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THE NEIGHBORHOOD COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE
106-11 LIBERTY AVENUE
OZONE PARK, NY 11417
(718) 323-8260
September 18, 2007
PRESS RELEASE
WE CONDEMN COUNCILMAN ADDABBO’S DIVISIVE, BIASED AND REPREHENSIBLE ROLE IN THE HARASSMENT & HORROR THE GOUNDEN FAMILY IS FACING IN HOWARD BEACH, AND DEMAND HIS RESIGNATION!
Contact person: CHUCK MOHAN
We spoke to this aggrieved and harassed family today. Their burden is overwhelming. They need help. They also have their baby in the house, and live in morbid fear. Mr. Gounden revealed that Councilman Joe Addabbo actually tried to strong arm him into complying with bogus violations purportedly issued by the city, and visited his property several times to enforce complaints from his neighbors-in an intimidating mannner, without invitation. Mr. Gounden also said that the Coucilman has encouraged and countenanced the chronic harassment from law enforcement, building inspectors and other city and state agencies, and blatantly refuses to assist him as a constituent, instead blaming him for the tense situation. "Mr. Addabbo and staff have played the role of facilitators in one of the worse incidents of racial discrimination. We are at his mercy," the family said.
The Gounden family has been the victims of hate crime attacks in Hamilton Beach, Howard Beach. Their next door neighbor has been charged with felony hate crime charges-menacing, aggravated harassment, criminal possession of a weapon and trespassing. Since they moved into Howard Beach last July, the Gounden family have been the victims of a harassment campaign by some of their neighbors to run them out of the neighborhood. The Daily News of August 24 & 25, 2007, and the WABC TV Channel 7 News of August 25, 2007, with links reproduced below, reported on this gravely troubling issue thus (emphasis ours):
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/08/24/2007-08-24_family_haunted_by_hate_in_queens.html
Family Haunted By Hate in Queens
BY ALISON GENDAR, OREN YANIV and MICHAEL WHITEDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Deep in Howard Beach, Queens, Kris Gounden has built up a beautiful home on a sprawling waterfront property where he lives with his wife and his four children. But Gounden is of Guyanese descent, and some of his white neighbors have undertaken a harassment campaign to run him out of the neighborhood, which became infamous for racism in the 1980s.
Now there is a constant police presence outside his home in Hamilton Beach and a neighbor has been busted on felony hate-crime charges. Since he moved from Ozone Park in July last year, Gounden said he has put up with his next-door neighbors and their pals blocking his driveway, dumping garbage and urinating on his property - and logging daily complaints against him with city agencies.
"It's something out of the Deep South, or the backwoods, circa 1950," a police source said. The last straw came Aug.11, when a neighbor, 19-year-old Michael Hussey, threatened Gounden's family as they sat out on the deck. "He comes back with a baseball bat," Gounden said. "He said, 'F--k you, n----r. You don't belong in here. I will burn this house. I'll kill all of you.'"
Responding police officers told the teen only to keep to himself. But Hussey was busted Saturday after Gounden complained to the commanding officer of the 106th Precinct.
Hussey was charged with menacing, aggravated harassment, criminal possession of a weapon and trespassing - all as hate crimes. He declined to comment last night.
On Dec. 19, 1986, Howard Beach became notorious when a dozen white teens chased a 23-year-old black man, Michael Griffith, onto the Belt Parkway, where he was killed by a car. But Gounden said he won't be intimidated. "I'm staying here," he said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/08/25/2007-08-25_nypd_is_probing_police_race_bias_in_howa.html
NYPD is probing police race bias in Howard Beach
BY MIKE JACCARINO and ALISON GENDARDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The Gounden family in front of their Hamilton Beach home.The NYPD is investigating whether a Howard Beach cop ticketed a black family to appease local bigots - even as neighbors and a city councilman argued the victims were not targeted because of race.
Kris Gounden, who is Guyanese, said his white neighbors have tried to run him out of his big new house in Hamilton Beach since he moved there 17 months ago.
Gounden said neighbors called city inspectors on his every move, and the harassment peaked Aug. 11 when a neighbor's son threatened him with a baseball bat. Howard Beach has been infamous for racist incidents.
Michael Hussey, 19, allegedly shouted the N-word as he menaced Gounden, who was hosting a large party.
Police made no arrests at the time, but ticketed a Hussey pal for blocking a driveway.
Gounden said Hussey was arrested Aug. 18 on hate-crime charges only after he complained to higher-ups at the 106th Precinct.
Several days after the party, Gounden said, the ticketed young man showed up with a cop who gave Gounden a summons for excessive noise. Gounden said the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating whether Officer Richard Lennon improperly gave Gounden the summons. Police sources confirmed the probe.
Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), however, accused Gounden of playing the race card after getting written up for an expensive building violation.
"He knew Howard Beach. He knew its history and he used it to try to get around the building code," said Addabbo. "If he had done things up to code, no one would have bothered him."
Inspectors went to Gounden's home nine times in the past year, according to Buildings Department records. Seven of the complaints resulted in fines totaling $10,500. Two complaints were unfounded.
Neighbor Mark Troia, who said Michael Hussey Sr. smacked him with a bat last August, nonetheless blamed Gounden for the strife. "This had nothing to do with color," Troia said. "He's just a low-life that's making all kinds of waves around the neighborhood."
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5601945
Racial bias against family in Queens?
Happened in an area infamous for racism
Eyewitness News
(New York - WABC, August 24, 2007) - A family's dream home on the waterfront in Queens turned into a living hell. The family says white neighbors in Howard Beach have made it clear they're not welcomed.
Police surveillance outside their home has become a way of life for a Guyanese family. They have been threatened and harassed, garbage dumped on their property and people urinating in their front yard.
It happened in a neighborhood infamous for racism -- the Hamilton Beach Section of Howard Beach.
Eyewitness News reporter Jim Dolan is there with the story.
Police are outside Kris Gounden's house here 24 hours a day protecting his family. Though we should point out that the neighbors say it has nothing at all to do with race, that they are upset with some construction that he is doing.
Kris Gounden couldn't believe what he was hearing from his own neighbor.
"He started yelling racial slurs to me ... sick and tired of this fence ... and so I was trying to figure out what really it is I could do. I can't change the color of my skin or change the fence," he said.
Gounden bought his Howard Beach home seventeen months ago and he claims the harrassment began immediately. But on a recent night it boiled over with an attack.
"He proceeded to run in, grab a baseball bat, running out ... saying I want to kill you," Gounden said.
Nineteen-year-old Michael Hussey, who lives next door, was arrested and charged with hate crimes. He was not taking visitors today. But neighbors, who did not want to be identified, said it has nothing to do with the color of his skin.
"It's his arrogance," one neighbor told us.
The local councilman hasn't been much help, blaming Gounden for being attacked.
Councilman Joseph Addabbo: "He done everything that is up to code ..."Jim Dolan: "So what he did on the property is why he got attacked?"Councilman Joseph Addabbo: "That's right."
Meanwhile, Gounden's fourteen-year-old daughter has learned a lot in Howard Beach.
"I just didn't think that anything like that really ... any racism has existed still," she said.
Gounden say he has no intention of leaving and intends to finish the work on his house.
