<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Michael Horowitz</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Civic activist Frank Belcher, who has spearheaded a lonely crusade aimed at booting sex offenders from Co-op City, said, this week, that the recent arrest of sex offender Phillip Garrido, in a widely celebrated California case, points to the need for management and members of the Riverbay board to take action.<br /><br />Garrido, who was a registered sex offender at the time police arrested him, was apprehended in the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991.<br /><br />Dugard, who was 11 at the time of the kidnapping, has two children who were fathered by her abductor.<br />With the Dugard case on his mind, Belcher, this week, voiced frustration that the community’s shareholders continue to be seemingly indifferent to the dangers that lurk from the fact that seven sex offenders are currently living in Co-op City.<br />Belcher, stressed, in an interview this week, “The members of the Riverbay board and Riverbay Executive General Manager, all but one of whom are blacks and Latinos, ought to be ashamed of themselves. They have done nothing to protect the shareholders of Co-op City, who are 85-percent blacks and Latinos, from the dangers that lurk in our community. To make matters worse, the shareholders of this community don’t seem to give a damn.”<br /><br />Belcher noted, “You would think that there would be a sense of outrage among shareholders that those in positions of authority in our community have done nothing about the fact that sex offenders are living in our community almost three years after the News, at my suggestion, first took up this cause.”<br /><br />The civic activist stressed, “If this were Riverdale or one of the better neighborhoods on Manhattan’s Eastside, I don’t think that the people of the community would tolerate the fact that sex offenders were continuing to live in their neighborhood. In contrast, the people of Co-op City lock the doors to their apartments, turn on the TV sets, and try to forget about what’s going on around them. You can’t imagine how frustrating this is for people who care about what goes on in their community.”<br />Belcher noted, “Over the years, blacks and Latinos have fought for empowerment. Now that we have the power in Co-op City, it is frustrating to watch our decision-makers be so lackadaisical about protecting us.”<br /><br />The civic activist added, “More than two years ago, Co-op City attorney Jeffrey Buss, in memorandum to the board, said that it was up to the Riverbay board of directors to decide what it wanted to do about sex offenders and other violent criminals. Mr. Buss said that the board had the power to promulgate rules and regulations that would cover sex offenders and other violent criminals.”<br /><br />Belcher stressed, “To put it bluntly, I think I speak for most of the community when I say that we want them out of Co-op City. It is unconscionable that members of the Riverbay board of directors have failed to take action on this vital subject relating to our basic safety.”<br /><br />The civic activist said that he can’t understand how sex offenders can be permitted to live in Co-op City because criminals are supposed to be barred from living in Co-op City and other Mitchell-Lama developments, as well as in public-housing projects.<br />“Since Co-op City gets Section 8 subsidies for some shareholders, the same rules should apply to Co-op City as to New York City housing projects as far as sex offenders and other violent criminals are concerned,” Belcher stressed. “Th
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