Chaos erupted Tuesday in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New York district when a Democratic politician was chased from a public square because he supported a recent police crackdown on illegal sex work plaguing the city. the region.

Hiram Monserrate, a former New York state senator running for state Assembly, was giving media interviews praising the police when he was attacked by enraged protesters who were holding a rally calling for the NYPD and state troopers to stop shutting down. brothels – as well as illegal street vendors who sell hot meals and flog other goods without a license.

The Queens neighborhood is well known as a “red light” district, with some residents comparing the unsanitary and dingy conditions to a “third world” country.

Protesters say residents must accept prostitution and salesmen as a way of life in the neighborhood.

Groups mobilize against police repression of prostitution in the “red” district of Aoc

“More resources, more raids,” the group chanted as they surrounded Monserrate, who was speaking to pressure about 50 feet from where the rally was simultaneously taking place in Corona Plaza.

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As the chants grew louder, Monserrate stopped speaking, hoping the crowd would calm down, but Mateo Guerrero — who led the rally for a local migrant nonprofit and later called out sex workers and residents to coexist – began to stand in Monserrate’s face.

The former deputy then tried to walk away, but Guerrero and other members of the group chased and heckled Monserrate, who first walked toward the front of a store, then turned around and made his way through the outskirts of the square.

Guerrero continued to roar as protester Biney Garcia stood in front of Monserrate holding a sign reading “Don’t decide for sex workers” while wearing a non-profit T-shirt with “Here to Stay” written in the back. Garcia and Guerrero say they are members of the trans community.

“You are against me, against my community and you have been doing this for many years,” said Garcia, who previously worked as a sex worker on Roosevelt Avenue, nicknamed “lovers’ avenue” because of the number of sex workers lining the streets.

“You will never get our vote, never… You can leave now,” Garcia fumes, moving Monserrate away from the square. “You are not welcome here. Get out of here.”

Monserrate, accompanied at that time by local activist Ramon Ramirez, eventually fled the square.

As they crossed the road, the crowd shouted “sex work is work”, while another angry protester shouted “God doesn’t exist” in Spanish and English.

The “red” district of Aoc is invaded by prostitutes while the inhabitants question Mia, member of the “Squad”

Fox News Digital then caught up with Monserrate and Ramirez, who hid in the next block, out of sight of the angry crowd.

“There were actually more cameras than activists and the majority of people there weren’t even from that community,” Monserrate said, downplaying the heated exchange.

“The important thing here is that obviously there’s a lot of energy, there’s anger, but the fact is that Roosevelt Avenue has been subject to a crime wave, it’s an area of “And these police officers that we have recruited from the city and the state troopers are incredibly needed to bring crime in this community under control, which is unprecedented.”

Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched “Operation Restore Roosevelt,” which aims to crack down on disbelieving behavior over the next 90 days by deploying more than 200 additional police officers to the region, including soldiers of the state.

Last month, Fox News digital cameras recorded a line of at least 19 scantily clad alleged sex workers on a block-long sidewalk along Roosevelt Avenue. Around the corner, there were at least seven more, and a woman on the next block was seen offering sex for $60.

Fox News Digital even recorded an alleged sex worker and her client leaving a well-known brothel that has been raided at least twice in recent weeks.

“We have more brothels than bodegas. We have brothels in front of schools, next to churches, 24 hour sex workers roaming the streets freely at all hours of the day while parents take their children at school. This is unacceptable,” Monserrate said. Fox News Digital.

“And then the community stood up… We called the government and we called the mayor and they answered. We’re here to say we support our police. We want them here on Roosevelt Avenue.”

He called residents to a rally at 3 p.m. on Sunday to support police who have been raiding brothels since the operation began.

State Troopers and NYPD Descend on Aoc’s Red Light District to Combat Endemic Prostitution and Crime

The Roosevelt Avenue gang is represented by “Squad” member Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrat Grace Meng. Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to requests for comment on the situation in her district. Monserrate said neither Meng nor Ocasio-Cortez responded to his requests to attend rallies to clean up the streets on Roosevelt Avenue.

The battle between sex workers and illegal sellers on one side, and law and order advocates on the other, has been brewing in the neighborhood for years.

Many sex workers and illegal sellers operating in the area are migrants. With limited English and difficulty accessing legitimate work, they say they are forced to take to the streets to survive and maintain that what they do does not harm anyone.

They are often drawn to the area because various nonprofit migrant groups, such as Make The Road New York, which organized the rally, provide them with resources and help by providing immigration advice and obtaining work permits.

Law-and-order advocates like Monserrate say this illegal activity has transformed the two-mile stretch of Roosevelt Avenue into a neighborhood rife with crime and filth.

Meanwhile, Guerrero, a native of Colombia and head of Make The Road New York’s trans justice and leadership program, according to the group’s website, returned to the rally and condemned the police crackdown, saying that “police officers from the state in our streets are terrifying.”

Speaking to Fox News Digital afterward, Guerrero made no apologies for confronting Monserrate and called for an end to the raids.

“He’s not listening to our communities. What our communities are saying is we need housing, we need health care, we need jobs, we need education, we don’t We don’t need more police.”

“I’ve lived on Roosevelt Avenue my whole life. It’s the neighborhood where I grew up and it’s a community space. It’s where grandmothers, children, street vendors and workers sex learn to live together.”

“Sex workers have always been on Roosevelt Avenue. This community has been here since the ’70s. Sex workers are part of the community,” Guerrero said.

After the rally ended, Garcia and other Make The Road activists were seen a few blocks away handing out leaflets in support of Proposition 1. The measure would enshrine right to abortion in the state constitution. Critics say it will pave the way for illegal migrants to vote in elections.

WATCH: Local activist Curtis Sliwa speaks out against rampant prostitution on the streets of New York’s AOC district:

“No job is illegal,” Garcia told Fox News Digital, adding that trans people have a harder time finding regular work because of their identity, forcing them to enter the sex industry . “If you choose to sell your body into prostitution, it’s a way to survive, no one is pushing you to do it because New York City is too expensive.”

This sentiment was echoed by Cathy Lopez, a trans woman and current sex worker who has been working the streets of Roosevelt Avenue for 10 years.

Lopez, who moved to New York from Colombia 25 years ago, previously worked in a beauty salon but got into prostitution to make more money.

“Sex work is a good thing because you’re not doing anything bad for anyone,” Lopez said.

Original article source: Democratic police officer hunted in AOC’s ‘Red Light’ neighborhood after supporting police crackdown on open prostitution