By Aaron Adler

Two members of Housing Works, a New York-based healthcare and AIDS advocate group, climbed two 40 foot flagpoles at the southern end of City Hall Park in lower Manhattan on Wednesday around 10:45 a.m. The activists, wearing helmets and climbing gear, unfurled a 30 foot banner that read “HOUSING IS HEALTHCARE: HOUSE PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS” after quickly climbing to the top of the flagpoles without being noticed by several police officers in the vicinity.

Police quickly arrived and blocked the sidewalk and the area immediately under the flagpoles and brought in a cherrypicker to bring down the activists. Other Housing Works activists held signs and cheered on Tony Ray and the other unidentified flagpole climber from the ground.

“I am up here today because of the lack of attention to housing for people with AIDS.” said activist Tony Ray through a megaphone high above the crowd, “If people with AIDS have a safe place to live, and a place for them to refrigerate their meds, they are going to stay healthy.”

The two activists stayed on the flagpoles for around 25 minutes before they were removed peaceably by the NYPD and arrested without incident.

The civil disobedience came two days before World Aids Day, a global day of remembrance of those lost to the disease.

Norma Ramos addresses the crowd.

“Village Voice shame on you, most of you have daughters too!”

“Village Voice you have a choice, stop selling girls with no voice!”

Last Wednesday these chants echoed throughout Cooper Square, where protestors led by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and Prostitute Research & Education (PRE) rallied outside the Village Voice’s office. The crowd – which consisted mostly of young women, but also a number of men, older citizens and a priest – marched in circles under pink umbrellas from 5 to 7 p.m. to deliver a stern message to the weekly newspaper publisher:

“Backpage – shut it down!”

Backpage is a popular classified advertising website owned by The Village Voice‘s parent company, Village Voice Media, that includes the largest listing for adult entertainment services on the web. Though officially the site prohibits prostitution, the adult listings are explicitly sexual, offering escorts and in-house servicing of all varieties and fetishes. These listings are not illegal, but Wednesday’s protestors argued that the site’s proven links to sex trafficking – coercive, commercial sexual exploitation, often of minors – creates a greater human rights imperative that Village Voice Media shut the website down.

“There are now many documented cases of sex trafficking directly facilitated through Backpage.com,” said Norma Ramos, CATW’s executive director. These include 50 known incidents of child sexual services for sale on the site that were recorded last year. Ms. Ramos added that “Backpage is responsible for 70% of sex trafficking ads.”

In addition to Ms. Ramos, speakers at the protest included Stella Marr, a sex trafficking survivor who has organized a network called Survivors Connect, City Council member Brad Lander and Aaron Cohen, activist and author of Slave Hunter: One Man’s Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking.

“We cannot turn our backs to the suffering caused by these Backpage ads,” said Ms. Marr.

Another survivor agreed. “Don’t open a candy shop for predators to go shopping for our kids,” she yelled at the Village Voice’s windows.

Council member Lander noted that both Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hines and the City of New York unanimously called on Village Voice Media to shut down sex trafficking ads. “Village Voice says they know better than a 13-year-old girl [who is forced into sex trafficking],” he said. “They know something better: how to profit from human suffering and slavery.”

According to Mr. Cohen, 89% of female prostitutes worldwide would choose to leave the sex industry if they had the chance. He emphasized that the vast majority of women in the industry are forced into prostitution by adverse social conditions like poverty, lack of work opportunities, unaffordable housing and discrimination.

CATW and Backpage’s opponents believe that Village Voice Media only leaves the site open for profit. Liz McDougall, the alt weekly’s general counsel attorney, however, argues  that Backpage in fact helps the fight against sex trafficking. She contends that Backpage is able to monitor illegal trafficking activity and report it to law enforcement. Shutting the site down, she says, would only drive the sex industry further underground and out of reach. As reported by CNN, a team around 100 employees oversees each adult listings entry before it is posted, and identifies about 400 ads each month that potentially offer underage sexual services.

Ms. McDougall is not alone in her defense. Right next to Wednesday’s protestors was a smaller group protesting the protest. The Sex Workers Outreach Project – New York City (SWOP-NYC) and Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK) wore “I <3 Sex Workers” pins and handed out their own brochures to passers by. They argued against what they considered to be CATW’s well-intentioned but misguided approach to change.

According to Lindsey Hennawi, a co-organizer of the rally, “We need to incorporate sex workers’ voices and experiences into the political discourse in order to better understand the issues which lead to exploitation in the sex trade. Ignoring those who are most impacted by these policies leads to incomplete and flawed understandings of social justice issues, which in turn creates ineffective solutions, like what we see here with the attempt to shut down Backpage.”

Kate D’Adamo, SWOP’s community organizer, emphasized that Backpage’s low-cost advertising can increase work safety and mean the difference between economic opportunity and poverty for people in the sex industry. Especially for the black and transgender populations disproportionately represented in sex trafficking, she argued, regulation of the industry, not its closure, is important for ensuring that sex workers can work safely

SWOP issued a letter to city council on June 20 that stated, “We feel that the crusade against Backpage.com is misguided and disregards human rights-based approaches and best practices to fighting exploitation and coercion.” The letter included two suggestions to the city for more effective resistance to sex trafficking: 1) fund emergency shelter resources for homeless and housing unstable youth to keep those in danger of trafficking away from traffickers, and 2) de-prioritize prostitution and prostitution-related arrests to encourage trafficked women to come forward to report abuses.

“You want a hard fight?,” one SWOP volunteer asked. “Empower sex workers. Who’s better for rooting our illegal sex trafficking than sex workers themselves? Give them the power to police their own industry.”

In CATW and its supporters’ view, however, prostitution is not something to be legitimized — and only rarely is it a choice. One of the pamphlets they distributed states that “prostitution is not ‘work.’ It is a violence against women and girls and a human rights violation. The term ‘sex work’ completely masks the physical, psychological and sexual violence inflicted on prostituted persons.”

“This isn’t theory, this isn’t moralism, this is human rights and real experiences across the world. We’re talking here about the system that enables oppression,” said Clare Nolan of Sisters of the Good Shepherd, partners of CATW.

Jonathan Walton of InterVarsity’s New York City Urban Project agreed in the conclusion to a poem he read to the vocal crowd. “This isn’t an event,” he said of CATW’s protest. “It’s a lifestyle.”

May has seen a renewed vigor for certain activist movements, namely “Occupy Student Debt” and, on May 1, “May Day.” For it’s part, the Occupy Student Debt movement renewed its protest efforts as collective student debts broke the $1 Trillion threshold, with rallies planned for May 2 “at Union Square in Manhattan, and several colleges and universities around the country,” according to New York Times. However, thus far, the protesters that comprise Occupy Student Debt have been unsuccessful in achieving their goals, which include government regulation of private interest rates from existing loans offered from private lenders.

Similarly, May Day 2012 was an attempt by the self-proclaimed 99% (including many OWS Protestors) to “remove themselves” economically. Protesters were encouraged to skip out on work, shopping and spending in a globally coordinated attempt to “…collectively change working conditions in our world…” by “stepping out of the systems of production that confine and divide us,” according to MayDayNYC.org.

Both events circle back to the lingering disconnect that many New Yorkers – including students, immigrants and parents – have felt since the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement (which began in Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, 2011). Since then, those sympathetic with the movement have referred to themselves as “the 99%,” a perceived mark of disconnect from financial institutions, corporations, as well as other wealthy establishments and individuals.

Meneses was collared for attempting to paint “Stop Gale Brewer’s Forced Landmarking” on the sidewalk shed around the church. Police prevented him from finishing the final word.

“It’s something that is [supported] by outsiders of the community of the church and by Council Member Brewer,” Meneses said in a phone interview April 19. “I don’t think it’s fair for a minority church to go through this because the neighborhood’s rich people want it.”

A member of West Park Presbyterian Church’s governing board was arrested last weekend for spray painting on the sidewalk shed around the church; the graffiti was later removed (inset). Photo by Dan Rivoli, inset photo by Andrew Schwartz

The church’s leader, Rev. Robert Brashear, has long insisted that the regulations accompanying landmark designation will make it difficult to work with a developer on needed renovations. The building cannot host congregants or provide services to those in need because of its deteriorated state.

“This building was created by our forbearers to extend their mission in their neighborhood in their city,” said Brashear in an interview a day before the hearing. “Our hope is that [the subcommittee members] realize there are more constituents to be respectful of than the preservation community. Nobody loves and respects [the church] more than we do. For people in the neighborhood, it’s an aesthetic amenity.”

At the April 20 hearing, landmark opponents brought signs saying, “YES to religious freedom, NO to forced landmarking,” and framed the preservation  efforts as an attack on religious freedom. Supporters of landmarking, who have included State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, argued at the hearing that such protections were necessary to preserve a building that would otherwise languish.

“The question here is mission,” Brashear said at the hearing. “Who has the right to determine the mission of our church?”

The subcommittee will not vote on the designation until its next meeting, but the outcome seems preordained. The Council often defers to local members’ wishes when it comes to landmarking, and Brewer has been an avid supporter of protecting the church from the beginning. She will cast a vote on the matter if the proposal moves out of the Land Use Committee to the full Council.

While Brashear said that “no one” has come up with a plan to maintain the church’s architecture and allow the congregation to return and provide services, Brewer insisted that a strategy will be devised.

“That is upsetting to me. I tried to help. When I say I had 100 meetings on this topic, I’m not kidding,” Brewer said in a separate interview. “I’m confidant that people understand the importance of landmarks. The landmark community will have to make their case and I’m sure the ministers will make their case.”n

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With additional reporting by Megan Finnegan.

An employee at Pet Fashion holds a puppy. Critics say the animals are from an inhumane puppy mill. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Animals (ASPCA). They are commercial businesses that continuously breed female dogs without regard to health or wellbeing. In fact, the first tip offered by the ASPCA to fight puppy mills is for prospective pet owners to steer clear of puppies from pet stores.

“There are poor conditions in puppy mills,” said Neil Rosenblum, who owns Pet Stop, a supply store across the street. “It’s unbelievably unsafe. This is not what breeding is about.”

Pet Fashion’s critics delivered 540 petition signatures, mainly from the Upper West Side, to shop owners to pressure the store to stop selling puppies. They are also planning a Nov. 28 protest in front of the store. Alongside the dogs, Pet Fashion sells high-end jewelry and dog collars that cost upwards of $200. The store opened on Columbus Avenue in September and has locations in Yonkers and on West 182nd Street and Broadway.

Pet Fashion’s Columbus Avenue manager, Ricky Abally, said the store does not sells puppies from mills.

“They’re not puppy mill puppies,” he said. “They’re from breeders registered with the [United States Department of Agriculture] and the Kennel Club.”

He said the puppies come from reputable breeders, are vaccinated and have microchips implanted. Anyone who buys a puppy gets complete information about the breeder and the puppy’s background.

Abally declined to show documented proof that the puppies are from breeders.

When told of the group’s planned protest, he responded, “I’ll buy them a cup of coffee.”

Charlie Hinckle, who helped collect signatures against Pet Fashion, scoffed at Abally’s claim that the store uses breeders.

“Of course he’s going to say that,” Hinckle said. “No reputable dealer will sell to a pet store.”

But selling puppies from mills is only one accusation against Pet Fashion. Jane Berger, part of the group of protesters, claims that she went to the branch on West 182nd Street and was offered a discount on a puppy if she paid cash to avoid sales tax. Louis, that store’s manager, who refused to give his last name, said he has not heard of this practice and that if any employee was offering customers puppies for cash, he would pay the sales tax regardless. Abally, the Columbus Avenue store manager, did not comment on that allegation.

Council Member Gale Brewer sent a letter to the state and city departments of taxation asking them to look in to the matter. The city’s tax department spokesperson said that its enforcement group is investigating.

Berger says her main goal is to educate Upper West Siders about the dangers of puppy mills.

“We don’t want there to be any puppies sold here,” she said. “It’s an endorsement of harm to animals.”

That is because the drilling, believed to contaminate water, would be allowed near watersheds where city residents get their drinking water.

Borough President Scott Stringer, along with other city officials, called for the state to ban drilling near the city’s water source.

“Today, we start a campaign with one clear goal: to make certain that before this state’s draft plan become law, it includes a ban on drilling for natural gas in the city’s upstate watershed,” Stringer said in a statement.

The coalition of elected officials and environmental advocates also criticized the proposed buffer zones around watersheds as inadequate to protect water from contamination.

“The proposed mitigation measures do not go far enough,” said State Sen. Tom Duane, in a statement. “It is inconceivable and unacceptable that the measures do not include a ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in and around New York City’s watershed and, indeed, in all water supplies statewide.”

The Department of Environmental Conservation will hold a public information sessions later in the year.