A Howard Beach resident of Guyanese descent is claiming some of his white neighbors are harassing him in an attempt to get him to move out of the area.
Kris Gounden said he moved to the southern Queens neighborhood in July 2006 to be closer to John F. Kennedy International Airport because he works as an independent aircraft technician.Ever since he moved into the 15,000-square-foot property on Bayview Avenue, Gounden said some of his neighbors have urinated on a bush on his property, damaged his fence, blocked his driveway and complained about him daily to various city agencies.
But the incident that Gounden said led him to contact the 106th Precinct about his neighbors occurred on Aug. 11, when he claimed 19-year-old neighbor Michael Hussey confronted him on his porch with a baseball bat and threatened to torch his home and kill his family.
"This guy's coming over and he's ranting and raving," Gounden recalled during a telephone interview Monday with the TimesLedger. "He comes back with a baseball bat and he goes at it fully with the N-word."
Gounden now has 24-hour police protection at his home. He said he is not sure how long the protection will last.
Hussey was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment, criminal possession of a weapon, trespassing and menacing, police at the 106th Precinct said. All of the charges had hate crime designations.
Gounden claimed the alleged treatment he gets from his neighbors is because of the color of his skin.
"There's certain people who don't want me here," he said.
City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) said race had nothing to do with the matter, contending Gounden has about $8,000 in buildings violations because he did not build his home according to code.
But a TimesLedger review of city Department of Buildings records showed Gounden owes only $2,000 for violating a stop work order.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Gounden could not get along with his neighbors because of the work he was doing on his properties.," Addabbo said. "These building violations don't know color."
But Addabbo called the situation "really unfortunate" and said the matter should not have come to a point where Gounden was allegedly threatened with a baseball bat.
Albert Baldeo, a candidate for state Senate who is Indo-Guyanese, said Addabbo should resign from his Council seat over the way he handled the matter because the councilman would not take Gounden's side.
But Addabbo said he offered to help Gounden fix the violations in 2006 and contended Baldeo's involvement in the situation is politically motivated.
"It's unfortunate that someone would use this for political gain," said Addabbo, who is mulling a run for the state Senate seat that Baldeo also has his eyes on.
Despite the alleged harassment, Gounden said he has no plans to move out of Howard Beach.
"This is our home," he said.
