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Migrants brawl with boxing gloves in ‘fight club’ near NYC shelter — with onlookers egging them on: wild video
Migrants were caught on camera bashing one another in a McDonald’s parking lot near a Queens shelter, while onlookers apparently wagered on their brawl.
nypost.com
Migrants brawl with boxing gloves in ‘fight club’ near NYC shelter — with onlookers egging them on: wild video
By
Social Links for Matthew Sedacca
Published Feb. 24, 2024
Updated Feb. 24, 2024, 11:16 a.m. ET
A parking lot near a Queens shelter has turned into a violent scene ripped straight out of the film “Fight Club” — with migrants brawling on camera as bloodthirsty onlookers bet on the bouts, The Post has learned.
For at least a month, migrants living in a nearby La Quinta Inn shelter on Queens Boulevard in Long Island City have slipped on boxing gloves to pound each other to oblivion in a McDonald’s parking lot across the street, according to footage of the wild scene and an area worker who has witnessed several brawls.
“Hit him, hit him!” one spectator urged in Spanish as wiry migrants threw wild hooks and haymakers at each other in broad daylight, a Feb. 17 clip posted on the Instagram account New York S—ty showed.
3 Migrants from a nearby La Quinta Inn have started a fight club across the street in a McDonald’s parking lot, according to area workers. elquelaprende15/Tiktok
“Almost!” another spectator bellowed amid a flurry of punches.
After one of the fighters pummeled his foe to the pavement, several men cheered and hugged each other, jumping up and down before one of the men removed the victor’s gloves.
And just like the 1999 film based on the Chuck Palahniuk book, Queens’ newest residents observed the first and second rules of Fight Club — “you do not talk about Fight Club” — when grilled by The Post.
“It’s students, they’re the ones fighting,” one migrant washing a car behind the shelter insisted, likely referring to hot-headed teens from nearby Aviation and Queens Technical high schools.
“It’s the kids, the students,” another said while waiting for a delivery order. “It’s not good. They can get hurt.”
But nearby workers, however, said migrants were the ones behind the al fresco bloodsport.
“Fight club, f–k club, drug distribution club…it’s lawlessness at its finest,” said a neighborhood car equipment salesman.
3 Migrants denied to The Post anyone had set up a fight club across the street from the Queens shelter. J.C. Rice
“There are so many issues a blind eye has been turned to, and this chaos is the result.”
The amateur parking lot bouts have taken place during the warmer winter weather, with three being held in the past month, one area worker said, claiming that other migrants were slinging drugs and soliciting prostitution nearby too.
“They don’t have anything to do, so that’s what they do,” the worker, 29, said. “It’s getting out of control.”
Since spring 2022, more than 178,000 migrants have poured into the Big Apple, with at least 65,000 currently in the city’s care.
In recent months, shelters and their surrounding areas have since become hotbeds of violence and black market activity, including open-air drug dealing and rampant theft.
“They’ve got to do something to make money, and they’re willing to solicit prostitution, do moped robberies — they’re going to do what they have to do to provide for themselves,” said ret. NYPD detective Michael Alcazar, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“It’s gonna be Sin City in New York City.”
During last week’s melee, a McDonald’s manager recalled how one onlooker whined he had lost $50 after one of the fighters hit the ground behind his restaurant.
3 Spectators betting on a bout cheered as a pair of migrants pummeled one another. elquelaprende15/Tiktok
“I asked them to move,” the fast-food manager said when explaining why he stepped outside to watch the fight.
“When they asked why, I told them, ‘If you get hit by a car I have to pay your hospital bills.’”
City Hall is to blame for the surge in criminal activity by sheltering and feeding asylum-seekers on the taxpayers’ dime, according to Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Brooklyn/Staten Island). Earlier this month, she called on Mayor Adams and other lawmakers to reverse the city’s current laws to allow migrants accused of crimes to be more easily deported.
“Why are New Yorkers being forced to pay for these lawbreakers’ food, shelter and every need?” she said.
“This crisis could end today if the mayor had the political will to stand up against the far-left city council and activists who continue to put catering to illegal immigrants above the safety and security of our citizens.”
An NYPD spokesperson said a group had gathered outside the McDonald’s last Wednesday but dispersed when asked to leave.