Capital New York

Kevin Heldman commented on Takeout story: Behind bulletproof glass and out on a bike for a Chinese restaurant in Mott Haven

Thanks for the feedback Jessica, Jimmy, Giovanny. I didn't intend a snobby tone toward the community papers and the journalism school papers who I know do a good job on a regular basis of reporting in these parts of the city. It was an oversight, I should have given them the recognition they deserve, they are out there in neighborhoods doing stories. I'm definitely not about snob mentality and definitely not or try hard not to be about "look at them on a safari" mentality. These areas I'm reporting on are close to my world in real life. And as far as things changing, anything being done -- I'm going to print out copies of the article and give to the local police precinct, local politicians, community groups, NGO like non-profits, Nancy and her family -- get the word out to whoever will listen and maybe things might improve -- maybe a spotlight, increased awareness for a little while. Not expecting deep systemic change with an article, but I'll take some extra patrols in the area, cameras, community watch, meetings where it's at least on peoples' radar. And -- it's not corny -- Nancy, her family got a voice -- that's worth something all by itself. Best, Kevin Heldman

Posted on October 26th, 2011 12:59pm

Takeout story: Behind bulletproof glass and out on a bike for a Chinese restaurant in Mott Haven

Nancy Lin, 30, and her family own and run Lok Hin, a Chinese takeout restaurant on Brook Avenue in the Mott Haven of the Bronx. Just recently, in August, Nancy’s younger sister, Lynn, was assaulted on a delivery. She was screaming on the streets while two men punched her and stole her food. The men were about to get her money, too, but she was saved when someone in the neighborhood opened their door and got her inside. The same thing almost happened again to Lynn even more recently, but her brother showed up and scared her attackers off. More

Posted on October 24th, 2011 12:47pm

Kevin Heldman commented on Walter Fields Jr. on class and race at Occupy Wall Street, and the potential of the movement

"Despite the presence of large numbers of African-Americans in New York City, it doesn't have the same activist fervor as those other places," he said. "It just doesn't, unless it's around an issue like police brutality" Not to generalize but I've personally seen, been around, heard, working class, poor, and even the really marginalized (talking about in jail or in drug rehab) African Americans talking politics, social issues, etc many many times with a tremendous amount of passion and enthusiasm. Again, not to generalize, but I was on many job sites where working class white guys were listening to Howard Stern and black working class guys were listening to WBAI or WLIB and talking issues. Just last year on a lunch break I sat around while maybe 12 African American guys, regular working class guys working for the city, were talking about the Middle East, current events, military affairs, with all the enthusiasm of a college poli sci class. The passion and interest and maybe even the activist fervor is there -- it just has to be tapped into in some way. And it terms of what to protest against -- there are places like East New York and inner city Detroit that people from countries that we consider emerging, 3rd world, war zones even consider horrible. An immigrant from the war torn Balkans told me if you dropped off one of his countrymen in the middle of inner city Detroit they'd say, after one day, please get me out of here, I'd rather be back in my war torn country.

Posted on October 14th, 2011 3:24pm

Kevin Heldman commented on The big trial: An Albanian-American crime story, from 15 Mile Road to Pearl Street

Readers, this is Kevin Heldman, author of these Albanian stories. I'm writing this on Sept. 30, 2011 -- a very decent organization has agreed to fund me, support me on a trip to Albania, the Balkans, to try and take this story a little deeper, to the next level. I'm leaving Nov. 9, 2011 -- anyone out there who knows people in country, could offer advice, help, direction, guidance, it would be greatly appreciated. My e-mail is kevinjayheldman[at]yahoo.com. Journalists kind of do depend on the kindness of strangers thing -- I do straight, honest, fair reporting -- you invite me into your life, your world, I honor that and will represent you and your people righteously, decently. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks. Kevin Heldman

Posted on September 30th, 2011 7:23am

Kevin Heldman commented on A Capital anticipation list: Monticello, Misfits, Cowboys, cop movies, Swamplandia!

re: Cop movies -- Serpico is, or was as of last year, living upstate NY in a cabin, a beat cop who became Thoreau missing like crazy the only job he ever loved, not doing what he was meant, born to do in his life; the saddest situation -- Corey Kilgannon of the NY Times went up there in 2010 and watched the movie with him, the first time he said he ever watched the whole film, 37 years after it came out

Posted on September 8th, 2011 8:37pm

No Seinfeldian glee at the temporary storm shelter at John Jay

Happily, some New Yorkers felt that Hurricane Irene, which turned out to be a tropical storm, was much ado about not much. They dismissed the whole thing, according to the New York Times, with “Seinfeldian glee.”

But the event was less easily dismissible for some of the New York’s sick, elderly, very poor, homeless and disabled residents, and for those who were involved, as I was, in the disaster-response effort. More

Posted on September 2nd, 2011 8:18am

Runaway sidekick: How little Tani Kocareli escaped from the New York-Albanian mob, then botched it

Neritan (Tani) Kocareli is 30 years old. He arrived in the United States from Albania when he was 17, after he, his brother and his parents won an immigration lottery. Later, he became a citizen.

Tani lived in Ridgewood, Queens and went to high school there, but he only lasted about two years before he started cutting classes and hanging out Albanian toughguys in the nearby La Roma Dei Café. He dropped out, and would eventually get a G.E.D..

That group Tani fell in with at La Roma Dei included the late, violent Genitan Kasa, who became a soldier in the employ of the notorious Krasniqi brothers, Bruno and Saimir. It also included Plaurent Dervishaj, another former associate of the Krasniqis, who is currently at large and on the most-wanted list of federal law enforcement agencies in America and Albania.

At another Albanian spot nearby, the Rogner Café, the customers were just as rough. It included the Albanian drug kingpin, Kujitim Konci (a.k.a. Kujitim Gonxhe, a.k.a. Shpetim Konci) and a major Albanian-American dealer named Parid Gjoka. More

Posted on July 29th, 2011 4:08pm

Anatomy of an Albanian-mob coup: The challenge, the balk, the murder

Following close on the heels of the U.S. attorney’s successful conviction of a handful of New York-based Albanian-American gangsters, the NYPD and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration coordinated a far-reaching new bust of the city’s Albanian mob, making arrests throughout the boroughs and beyond.

It’s too soon to tell whether this is the end of an era for the New York-Albanian mob and its role at the center of a global drug network, or if law enforcement as merely made room for new, up-and-coming criminals to take the places of the soldiers they’ve now taken out of commission. More

Posted on July 15th, 2011 8:28am

The verdict: Feds chip away at the New York-Albanian mob, with bigger battles to come

I spent about ten months reporting on Albanian organized crime, all leading up to three weeks in a New York federal court house for the first trial of a group Albanian-Americans with ties to the organized international drug trade.

The jury decided the case in one day. More

Posted on July 6th, 2011 4:00pm

The big trial: An Albanian-American crime story, from 15 Mile Road to Pearl Street

To understand the story of Albanian organized crime in New York City, where the murder and drug-trafficking trial of the notoriously violent Krasniqi brothers and their associates got underway this week, I had to go to Michigan.

For five hours in a prison on the Canadian border, I sat across a table from Ketjol Manoku. He’s in for murder—ten felony sentences. His latest motion had been denied the day before I arrived. More

Posted on June 9th, 2011 9:53pm