Queens Gazette

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Prosty Protests Revived In Wake Of Fireman’s Homicide


by john toscano


Quick police action resulted in the arrest of two men last week for the fatal shooting of an off-duty firefighter early last Tuesday morning in a deserted section of Hunters Point in Long Island City.


But the apparently prostitution-related incident has brought demands for stricter enforcement to deal with the problem that has "plagued our area for a long time," according to one community official, Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley, and help may be on the way.


Contacted for comment on the homicide, Councilmember Walter McCaffrey, the area’s representative, said he expected police to reinstitute the anti-prostitution program he created eight years ago, which was called "Operation John." The crackdown had had some success, the Woodside Democrat said, and he and police officials at the 108th Precinct in Long Island City started discussions about a week ago regarding restarting the program.


Conley declared: "Prostitution in that area has been a long-contentious problem for Community Board 2 and residents in that area.



Taking A Bite Out!

On hand yesterday evening, Aug. 3rd, to kick off the 114th Precinct National Night Out Against Crime at Sean’s Place, 38th St. between Broadway and 31st Avenue are: Queens District Attorney, Richard Brown; Mayor Rudy Giuliani; City Council Speaker, Peter Vallone and Queens Borough President, Claire Shulman. Also on hand but not pictured was Councilman Walter McCaffrey.



"We need better enforcement, undercover cops to put pressure on the johns who keep the prostitutes in business," Conley continued. He said the situation demands "teeth in the law," longer sentences for prostitutes and tougher penalties for johns.


Conley recalled that anti-prostitution program created by McCaffrey in 1991 had "helped" but "despite it, the problem has not abated."


Meanwhile, two men have been arraigned in the fatal shooting of off-duty Probationary Firefighter Brendan Brooks, 28, who was found wounded in the front seat of his Jeep Cherokee at about 1:45 a.m., July 27th, at 11th Street and 47th Road. He was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:32 a.m. according to police.


Brooks, whose right foot was jammed on the accelerator of the vehicle, had been shot in the head, chest and arm. No weapon was recovered, but police recovered three .380-caliber shell casings in Brooks’ car.


Inspector Paul Amundson, the executive officer of Queens detective, who headed the investigation, said police were looking for two men and a woman in connection with Brooks’s death, saying they might have been involved in a dispute with the slain firefighter. But Amundson said they have no motive for the slaying, and that Brooks had not been robbed. Also, said Amundson, police did not know what Brooks was doing in the area nor would Amundson reveal the source of the information received by the cops.


However, police reported last Friday morning that two men had been arrested, one of whom was charged with the alleged slaying. He was identified as George Johnson, 23, of Brooklyn, and was charged with murder in the second degree and promoting prostitution, according to Police Officer Charles Larkin of the police information bureau.


The second man arrested, Larkin said, was Emelio Martinez, 29, also of Brooklyn, and he was charged with promoting prostitution and hindering prosecution.


In earlier reports police said the woman being sought was a 21-year-old prostitute who called herself "Cinnamon," but the police information bureau made no mention of this item.


Brooks was reported to be a 6-foot-5 former night club bouncer and limousine driver who served in Operation Desert Storm and joined the Fire Department last November. He had been assigned to Ladder 104 in Williamsburg and lived in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.


Prostitution in various parts of western Queens has been a persistent problem for about the past 20 years. Residents complain strongly about the crime because it shatters the quality of life in a community and poses a physical threat to its inhabitants.


Conley, sounding frustrated, said the scene of Brooks’s alleged murder was within a large area frequented by prostitutes. He described it as "going from Queens Plaza south, the heart of that zone being along 21st and 23d Streets and 44th, 45th and 46th Avenue."


He said he took a member of the City Planning Commission on a tour one night last year "and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.


"The girls come in from as far away as New Jersey," he stated. "There were so many prostitutes parading up and down the streets. The girls open their jackets and flash you and they’re naked underneath. In the morning you find prophylactics all over the street." Last year, Conley recalled, among the johns arrested were "someone from the District Attorney’s office, someone from the mayor’s office and a fireman." All were charged with soliciting prostitution he said, but he didn’t know the disposition of the charges nor did he identify anyone.


Other areas which have reported prostitution problems are Dutch Kills and Astoria, he said. Calls for comment from leaders in those communities were not returned.


As for dealing with the problem, Conley stated, "The city has to take a firmer approach to prostitution, there has to be better enforcement, more undercover cops to put pressure on johns, but there are no teeth in the laws to attack prostitutes. There have to be longer sentences."


McCaffrey said his anti-prostitution program was aimed at both the prostitutes and the johns and two community organizations, the Dutch Kills Civic Association and COMET, based in Sunnyside/Woodside, were "partners" with him in the effort.


Under one facet of the program, volunteers posted themselves along Queens Boulevard and other streets with major concentrations of prostitutes to record license plate numbers on johns’ cars, with the implied threat that the johns’ identities would be recalled.


McCaffrey said other volunteers and he himself formed a court watch corps which sat in court monitoring prostitution cases to focus attention on the problem and to get the attention of judges, police and jobs.


"I’m happy to spend some nights in court, but you need community affairs personnel at the police precinct to get the community involved," he said.


McCaffrey said that in order to put pressure on johns, arrests were made on Friday nights and because of the weekend interval when the courts were closed, the arrested johns would have to stay locked up over the entire weekend and then be arraigned the following Sunday night.


"It made it kind of hard for a john to have to explain to his wife and family what had happened to him," McCaffrey said.


Judges and the District Attorney’s office also cooperated in the program as 90-day sentences were given for repeat-offending prostitutes. McCaffrey said.


McCaffrey said he expects to get a progress report shortly from Captain James O’Brien of the 108th Precinct about re-starting Operation John.




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