Sex workers, illegal vendors at NYC Market of Sweethearts urge cops to leave them alone as they rally for more rights
About three dozen people who identified themselves as sex workers and illegal vendors rallied along Queen’s seedy “Market of Sweethearts” Tuesday, calling on cops to turn down the heat so they can make a living.The protesters said they peddle their bodies and stolen loot to survive — and said repeated NYPD raids along their Roosevelt Avenue haunt has made it harder to make ends meet.“I proudly call myself a hooker with a 401K,” said consultant and sex worker Victoria Von Blaque, who urged the cops and the city to “stop trying to play Captain Save a Hoe.“I went out and got a job, I had the education,” she said.
“But because we live in a world that will deny human beings the simple right, no matter how qualified they are, to equal employment and treatment with health care that affirms us — a lot of us are forced back to the streets.“My secondary job is a sex worker,” Blaque said.“Why? Because we live in New York City.
Where else do you know where you can live and you have to make over $100,000 to be considered working class or just making it? So if you don’t want us to be sex workers, give us resources that we actually want and need.”Eliana Jaramillo, a street vendor in the community, complained about the fines he’s racking up “I have been discriminated against in the streets,” she said.“And currently I received four tickets, and these are tickets that are not cheap.
These tickets go up to $1,000 and they have been trying to arrest me.Yesterday, we had a couple of arrests.
There were eight people that were arrested in the street.“They tried to arrest me too, just for trying to sell our products in the street.”Maxima Rodas, who heads the trans immigrant project Make the Road New York, told reporters that the police raids “indiscriminately targeted some of the most vulnerable” residents.“This so-called ‘Quality of Life’ operation targets sex workers, street vendors and migrant communities who live in this neighbo...