Councilman Ritchie Torres who has represented the 15th City Council District in The Bronx for the past almost 6 years has been declared the winner of the 15th Congressional District in the South Bronx in yesterday’s election to replace outgoing Congressman José E Serrano.
Torres, who is Puerto Rican, will be the first openly gay Afro Latino member of congress along with Mondaire Jones who will be the first openly gay Black member of congress.
This is a historic event as Torres bested the homophobic Councilman Ruben Diaz Dr in the June primary in bid to represent the South Bronx.
The South Bronx’s vote to send an openly gay man to congress is monumental because despite the fact that it is one of the bluest districts in the nation, it is still a relatively socially conservative area.
As a gay youth growing up in the South Bronx and in the closet at the time the prospects of a Ritchie Torres representing our district wasn’t even a dream on the radar.
Despite the uncertainty of the presidential election results, at least there’s a glimmer of hope in all of this.
The most famous member of congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of The Bronx Has cruised to a landslide victory in her re-election bid.
No matter how hard Republicans tried to paint her as unfit to represent the district and out of touch with reality not to mention the horrific personal attacks laced with outright misogyny, the district spoke and decided to send AOC back to congress.
With 66% of precincts reporting, Ocasio-Cortez is in a comfortable lead with 68.6% of the vote versus Republican challenger John Cummings at 30.8% despite having raised $10 million to unseat her.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is at an embarrassing 0.7% of the vote.
This was the second most expensive race for congress in the country during the 2020 election cycle.
Last week Loving The Bronx launched a fundraiserto help keep their free community refrigerator in Parkchester stocked through the end of the year.
The goal was $6,000 and in less than a week, all you amazing people donated whatever was within your heart and capacity or helped spread the news.
This free community refrigerator in Parkchester will continue to be fully stocked through the end of the year thanks to generous readers like you.
Not only was the goal met but it has been surpassed by almost $2,000 as of this writing which only means Loving The Bronx can continue to feed hungry Bronxites past the new year.
This couldn’t have been done without the help and support of the following people who generously donated to the GoFundMe campaign:
Mike Gupta
Lynne Corry
Latanya DeVaughn (shout out to Bronx Bound Books for always supporting!)
Emily Walker
Kelston Bascom
Katia Portela
Bafemi Silver
Bronx Sole
Abbi Newfeld
Selena Ortega
Ariadna Phillips
Reece Coren
John Murray
Alex Roman
Ryan Chuchmach
Kelly White
Lina Bracero
Julian Monserrate
Jacob Nardone
Hiam Abbas
Chrys Napolitano
Susan Brenner
Maryann Karcich
Ben Wild
Royivia Ferguson
Jaylin Chalco
Jennifer Passoni
Ana Garcia
Adam Prato
Angela Tovar
Jose Galarza
Ivy Negron
Khamini Persaud
Amelia Zaino
Welcome2TheBronx
And all the donors who wished to remain anonymous.
We would especially like to thank a donor who wishes to remain anonymous who donated $5,000 to the fundraiser. Your generosity is greatly appreciated and will make a huge impact on the lives of our residents that are facing hunger.
We also want to remind you that it’s not too late to donate, since this is an ongoing effort started by Loving The Bronx and hungry families won’t disappear overnight so please consider making a donation.
Thanks again to everyone for showing how we take care of our community!
It’s been a while since we wrote about our borough’s rich history and fun facts so we figured we’d close out October with some fun tidbits of information on The Bronx.
The first thing you need to know, especially if you’re not from The Bronx is that we are, in fact, the best of the five boroughs of New York City. This isn’t an opinion but a historical fact.
Ok, so MAYBE it’s more of an opinion but allow us to show you why it’s more than a simple opinion.
So where do we begin?
Beautiful art deco on the Grand Concourse
For starters, we are the ONLY borough with the article “The” in its name as in The Bronx.
According to Bronx County historian Lloyd Ultan, “The” stuck as part of the name when the borough was named after the Bronx River which runs right through it (which was named after the first European settler in our borough, Jonas Broncks).
The Bronx River runs past the Snuff Mill in the Botanical Gardens
Just remember to put some respect on our name and ALWAYS capitalize that ‘T’ because it’s The Bronx and not the Bronx.
Now we can talk about the fact that we have beautiful City Island, one of New York City’s most unique communities that seems more like New England than NYC with its dozens of excellent seafood restaurants or we can talk about how New York City’s REAL Little Italy is, in fact, not on Mulberry Street in Manhattan but on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx.
Or we can talk about how our greatest resource is our people.
Did you know that The Bronx was declared the most diverse county in America? According to the Census Bureau, if you take two random Bronxites, there’s an 89.7% chance that they will be of a different race and ethnicity. Sorry Queens.
Mexican folkloric dancing during a block party
Speaking of diversity, The Bronx is still home to the largest population of ethnic Albanians outside of Albania. It’s also home to the largest Garifuna population and it’s still home to the largest Puerto Rican population in the country of any county.
We are also home to one of the largest African populations in the country and even the Mexican population is one of NYC’s largest if not the largest. In fact, the first cultural center for Mexican studies East of the Mississippi was established right here in The Bronx at Lehman College.
Other groups that call The Bronx home in large numbers are Dominicans, Bangladeshi, Italians, and we’re still home to the largest Puerto Rican population of any county in America.
Let’s not forget the Irish of which Woodlawn is considered to be the Irish capital and center of life in New York City.
Puerto Rican Bomba dancing at Rincón Criollo ala Casa de Chema Community Garden
At one point The Bronx was the most Jewish borough of New York City during the first half of the 20th century with up to 57% of the borough identifying as such and the majority were centered in and around the South Bronx.
No other borough has ever reached anywhere near that percentage to this day.
All of this diversity of people living together has led to The Bronx simply being one of the most beautiful places in the world when it comes to all types of people living side by side.
It’s no wonder that’s why Hip Hop and Salsa were born in The Bronx with all these influences constantly bombarding us.
Even the borough itself is as diverse as its people from the packed urban streets of the South Bronx to suburban Throggs Neck, Country Club and nautical City Island to the quietness of the estates of Fieldston, some of the largest such properties in New York City.
Salsa dancing at “El Polvorín” in Port Morris
It’s not just the only borough on the mainland continental United States but it’s the GREENEST borough with the highest percentage of its land as dedicated parkland and home of the largest park in New York City and the third largest park, Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt respectively.
If you know, you know…
We are a borough of artists and creators like the Piccirilli Brothers who carved the statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in DC as well as the lions Patience and Fortitude at the New York Public Library’s main branch on 5th Avenue.
Did you know that the frame for the capital dome in DC was made right here in The Bronx in Mott Haven?
You’ll also find New York City’s only freshwater river, The Bronx River where on its banks in the New York Botanical Garden you’ll find the largest track of the original forest that covered the city before the colonizers invaded.
An old Jewish synagogue in the Grand Concourse is a Christian church.
This is where you’ll find the Grand Concourse, one of the most famous streets in Bronx and city which is home to one of the largest collections of art deco buildings in the world.
We are the home of Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, names revered in the fashion world across the globe.
We are the place where Stan Lee was raised and eventually began the greatest super hero franchise of all time and where even Batman was born.
This is where Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was born and raised molding her into one of the greatest legal minds of our nation.
Parkchester, the world’s largest condo development and once a restricted white-only community is now a thriving multicultural home of people from all corners of the world.
Where one of the most famous astrophysicists, Neil deGrasse Tyson, was raised first in Castle Hill before moving to Riverdale (and yes it’s still The Bronx even if they don’t write it on their mail).
Cultural icons like Cardi B and J Lo lived here in the Boogie Down Bronx, names and faces known around the world.
This is where AOC, perhaps the most popular elected official in congress in history that we don’t need to remind you of her full name, was born and eventually came back as a young adult and took down one of the biggest political bosses in New York City.
Beautiful Van Cortlandt Park, NYC’s third largest park.
Who knows? She might just be the first Latina president in America.
The Bronx is the borough that is known for having burned; the poorest borough, and the unhealthiest county of New York State and while those are are harsh realities, it doesn’t define us nor is it our end all and be all.
Bronx Victory Memorial at Pelham Bay Park
We are a borough of dreams and hopes where people face some of the toughest odds in the city and perhaps the nation but yet we somehow manage to survive and excel like no other when we excel.
Survival is written in our DNA and we too, shall get through this pandemic and subsequent economic crisis.
So whenever anyone wants to talk bad about The Bronx, remind them of who we really are, what we did from nothing except our minds, ingenuity, and drive.
Stay strong and proud, my Bronx!
This is why we will always defend The Bronx against gentrification and those who want to erase our wonderful history good or bad.
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in The Bronx, our borough was already in a crisis.
From the highest rates of poverty to the highest rates of families either homeless or teetering on homelessness with just one check away from being evicted, our residents were already on the edge.
And then there is there is the fact that we are considered the hungriest borough of New York City, an issue which has only been greatly exacerbated by the coronavirus economic crisis.
This was only made worse as The Bronx had the highest rates of closures of food pantries during this time.
But while we may have the highest rates of hunger, one thing we don’t do in The Bronx is let our residents go without access to food to help combat this hunger crisis.
Bronx folks like Marjorie Velazquez who has helped get food to thousands of families during the pandemic that otherwise would have gone hungry, stepped up to the plate during this crisis often teaming up with Nilka Martell the founder of Loving The Bronx, a grassroots organization that spreads Bronx pride through community service and Parks programing, and distributed food out of the historic Huntington Free Library in Westchester Square.
Food pantry lines now stretch around blocks in The Bronx since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
When the pandemic hit, Nilka Martell through Loving The Bronx and an army of volunteers, helped distribute 30,000 boxes of dry food, nearly 4000 fresh produce boxes and over 4000 prepared meals to families in need in the East Bronx, an area often overlooked and ignored during times of crisis.
Then in September Loving The Bronx installed a community refrigerator filled with free food for the taking in the Parkchester area of the borough thanks to the generosity of Brewski’s Bar and Grill who purchased a brand new double glass door commercial refrigerator for the effort.
Located inside Circle Green Farms deli and grocery at 80 Hugh Grant Circle, the refrigerator is accessible to anyone in need, no questions asked (all is asked that one be mindful that there are others in need as well) and is available 7 days a week between 7AM and 7PM.
But we need your help in keeping the refrigerator stocked through the end of 2020.
Loving The Bronx and its Board of Directors (of which I am a member in the spirit of full disclosure) are asking to help us raise $6,000.
There is no amount too big or small for this endeavor and if you know Nilka Martell and Loving The Bronx then you know that since 2012, she and her organization has mostly operated out of pocket with the occasional grant here and there.
But this isn’t an endeavor we can do on our own and together we can truly make a difference in not letting a child, a senior, or a parent in need go hungry.
The Loving The Bronx Community Fridge was decorated by Bronx artist Lovie Pignata.
Please consider donating today and help Us to Bronx resident from going hungry.
Site of 355 Exterior Street just south of the 145th Street Bridge.
Once completed, the tower will be the tallest building in the South Bronx with 710 residential apartments across 692,749 square feet which will also include commercial space along the ground-floor.
Last year the developer, The Lightstone Group, announced that the massive development site will be converted into 2,000 residential units of housing with 1,400 (70%) of those units to be rented out at market rate and 600 units (30%) set aside for “affordable” housing.
355 Exterior Street along the Harlem River Waterfront
Although now with the economy in a turmoil, luxury housing in the South Bronx may be a tough sell considering existing luxury markets in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are offering concessions and reduced rents so it remains to be seen exactly how this development will play out.
But one thing is for sure is that yet another massive development such as this one will undoubtedly add further strain to an area already suffering from rising rents because of gentrification.
Just around the corner you have The Arches and its 465 luxury rental units almost completed and right behind that you have Brookfield’s Bankside, a 1,300 unit luxury development across 7 towers already rising as well.
But it isn’t the rich, for whom these buildings are being constructed for, that is hurting. Low income families and the middle class of the South Bronx desperately need truly affordable housing and all of this isn’t the solution but will only exacerbate the problem.
Oftentimes we hear and read people say if we build an excess of housing that prices will eventually come down and help those in need but that has never panned out in the modern history of New York City.
Did rents become more affordable for low income families in Williamsburg? Harlem? Chelsea? Hell’s Kitchen? Long Island City?
No, they got displaced just like our friends, families, neighbors, and perhaps even ourselves will eventually be pushed out.
Our Lady of Pity Church, which was deconsecrated by the Archdiocese of New York in November of 2017, is almost gone as its being demolished to make way for affordable housing.
The rectory and school building are already gone and all that remains are just three walls and the roof of this structure from the neighborhood’s past.
All that’s left of Our Lady of Pity
The parish of Madonna del Suffragio (Our Lady of Pity) was founded in 1908 by Italian immigrants from Ponza, an island off the coast of Italy halfway between Rome and Naples.
Before… …and after.
In 1929, the current church was built to serve the fast-growing community of Ponzese living in the neighborhood.
Now, all that will soon remain is rubble as the last, visible mark of the Italian community from Ponza in Melrose is erased forever.
And for this Puerto Rican kid who grew up across the street from OLP and attended Sunday mass as a child, a piece of my past is also gone but will never be forgotten.
Below are pictures I took two years ago when they began the slow process of removing anything of significant value as well as hauling away whatever was left behind.
Horace Mann School, one of New York City’s most prestigious college prep schools which is located in the Fieldston area of The Bronx, has shut down for two weeks due to positive COVID-19 cases among the staff.
School instruction has been shifted online until October 19 when classes for grades 6 to 12 is scheduled to resume in person as students self quarantine at home.
One employee was diagnosed with COVID-19 over the weekend and an additional three were reported on Monday.
In an email sent to parents on Monday night by school head Thomas Kelly, he said, “It is clear these additional cases of positive COVID-19 do have overlap with students and employees at a level that makes me uncomfortable moving forward with in-person instruction for our middle and upper divisions.”
“We may need to alternate between in-person and remote learning throughout the year because of recommendations and guidance from our partnering agencies, and stay-at-home orders from the governor,” Kelly said at the time. “The level of infection, the spread of the virus, and response to the disease in our community will be at the forefront of our decision as we move to open our school.”
Classes at Horace Mann have been in session for less than a month before they closed due to COVID-19.
I grew up on Morris Avenue and 151st Street in the South Bronx neighborhood of Melrose when it still had a decent sized Italian population in the early 80s, mostly from the island of Ponza off the coast of Italy between Rome and Naples.
On Sundays, Our Lady of Pity Church had three masses, Italian, Spanish, and English serving the then mostly Puerto Rican and Black community along with the Ponzese community who founded the church in the early part of the 20th century.
And on every June 20th, the Ponzese community from near and far would gather at the church and lead a procession down Morris Avenue and across 149th Street in honor of their patron saint, Santo Silverio.
Despite the chaos of those decades in the South Bronx, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a diverse neighborhood.
It’s also where my passion began for all things Italian including the language which 30 years later I am fully fluent in after learning it with my childhood friends as well as studying it for three years at Cardinal Spellman High School and two years at Iona College.
Lo parlo abbastanza bene come un italiano lo parla.
The Italian community has always been an integral part of my life growing up and into today because they are my family figuratively and quite literally.
A few years ago, a DNA test via 24andMe revealed I had almost 9% Italian DNA mostly from Lazio, coincidently the province where not only Rome is located but also Ponza. DNA from Abruzzo and Calabria was also strongly present in my report.
None of this is too surprising given I’m Puerto Rican and many Italians settled in Puerto Rico in the 19th century.
I say all of this to say to my Italian friends and family that it is time to let go of Christopher Columbus.
It is incomprehensible to me why there is such an attachment to a figure that caused so much pain, harm, and genocide to the indigenous peoples of the Americas simply to celebrate your heritage.
Italy has one of the richest histories in Western civilization and was the birthplace of the Renaissance which gave us countless great thinkers, artists, scientists and the likes to choose from that didn’t cause the strife and crimes against humanity that Columbus is guilty of.
This isn’t about rewriting history, this is simply about righting a wrong.
And no, this is not an attack on Italians or their culture, this is a shift on celebrating actual heroes.
No one wants to ban celebrating Italian history and culture, we’re simply asking you to shift your focus away from that man and focus on the rich, beautiful history of Italy and the great many contributions of Italian Americans have made in our country.
Why do you want to celebrate the man that ushered the Transatlantic Slave Trade?
Why not celebrate Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Michelangelo, Galileo, or Mother Cabrini? Celebrate the Piccirilli Brothers, the Italian immigrants who lived in the South Bronx and carved some of the nation’s most iconic monuments including the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.
And the list doesn’t end there as there are a plethora of names to celebrate under the banner of Italian history.
Rethink Columbus Day and celebrate your rich history and culture not the man who ushered in the slaughter, rape, and genocide of hundreds of millions of indigenous people along with the brutal Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The New York City Council has overwhelmingly voted to remove Councilman Andy King from office as a result of sexual harassment against a female staffer, finance violations, and numerous other offenses.
The committee overseeing the investigation voted overwhelmingly for his expulsion due to being considered unreformable.
King attempted to sway the council to vote against his expulsion by reading a letter allegedly written by one of his constituents calling the investigation and expulsion a corrupt process.
But none of his last minute pleas were enough to win the hearts of the council as they voted to remove him.
In fact, they many council members explained their yes vote by apologizing for not voting yes a year ago when they had an opportunity to remove King, a Democrat, along with regrets for having to revisit the issue yet again.
According to some in the council, it wasn’t just a vote for his past actions but also that of his actions since last year’s vote which have come to light in report released to the council.
Unsurprisingly, Bronx Councilman Ruben Diaz was the sole councilman to vote against the removal of King.
King was also accused of retaliation against against the same staffer who accused him of sexual harassment.
“He was back in 2019 for retaliation against the same woman as well as retaliation against other aides who had cooperated with ethics probers. The panel’s 48-page report also determined that King misused taxpayer funds for a Virgin Islands jaunt and let his union boss wife use his Council office for her own purposes.
“His Council-approved punishment: tossed off all committees and suspended without pay for a month. He was fined $15,000 and told to take a behavior training course. Further, he was subject to a monitor, a Council staff attorney, for the rest of his term. Didn’t work.
“In its newest and final 68-page report from last week, the Ethics Committee found that King never paid the fine, never took the course and interfered with the monitor when he wasn’t intimidating her. King also forced an aide to take unwanted medical leave while arranging a $2,000 cash kickback from another aide.”
King is the first New York City council member to be removed from office by the council in history.
According to a mayoral scorecard, only 85.6% of Bronx streets were rated “acceptably” clean in July compared to last year during that same period when our borough’s streets were rated 97.3% clean.
This is a direct result of the $100 million cut the Sanitation department took due to the #COVID19#coronavirus COVID-19-wrought economic crisis.
Manhattan faired better, unsurprisingly, at 90% followed by Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.
Pedestrians walk over mounds of trash at The Hub.
In August, things weren’t much better as overall the score dropped further to 85%.
September is currently unavailable but we know nothing has changed and if anything, it’s gotten worse.
Community Board 7, covering Fordham, Bedford Park, University Heights, and Norwood was the dirtiest with a a year to-date rating of only 74.7%.
Meanwhile, community board 11 in the East Bronx, covering Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Allerton, Van Nest, and Pelham Gardens was the borough’s cleanest with a 98.6% rating.
The vast amounts of trash across our borough and city also have given rise to an army of rats. This isn’t hyperbole for all you see are swarms of the vermin running back and forth through our filthy streets in the middle of the day when you would rarely if ever see one.
During a pandemic the last thing you need to do is cut services to sanitation and further compromise the health of our residents and city.
If anything, this is a perfect example of why we need to defund the bloated NYPD budget and keep other services running.
While we’re at it, there’s no need to spend almost $9 billion in new jails. Redirect those funds so that our city can continue functioning during the pandemic.
Several protesters were injured after NYPD officers swung batons into a crowed during protests in Mott Haven, Bronx, June 4, 2020. | Gregory Berg/gbergphoto.com
Cops filmed boxing in and beating hundreds of demonstrators during a Bronx protest of police violence committed violations of international human rights laws, a new report charges.
The nearly 100-page report by Human Rights Watch includes the accounts of more than 80 people, among them medics and legal observers, who attended the June 4 protest in Mott Haven at the height of the spring protests.
Videos recorded at the protest — which ended after police encircled marchers, effectively trapping them — show officers beating some of those in the crowd with batons.
Terence Monahan, NYPD chief of department, was also on the scene, according to the report.
Working with a visual investigations firm, researchers also created a video, using 3D modeling, to illustrate how police corralled the protesters.
“Police conduct during the Mott Haven protest on June 4 amounts to serious violations of international human rights law which the federal, state, and local governments are obligated to observe,” the report said.
Among the protesters interviewed by the group was Andom Ghebreghiorgis, a former Bronx Congressional candidate, who described rampant violence.
“There was a woman with blood gushing from her head, five or six rows ahead of me,” Ghebreghiorgis said “She was taken away and I don’t know what happened to her. There was a young woman to my right — she was lying down next to me and was unresponsive. The cops were trying to figure out if she was breathing but they weren’t moving with any urgency.”
Over 260 protesters were arrested for violating the city-imposed curfew that night. That’s a higher arrest toll than at any other New York City protest that followed the Memorial Day police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Bronx District Attorney’s office has dismissed the summonses and desk appearance tickets, according to the report.
Initially, Human Rights Watch investigators wanted to do a comprehensive report on police crackdowns at the U.S. protests that followed Floyd’s death, said Ida Sawyer, a co-author of the report. “But when we heard about this incident in Mott Haven and started digging into it deeper, we felt that it was a really powerful and important story to understand more deeply.”
“This whole incident, looking at all of those factors, really emphasizes the importance of what protesters were out on the street protesting in the first place, and their demands to massively reduce, divest and take resources away from the police and invest in the community,” Sawyer added.
In an emailed statement to THE CITY on the new report, police officials said the NYPD “has conducted an ongoing review of the department’s response to protests and riots.”
“Enhanced training and techniques have already been put into practice,” a spokesperson said.
The Wednesday report comes just days after Physicians for Human Rights, another non-profit group, issued a report condemning “unlawful and excessive force against peaceful protesters, medics, and others,” at the same June protest.
‘This Isn’t Going to Go Well’
Demonstrations had been relatively peaceful in Mott Haven in the days before the June 4 protest in the South Bronx, residents told THE CITY. Unlike in other parts of the borough and Manhattan, businesses in Mott Haven had not been looted.
The 8 p.m. curfew that week, imposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, was aggressively enforced in the neighborhood, said residents. Barricades had been erected near the 40th Precinct to limit traffic, frustrating residents who lived nearby and needed to show identification to get through, like Monxo Lopez, a local activist.
“During that week, when the barricades came up and the curfew started, it was basically like a state of siege,” said Lopez. “At least, that’s the way that it felt to me.”
“At some point, I just didn’t dare to come out of the house,” he added.
Although there was a feeling of “increased solidarity” in the community that first week of June, there was also “a lot of tension,” said Ivelyse Andino, an entrepreneur who lives in Mott Haven and rendered relief to medics at her home during the protests.
“There was an element of ‘This isn’t going to go well,’” Andino said.
All of the Mott Haven residents who spoke with THE CITY said the protest was peaceful until just before the 8 p.m. curfew, when police officers “kettled” the crowd — penning demonstrators in.
U.S. immigration officers were also present that night, community members said.
“It felt like a war zone,” Andino said, recalling the rush of officers and noise from police helicopters. “I say that never having been in a war zone, but that’s what I can imagine it felt like.”
Lawsuits Already Moving Forward
Lawsuits against the NYPD are already underway, lawyers for some of the demonstrators said.
“We represent dozens of protesters from that night on claims against the NYPD,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, managing director of impact litigation at the Bronx Defenders.
“Our clients were all trapped before the curfew,” Borchetta said. “They were trapped to such a degree that people reported that they couldn’t breathe. Then police descended on a trapped crowd, not allowing them to leave despite pleas to leave, injuring them physically and also, we think, causing them deep trauma.”
The financial fallout of the crackdown on June 4 “will likely reach into the millions of dollars,” according to the Human Rights Watch report.
Beyond the initial costs of personnel and helicopters needed for the June 4 event, researchers highlighted the costs of arresting, transporting and processing protestors.
“The largest cost, however, will likely come from the resulting misconduct complaints, investigations, and lawsuits,” Human Rights Watch said. “With at least 98 claims filed with the Comptroller’s Office since the protest, Human Rights Watch estimates that lawsuits related to the Mott Haven protest could end up costing New York City taxpayers several million dollars.”
THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
