He said he takes Twitter comments seriously, so go ahead and tweet at the 114th precinct. He provided an email address for comments and complaints: sansei.hongthong@nypd.org. I hope people feel free to educate him, because he swiftly segued into talking about enforcement against mopeds, making sure they’re registered as required. Fine, but it’s a different subject from enforcement against cars. He also threw in a slam at Bill De Blasio for letting anyone ride anything anywhere.
An elderly man asked if Hongthong could pull over those with loud cars with no mufflers and issue summonses or confiscate their vehicles. Hongthong said yes, if they actually pull over. A guy with long hair returned to the moped theme. He complained about mopeds that he noted were more properly called motorcycles because they emit exhaust and go at high speeds. He asked why Hongthong couldn’t confiscate the unregistered ones when so many of them are just left standing still near where their riders are hanging out, or even left on the road after a collision, even when an officer is there. Hongthong said he confiscates them once a month but cannot do more because of time constraints.
A woman in a pink and blue checked shirt brought the subject back to cars. She said she’d almost gotten killed by a driver turning left on red on her way to the meeting, when she’d had the signal. Hongthong, hilariously, thought she was talking about quad bikes at first (because she’d referenced four-wheeled vehicles). When he realized she was talking about cars, he said nothing could be done about it unless the officer observed it.
A guy in a black hoodie also complained about car drivers at 18th Street and Astoria Park, urging Hongthong to send plain clothes officers to apprehend people who hit the gas when they see pedestrians instead of yielding. Hongthong declined to send plain clothes officers but said he would send officers.
After some more back and forth about 18th and Astoria Park, Gorman took over again, touting 600 summonses issued in the last month to motorists in the 114th precinct. He talked about enforcement in response to u/VanillaSkittlez, saying that enforcement kept cyclists safe…but in a way that maybe implied that anti-cyclist enforcement kept cyclists safe, though it wasn’t very clear. He then proceeded to soliloquize a little about e-bikes and e-scooters, moving on to that subject from mopeds, in a way that indicated he wasn’t 100% clear on the difference. He claimed that there were 65 “scooters” confiscated and held in the precinct, but that there were lots more, and if his officers kept confiscating them, there would just be even more, so part of the plan was to educate dealers on registration requirements. So clearly he was talking about mopeds and not standing scooters, but he was blurring the terminology.
So far, very mundane, though oddly moped-obsessed. Then Ann Bruno and Hongthong said there was no more time for questions…but guess what there WAS time for? Curtis Sliwa! Ann Bruno gave him the podium. A guy in a baseball cap (I think u/ThePlaidShirtGuy, correct me if I’m wrong) complained that the precinct was cutting off questions from the community to make time for Sliwa to talk at us, to no avail.
Sliwa was Sliwa. He railed about how he was going to bring “law and order” to the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Astoria, how he and the Guardian Angels were there to support the police, how he supported the police being able to do “what they used to”, and how he was going to do “patrols” along 30th Avenue and some other places in Astoria. Many of us spontaneously started booing him. Ann Bruno asked us to be polite but it seemed pretty rude to me to cut off questions from the community to give a half-baked vigilante a platform. It devolved into a shouting match, mostly between u/Miser and Sliwa, with u/Miser telling him to take his political stunts out of our neighborhood and Curtis grandstanding about his “authority” to patrol the streets. Many other people shouted out that he had no authority or special right to patrol. Curtis Sliwa’s closing statement was that he’d patrolled all over New York, and there was nothing we could do to stop him. So watch out and behave yourselves out there, or you might get caught by a patrol of geriatric bootlickers in goofy red caps.
The next meeting is May 23rd at 7 pm.
Originally posted on r/MicromobilityNYC and crossposted to r/Astoria.