SWEEPING AWAY EVIL IN THE BRONX
Volunteers rush to aid looted businesses
The Bronx is battling back.
Hours after looters and vandals under the guise of protest tore through a Bronx neighborhood, the community spontaneously banded together Tuesday to clean up the ugly mess.
Disgusted by the destructive display, residents teamed up with merchants and community leaders to sweep away glass, cover up smashed windows — and send a message to shameful opportunists.
“I’m so devastated by what happened to these businesses,” said Amin Razzaque, 28, who went on social media to rally neighbors to help with the clean up.
“It’s not fair to them. They work very hard for what they’re earning. It’s their livelihood. I’m a working class citizen so I understand how they feel. If I can’t work, I can’t provide for my family. The goal here is to recover and become better as a community.”
Volunteers answered the community call with brooms, gloves and garbage bags — and a display of neighborhood pride.
Personal trainer Alex Moreno lives in Pelham Bay but traveled to E. Fordham Road early to clean up. He was out protesting in Brooklyn the day before, and saw the demonstration descend into chaos. He came to the Bronx site by himself, and was heartened to see a larger cleanup crew already hard at work.
“I saw a Best Buy that was messed up so I cleaned it up by myself,” said Moreno, 27. “Then others started joining in. Then we started moving towards E. Fordham and
Grand Concourse. I just found this group by luck.”
“I was sweeping up glass. We put up boards to stop people from going inside the stores or tempting them from going in,” Moreno said. “I know what to expect tonight. I’ll be back here tomorrow morning.”
The cleanup followed a night of mayhem that erupted when scores of looters used social justice protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white cop in Minneapolis, as cover, witnesses and police said. In one ugly instance, a police officer was beaten to the ground.
Razzaque, a food blogger, and writer Destiny Ramos, 26, went online to plead for help rather than wait for city officials to pitch in.
“We saw what happened last night and just couldn’t believe it,” Razzaque said. “The city’s priority is usually downtown so we thought let’s take initiative and clean up the community.”
“We got an enormous response,” said Ramos. “We raised $20,000. We’ve been sponsored by two restaurants who donated all these supplies. It’s important that we say we stand with Black Lives Matter and we understand the need for outrage. But we also understand what’s happening to our community. It’s devastating for the businesses that got hit.”
The cash will go to help small businesses recover. Donated pizza and water bottles were given to the roughly 200 volunteers who showed up.
Despite their best efforts, the violence still has merchants and residents on edge and worried police will stay on the sidelines.
Helen Marte’s business was already reeling from a coronavirus closure before it was vandalized during the unrest.
The Cross Way Driving School on E. Fordham Road that she runs with co-owner Diana Wooden was in the red over the pandemic. Vandals smashed out their windows, ignoring Marte and Wooden’s handwritten Black Lives Matter sign tacked to the door proudly proclaiming the enterprise a black- and Dominican-owned business.
“As we were in the store they were still trying to break in,” Marte, 26, said. “It was crazy. People were walking around with bats and stuff. It’s kind of diminishing the whole purpose of it all. This is going to make people angrier.”
Wooden, 30, said cops did not intervene.
“The police were just letting it happen as it happened,” Wooden said. “My husband was having a full
blown argument with them. We’re going to board up this store tonight.”
“We weren’t even open because of COVID,” Wooden added. “You just added $30,000 in damage to a store that hasn’t even been open for three months. Whatever funds we have now have to go into fixing up the store. We give jobs to other people. We’re a driving school but we also give OSHA training for construction jobs. Now that’s cut off.”
Many residents said they were bracing for another night of mayhem.
“I don’t want people to come out here and hurt people who have nothing to do with the situation,” said longtime Bronx resident Jack Frost, 43. “They’re robbing and looting small businesses. Those businesses can’t take the type of hit that a Target can or a Walmart can.”
Elected leaders recalled the dark days of the Bronx and the decades it took to rebound from the destruction and neglect of the 1970s.
“What happened last night was not a protest,” Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz said at a neighborhood news conference. “What happened last night was criminal. We can not tolerate it and we say no to it collectively.”
“There is a time and a place to protest,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. “To come out here and to destroy our own Bronx community is not the way. Violence is not going to bring about the change that we need.”
At a separate news conference, Mayor de Blasio said the Bronx won’t stand for any more lawlessness.
“I’ve seen the Bronx in its toughest moments,” the mayor said. “And I know the extraordinary strength and goodness of the people of the Bronx. What we saw took place over hours, does not represent the people of the Bronx. And the people of the Bronx will not accept it. “
Kathy, a local resident, said she doesn’t know how the neighborhood is going to get through another night.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Kathy, 65, “They shouldn’t be doing this. We have to live here after all of this. They’re not even thinking about the pandemic that’s going on. It doesn’t make sense. I’m worried about tonight. It’s going to get worse. I just came from the doctor and I’m going straight home. This is crazy. There is no purpose to this. They’re doing it for their purpose, to loot, which is wrong.”