File Photo
Joe Thompson
By Michael V. Cusenza
The online antics of the president of the now-defunct Howard Beach Citizens Safety Patrol this week riled up some members of the community who implored him not to remove trees and other greenery his organization had installed at an area beautification site the group had maintained for years.
Joe Thompson, who earlier this month announced via Facebook that the patrol would be disbanding, also recently took to the social media network to declare that he and his organization were interested in donating the shrubbery patrol members cultivated at its Adopt-a-Highway location on 156th Avenue and 84th Street in Lindenwood near the Belt Parkway.
In myriad posts, Thompson, who adopted the site in September 2015, said he and members of the group were returning it “to the way it was” because, he claimed, Community Board 10 “wrote several letters complaining about a chain-link fence that we paid for” and that as a result of the alleged letter-writing campaign, the City Department of Transportation, which operates the Adopt-a-Highway program, indicated that it would not renew the HBCSP’s commitment to the patch for another two years.
“That is why we are returning this area to the mountain of dirt it was when we received it,” Thompson wrote on Facebook.
Official Community Board 10 documents are public record. CB 10 reached out to DOT to see if the fence was permitted at the beautification site – it did not register an official complaint, nor could The Forum find any evidence to support Thompson’s claim of “several letters” being sent to the City agency.
On Monday, some Howard Beach residents were horrified at the destruction of the site.
“[Y]ou are ripping up a beautified spot regardless of who paid, right? It has already been paid for and the work done,” Alice Baumann wrote in a Facebook reply to a Thompson post. “But, if you can’t have your way, no one can enjoy it anymore. That makes you part of the problem not the solution. I have defended your organization to naysayers for the last time. Taking away the beautification is spiteful. Like a child smashing a toy because he can’t play with it anymore and he doesn’t want others to enjoy.”
Facebook user Catherine Zaita added, “Something wrong with this. Destroying what was beautiful.”
Thompson has also publicly admonished CB 10, the Howard Beach-Lindenwood Civic, and the City Police Department for forcing the patrol to disband after three years.
“[W]hen when I saw the changes in our community going toward the worst, I wanted to help. But with the positive changes that we were doing, some people got very jealous that we were taken the fame from them, and did everything they could to stop us using their political powers,” Thompson wrote.
“The Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic is an organization that collaborates with the community, local community groups, the NYPD and our elected officials to strengthen the community we live in,” Civic President Joann Ariola told The Forum this week. “Initially, the civic had no objection to the Howard Beach Citizens Safety Patrol. However, the organizations non-compliance with the NYPD’s guidelines that govern a sanctioned patrol has caused the civic to place HBCOP at arm’s length.”
Additionally, in May of 2015, The Forum obtained information indicating that Thompson has a criminal background, according to court records. In April 2001, he was arrested and charged with one count each of enterprise corruption and third-degree promoting prostitution, class B and D felonies, respectively, in New York.
According to a Spectrum News New York 1 report, Thompson blamed “the charges on a foolish investment in an escort service.”
