wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

A spate of robberies in the West Bronx has one group of residents saying the New York City Police Department has little control over their neighborhood. The crime victims are Mexican immigrants --and they say local gang members target them because they carry cash. WNYC's Marianne McCune has the story from the Fordham section of the Bronx.

REPORTER: A church called Our Lady of Refuge made the front page of the Daily News in October when ushers found a drug dealer doing business in the lobby.

JENIK: A guy was selling to two buyers. Right inside the front doors.

REPORTER: It happened, Monsignor John Jenik says, just one week after the church dared to unlock its front doors – they’d been bolted for years for fear the dealers WOULD find their way in.

REPORTER: On a recent Sunday after mass, some of Jenik’s parishioners gathered to ask again for the attention of New Yorkers. (SPANISH: Sali del subway … ) A Mexican immigrant named Jorge described how two kids tried to rob him on his way home from the subway.

JORGE: SPANISH: Entonces dije es la hora de correr …

REPORTER: Jorge says he ran – and they followed him. He managed to get home, but when he looked out the window, he says he saw a whole band of kids gathered outside his building.

JORGE: SPANISH – Que hacen esos jovenes en la caille? … TRANSLATOR: What are those kids doing in the street … What are they doing at 1 or 2 in the morning in the streets? What are they doing? Working? I don’t think so. Selling drugs. And robbing people.

REPORTER: Jorge is one of almost a dozen Mexican immigrants from Our Lady of Refuge who say they’ve been robbed on the way home from the subway over the past year. WNYC agreed not to use their last names because some are here illegally and fear deportation. A large percentage of Mexican immigrants in New York ARE in the country illegally – and that often means they’re paid in cash and have no bank account. So they commute carrying the week’s pay … and for years, advocates have said they’re targeted by gangs and delinquents looking for quick cash.

RICHARD GARCIA: Oh it’s widespread.

REPORTER: Richard Garcia is NOT an advocate for immigrants. He’s an anti-violence activist whose organization Peace on the Street works with gang members in East Harlem, where there’s also a growing population of Mexican immigrants.

GARCIA: I would say at least once a week either I hear or see … harassment or beatings from Mexicans. I live in El Barrio … it’s common knowledge to see Mexicans … get piled on out here.

AURELIO: One man or woman, they come out from the train, they follow him or her.

(FADES UNDER)

REPORTER: Back at the church meeting, a man named Aurelio explains that the kids who mugged him twice definitely seemed like members of organized gangs.

AURELIO: They have walkie talkies or cell phones.

REPORTER: His 15 year old daughter jumps in.

DAUGHTER: What he’s trying to say is that’s the way they communicate. One will be right there in the subway station the other will be on 187 and Briggs, and they will communicate by saying, oh, he’s going to your direction. That’s how they will communicate.

REPORTER: But police say there is no pattern of gang members or anyone else targeting Mexicans or undocumented immigrants. Not in the 52nd Precinct, and not citywide. One common explanation of the discrepancy between the data and accounts from the street is that undocumented immigrants hesitate to report crimes for fear of deportation. Another possibility is that they live in high crime neighborhoods. That is certainly true of Jorge and Aurelio and their families.

DAUGHTERS: This is where we live at. The whole map is the area where it’s being attacked. (FADE UNDER)

REPORTER: Their daughters huddle over a neighborhood map the Church put together marking each outdoor location where neighbors believe drugs are sold on the street. (“That whole area is dark.”) Within about 4 square blocks, the map shows 15 drug spots. Crime here is way down from 10 and 20 years ago - as it is across the city – but someone in this neighborhood is 4 or 5 times more likely to be robbed than in a police precinct on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And at least 13 times more likely to be murdered.

DAUGHTERS: I don’t walk through Valentine, I go through Briggs. Those areas are dark. But I think Valentine is a little more worse than Briggs. And the afternoon is when they all come out.

REPORTER: According to neighbors, there are Bloods and Crips on these blocks, a gang called Dominicans Don’t Play, a few Mexican gangs, and a Cambodian gang started by refugees who were housed in the neighborhood years ago. Jorge’s daughter is studying art at Hunter College now, but she says growing up here, it would have been easy to make bad choices.

ANA: Let’s say you lost your job and you’re outside of your building and you look all gloomy and worried and stuff. Well someone would just come up to you and start talking and say ‘What’s wrong? How are you?’ And so they get you to warm up to them and you start establishing a relationship and all that. And then they’ll go, ‘Oh I know how to get your worries out of your mind, here try this.’ And you’re hooked.

REPORTER: At the chuch meeting, Aurelio’s daughter says just the presence of gangs is reason enough to avoid calling the police.

DAUGHTER: I’m a citizen here and if something happened to me I would hesitate to call and I’m legal. The reason why would be the cops are going to stop in front of your building they’re going to go knock on door and people could be watching. Like they could be like, oh, she’s talking. If you talk then that’s it for you cause they going to come after you.

REPORTER: One of the church mothers is alarmed.

MOTHER: Complain about it, what happen in the neighborhood. (Mmmm Hmm) Don’t be afraid! Cause if everybody calling and calling them, they gonna know that there’s big problems in the neighborhood. And then they have to do something.

REPORTER: In recent weeks, police have heard this group’s call for help. They’ve held meetings with public officials and police … and landed two newspaper articles – in the Daily News and New York Times. A police spokesman says the narcotics units have been briefed, the precinct has added foot patrols, and precinct officials have told Monsignor Jenik that if his parishioners are afraid to report crimes, they can tell him and police will take his report. Father Jenik is glad to say he hasn’t HAD to report anything – and glad to see more cops on the beat. But he’s not optimistic that the impact will last.

JENIK: As long as they’ve been selling drugs here, the police do not have control of these streets. I mean if you can have 15 open air drug sites, you cannot say that police are controlling the streets. The streets belong to the drug dealers basically.

REPORTER: Before they join a church gathering in the adjoining room, Jorge and his family say they’re still afraid. Sometimes, the whole family comes to meet Jorge at his subway stop. More often, he uses some of the cash in his pocket for a cab.

ANA: Taxi for 4 blocks or 5.

JORGE: $6 or $7 dollars for taxi, every night.

ANA: I mean it might be a waste of money, but it’s worth it for his safety.

REPORTER: For WNYC, I’m Marianne McCune