After the city was looking to place 110 homeless families, taking up the entire hotel at the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, neighborhood residents took to the streets in one part of their multi-faceted approach to defeating the plan. The protests at the Maspeth Holiday Inn have morphed into a march along Grand Avenue, a message sent to the home of the owner of the hotel and more recently a protest in front of the Windsor Terrace home of NYC Homeless Commissioner Banks last last week.
The mayor says that the protests are threatening and intimidating, while the protesters say they have First Amendment rights to protest just as the mayor did when he protested and was arrested for a march against the closing of Long Island College Hospital in 2013.
Note that he was not arrested protesting in front of the hospital itself, in Brooklyn, but at the offices of the State University of New York’s midtown offices.
Bringing a protest to the source is not a threat it’s just a way to make sure your message is received.
