Volume 65, No. 218 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 50¢ QUEENS Holmes comes TODAY February 26, 2020 home Chief of school safety ASTORIA’S 35TH AVENUE PLAYGROUND has reopened just in time for spring, two years returns to NYPD after and $3 million after construction began. Im- provements include better lighting and a more stint in private sector welcoming entrance, in addition to new play- By David Brand ground equipment. The renovation was part Queens Daily Eagle of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Community Parks After more than three decades in uniform, Initiative, which works to revitalize parks in Assistant Chief Juanita Holmes made the deci- neighborhoods with above-average poverty sion to leave the NYPD and take a lucrative job rates. as head of security for a global financial ser- vices company last year. The job paid well and CONVICTED RAPIST HARVEY WEINSTEIN allowed her to travel, but her heart wasn’t in it. was admitted to Bellevue Hospital with chest Holmes, one of the highest ranking black pains while en route to Rikers on Monday. He women in the department, wanted to return was charged with one count of third-degree to the NYPD, and new Police Commissioner rape and one count of criminal sexual act in the Dermot Shea agreed. Earlier this year, he ap- first degree and faces up to 29 years. pointed Holmes as chief of the School Safety Division, a new role after her tenure as head of Queens North borough commander. THE LONG ISLAND RAILROAD WILL “I decided to come back because it’s more present their discounted ticket plan to the fulfilling than the private sector,” Holmes said. MTA this week. It features a 10 percent dis- “I grew up in the police department. I matured count on daily tickets and a 20 percent dis- here [and] I missed it.” count on monthly tickets for all stations in Holmes now commands more than 5,000 Queens except Far Rockaway. The stop was school safety agents, and she plans to be their big- also excluded from the CityTicket program gest advocate. It helps that she has personal expe- and the Atlantic Ticket program. “Once rience in the role. Holmes was a school cop at Far again, the Long Island Railroad fails to ac- Rockaway High School in the 1980s, before the Assistant Chief Juanita Holmes returned to the NYPD after a year in the private sector. knowledge that Far Rockaway is in Queens,” NYPD took over law enforcement in schools. Holmes is one of the highest-ranking black women in the department and has served in Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato Continued on page 2 the NYPD for more than 30 years. Photo via NYPD said. “The LIRR are asking my constituents, who have the farthest commutes in the city, to pay full price on the most expensive form of public transportation we have and that is completely unfair.” City Council backs two sweeping BQE fixes By Mary Frost STUDENTS GATHERED IN FLUSHING Queens Daily Eagle to compete in round two of the Computer Sci- The New York City Council and engineer- ence for All Hack League Tuesday. Middle and ing firm Arup have recommended two dif- High school student teams worked with neigh- ferent but equally sweeping ideas to replace borhood data to design and create games, apps a decrepit section of the Brooklyn-Queens and websites that address community-relevant Expressway. The multi-billion dollar project subjects. Dozens of teams from across the city would reconstruct, at minimum, a 1.5 mile will move forward to compete in the final at section of the interstate highway from Sands City Hall in April. Street to Atlantic Avenue, changing traffic pat- terns all the way to Astoria. THE FDNY UNIT OF THE MONTH The Council is urging the city to use this award for December 2019 was presented to opportunity to rethink not just the triple canti- Captain Donna Tiberi, EMT Maria Azzinaro, lever underlying the Brooklyn Heights Prome- EMT Tyler Ostrander, and EMT Jason Romero nade, but the entire I-278 corridor. from Station 47 in Rockaway on Monday. One approach would route the BQE’s cars and trucks along an enclosed highway at ACTING BOROUGH PRESIDENT SHARON ground level along Furman Street, and turn the Lee and District Attorney Melinda Katz are triple cantilever into a park. Doing this would hosting the annual Black History Month Cele- eliminate noise and pollution from the high- bration on Wednesday. The event is at 6 p.m. in way, enlarge Brooklyn Bridge Park by eight the Helen Marshall Cultural Center at Queens to ten acres and preserve the promenade. The Borough Hall. BQE would pass under Atlantic Avenue, uni- A Brooklyn town hall meeting to discuss potential ways to fix the ailing BQE drew a fying Van Voorhees Park. Continued on page 2 standing-room-only crowd. Eagle photo by Paul Frangipane Continued on page 11 Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Visit us Online @queenseagle facebook.com/queenseagle queenseagle.com Holmes comes home Chief of school safety returns to QUEENS NYPD after stint in private sector QUEENS Continued from page 1 safety agents for minor misbehav- “Coming into school safety, I ior. felt school safety agents didn’t de- The agreement addresses the serve the respect that they warrant- “school-to-prison pipeline” by ad- TODAY ed,” Holmes said. vising school safety agents not to TODAY “They need the acknowledge- arrest or issue summonses “when- ment for the hard work they do ever possible” for offenses like February 13, 2020 keeping children safe and I don’t marijuana possession, disorderly February 26, 2020 think they get the recognition that conduct, spitting or graffiti, Chalk- they should get,” she continued. beat reported last year. School safety agents at graduation in 2014. Photo via NYPD “I vow that all they are doing will Holmes acknowledged that dis- Continued from page 1 cretion and understanding are vital hit the school safety agent after the school safety agents. Starting sala- be publicly exposed. They do a lot A QUEENS MAN IS OFFERING A $50,000 to the position of school safety ry for school safety agents — most of great work and I attend every agent pulled her hair. reward for information after he was robbed in agent. of whom are women — is $32,426. CompStat meeting and I am very School safety agents undergo a parking garage of his Long Island City apart- “They know our children, Agents earn $46,737 after seven vocal.” crisis intervention training and ment building, according to NBC New York. they’re dealing with them for years on the job. School safety agents — or are educated on child behavioral He was attacked by the two men, who stole a hours in the day,” she said. “They Some school safety agents ex- school resource officers, as and developmental health, Holmes watch worth over $100,000. The police are in- are in a position to care for the perience homelessness, she said. Holmes likes to say — have a said. The goal is to understand vestigating. unique responsibility to ensure or- most precious gift of any parent, why children behave the way they And that’s a problem she wants the der at schools while not condemn- which is children.” do and avoid escalating situations city to take seriously and end. A JAMAICA RESIDENT WAS ARRESTED Problems abound, however. “There are school safety agents ing children to the criminal justice like the fight in Flushing, she said. on Sunday when he tried to ditch a loaded gun A Flushing High School student that are living in shelters. To me system for common kid behavior. “We know children are children at the Atlantic Avenue station in Brooklyn after was locked in holding cells for 30 that shouldn’t be,” Holmes said. A 2019 NYPD policy change and children do silly things. That being stopped for moving between cars. He was hours after striking a safety agent “You have people who are em- was designed to reduce the num- doesn’t mean you criminalize ev- charged with several counts, including criminal who tried to intervene in an af- ployed working, showing up every ber of arrests and summonses that erything,” Holmes said. possessionCelebrating of a weapon and tampering Black with ev- ter-school fight, the Daily News day, giving their best and still not officers execute in schools, while Holmes said part of her job is to idence, and has several prior arrests. also discouraging teachers and reported earlier this month. The advocate for the rights and needs able to have a proper roof over staff from referring kids to school student, 16, said she mistakenly of the New Yorkers who work as their head.” History Month New novel set in Forest Park Woodhaven shows gritty side of Queens man beaten, By Jonathan Sperling robbed for $40 Queens Daily Eagle A new novel set in Forest Park captures the By Jonathan Sperling gritty side of Queens in the early 1990s by Queens Daily Eagle someone who would know — a Queens na- NYPD officials have released surveillance tive. images of a man they believe is responsible Iphigenia Murphy, written by Sara Hosey, for beating and robbing a Woodhaven man on is a young adult novel that takes place most- Sunday. ly in Forest Park. The book follows the titular The suspect followed the 68-year-old man character as she runs away from home to look into a residential building located near 92nd for her long-lost mother, all while living in the Street and Jamaica Avenue before knocking park, foraging for food and shelter and fending him down in the vestibule at around 2 p.m.