The president of United Bodegas of America(UBA), Radhamés Rodríguez, affirmed that state and municipal legislators in the city and the state are assuming indifference as a response to the attacks on local businesses and gun violence.
Rodriguez explained that 2022 closed with the highest volume of robberies, assaults, muggings and violent fights in the city’s small and medium-sized businesses, which include supermarkets, pharmacies, stores and restaurants.
He revealed that the city’s emergency numbers, 911 and 311, received more than 63,000 rescue calls during the past year, with no protective response to them from police or elected officials.
He pointed out that, so far, no councilman, senator or assemblyman has referred to the issue, forgetting that they represent the poorest districts with the largest number of voters in the city, and where most of the small and medium-sized businesses that are victims of the criminals’ disaffection are located.
“These legislators are creating the perception that they have no will or concern to help solve the problem they themselves created by approving the new bail law that gives criminals free reign to commit their misdeeds and then are released without bail despite the evidence,” Rodriguez complained.
In reference to the unknown plan announced by Mayor Eric Adams to combat the attack on the merchants, he said that he does not know it because the municipal executive has not detailed it.
“That is not controlled just like that, from one day to the next, what we have here is a great lack of incredible leadership to face the problem,” added the UBA president.
“The leaders that are here, they have not even spoken out, they are being indifferent, but really they are in line with the people who are the ones who vote. They don’t want to confront the majority of the people with the most scarce resources, they want to stay in power because those are the people who vote,” Rodriguez explained.
“They have forgotten about the people who work that they don’t think about. Let them look at how we small merchants and big businesses like CVS drugstore chains and others who are forced to close early and limit merchandise to try to avoid robberies are doing,” he added.
He indicated that these companies are losing their love for the business and want to leave because they do not feel supported.
“63 thousand cases in 2022 and many deaths from brawls, but they don’t seem to be living here nor are they looking at what is going on. I am very disappointed with the authorities we have. Very disappointed, I do not see them that will for things to change, they are not willing for this to change, I see them very lazy, they do not have the slightest intention to improve insecurity,” he said.
He cited the response to crime and delinquency of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who is willingly confronting criminals and in only two years has stabilized that country where crime has decreased.
“When there is security in a country, everyone wants to invest, those who have no money come to New York because the rich do not want to invest their capital due to the situation,” he said.
“No entrepreneur is going to come to New York to invest as it is right now. I don’t see any short- or long-range plans.
He asked the mayor to publicize the plan to excite merchants and the city.
“The mayor cannot be afraid, he must do what then Mayor Rudolph Guiliani did who executed Operation Broom and swept away all delinquents, criminals and narcos in the sectors with the highest volume of insecurity,” suggested Rodriguez.
“Guiliani went head-on, stopped them and ended crime, making New York one of the safest states in the world, which was one of the most unsafe,” he added.
“I remember the 1990s, when being in the warehouses, we said goodbye to our relatives because we didn’t know if we were going to return home alive,” he explained.
He said that the situation keeps the merchants in great helplessness and stress because even if a delinquent is caught stealing from them, they do not dare to do anything because the accused will be the one defending their business.
“That bail law that those legislators changed is what maintains the situation we are facing. It doesn’t proceed what’s going on,” he said, calling for the mayor and police to reinstate the “Stop and Frisk” policing program as the only way to get guns off the streets.”
Rodriguez supported the emergence of the “Collective Action to Protect Our Stores” movement by merchants to defend themselves against thieves.
“Everyone is losing out, because the taxes from the stolen goods are not going to the treasury. We are also at risk because many of the criminals leave and come back armed and at any moment they can generate a bloodbath,” he added.
Interview by: (Diario Extra Info, 2023)
