Queens residents rally to call for end to human trafficking, prostitution in Flushing

A group of New Yorkers are demanding change to end what they say is a years-old problem – human trafficking and prostitution along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.

Saturday, neighbors gathered to call on police, prosecutors and lawmakers to clean up 40th Road in Flushing.

"All day long, we have prostitution, we have drugs," Queens resident Ramses Frias said.

"A few feet away from this park, we have prostitution, human trafficking, open-air drug use," another speaker said.

The street sits just south of Roosevelt Avenue, where CBS News New York has reported on NYPD crackdowns over the last few years from Jackson Heights to Corona.

But those who rallied Saturday say criminals are still trafficking women, and even children, in Flushing and beyond.

"We get all these new people coming from other countries, and they're exploiting them and they're selling them," private investigator Manuel Gomez said.

Richard Ortiz, a senior assistant district attorney from Brooklyn, spoke at the rally, saying it's not just happening in Queens. He called on New Yorkers to unite against the problem.

"No human being was ever created to become another person's commodity," he said.

The Queens district attorney and the NYPD would not agree to an interview Saturday, but an NYPD spokesperson says police arrested 89 people across the city in a human trafficking crackdown during the World Cup tournament. Police say that operation helped 43 victims and rescued seven minors.