Day: September 26, 2025

An overflow crowd of security guards, legislators and family members of security guard Aland Etienne, killed in a recent Midtown attack, on Thursday gathered to honor him and push for legislation as a lasting memorial that would set new pay and training regulations for New York City security guards. 

More than 400 people, including hundreds of guards, filled the rotunda, holding posters with photos of Etienne. Dozens more stood outside once capacity was reached.

Etienne, 46, of Brooklyn, and off-duty NYPD officer Didarul Islam, 36, who was working a security detail, were killed July 28 in a shooting at 345 Park Ave.

Wesley LePatner, 43, a senior managing director at Blackstone, and Julia Hyman, 27, an associate at Rudin Management, which owns the building, were also killed. The shooter then took his own life.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and more than 25 co-sponsors introduced the Aland Etienne Safety and Security Act shortly after the rally. The measure would direct the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to establish and enforce minimum wage standards, paid sick and vacation leave, benefits, and expanded training requirements for security guards.

It also would create a Security Guard Advocate within the agency to educate guards and employers about the new mandates and handle complaints.

“Security officers like Aland are integral to New York City’s public safety infrastructure,” Adams said. “But too often they are not compensated or treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

Ibrahim Sene, a security guard, said he protects against theft, but also protects employees and customers, often late at night. “We work hard to protect this city,” he said. “Now we are asking you to protect us.”

Aland’s younger brother Smith Etienne also said Aland “protected the public on the job.” 

“Let’s honor his legacy by uplifting and protecting his colleagues across the city,” Smith said. “Protect the protectors.”

An obituary for Etienne noted he “found purpose and pride in his work, becoming a respected security officer in one of Manhattan’s most prominent buildings.” 

The legislation would set a base for pay and require more training for all security guards in New York City, although some already likely are paid well above the proposed base wage. 

“The security officers who we trust to watch over out loves ones often are overlooked,” said 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich, representing 20,000 security guards. “Investing in our brave security officers will make us all more safe.”

A study by the University of California at Berkeley Labor Center of the roughly 82,000 privately paid security guard in New York City concluded the industry is seeing a 77% annual turnover rate.

The study also found they earn a median income of $40,311, although 84.7% work full-time and 88.7% work the full year. The vast majority or 90.6% are workers of color and Black workers account for roughly half.

Meanwhile, 37.8% have no health insurance through their employer or a household member’s employer.

Council Member Crystal Hudson said passing the legislation would honor “the life and legacy of Aland Etienne,” not simply through “mourning, but in action.”

“How often our city has failed to value the workers on the front lines of our safety every day?” Hudson asked. “Security officers are not just building staff. They are first responders.”

Arc of Justice leader Reverend Kirsten Foy called security guards “unsung heroes” often described as “not producing.”

“I beg to differ. They are producing a security environment. They are producing safety for you and your family,” Rev. Foy said. “They not only give us their labor. They give us their lives.”

New York State in 1992 started a security guard program, mandating training for anyone working in the security industry statewide, said Mike Gaynor, a retired NYPD detective and owner of East Coast Detectives, which does investigations and trains security guards.

Security guards not working as NYPD officers must obtain eight-hour pre-assignment training, followed by 16 hours on the job training and eight hours annual training, Gaynor said. 

“Civilians” working as security guards who work with a gun must obtain 47 hours of fire arms training, Gaynor added.

“It’s a dangerous vocation. And the most important person on the job is the cop or the security guard who has to look out for everybody,” Gaynor said. “They are first responders when they’re working. They are generally underpaid. Not all of them. Some make good money.”

Gaynor, who said there are around 400 schools to train security guards in New York State, said many security guards currently make around minimum wage, while someone with law enforcement experience may get $20 to $25 or more. 

“If you work in security on Park Avenue protecting a building with thousands of people in it, I would expect you would make more than if you’re checking receipts in Home Depot,” Gaynor said. “Those are two different jobs and assignments. I’d expect more money in one than another.”

While the rally served as a reminder of Etienne, people who worked with him talked about daily reminders of the loss and potential danger of the job. 

Brian Telfair, a Brooklyn resident and security guard at 345 Park Avenue, said Etienne’s empty locker remains next to his. 

“We’d talk a lot about our families. We’d buy lottery tickets. He was crazy about Lotto,” said Telfair, who has worked there for more than two years and as a security guard since 1988. “It’s sad, seeing his empty locker every day. Plus, it’s been hard going back to work knowing that it could have been me.”

The legislation, named for Etienne, could be phased in over four years, including 16 hours of supplemental training covering emergency preparedness and active shooter response within 120 days of hire, plus 8-hour annual refreshers.

The minimum compensation would be set by DCWP to develop “appropriate hourly wage rates” to retain and attract a skilled workforce, not lower than private guards on city contracts, currently paid about $18 to $21 based on experience.

Some regions have imposed wage floors and other legislation related to at least some security guards and other industries. Washington DC in 2008 set higher wage and benefit rates for security officers stationed at office buildings.

Maryland in 2021 passed the Secure Maryland Wage Act, citing high turnover when it increased the minimum wage for workers at Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport, Pennsylvania Station and the Port of Baltimore.

New York and New Jersey in 2021 set wage and benefits requirements for certain airport workers at Port Authority airports with the Health and Terminals Act. 

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork. 

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At the final public hearing regarding the proposed Coney Island casino earlier this month, as locals argued about how many jobs, cars, and people the project would bring to the neighborhood, a new number began to circulate. 

“Let me give you one other figure that I know many people here are very familiar with today, especially the pro-casino side, and that is $80,” said Malik Hassan, executive director of MAS Brooklyn, at the Sept. 10 meeting. “$80 is the amount of money the pro-casino side is being paid.” 

Hassan was the first of several attendees that night who claimed that at least some pro-casino speakers had been paid by The Coney. 

“Don’t take my word for it,” he added. “They have told me. I was outside, they have told me directly they are being paid $80.”

In audio recorded by Brooklynite Nat Townsen and first released by activist group Save Coney Island, two people discuss what appears to be a plan to get paid after the hearing. 

“After they speak a couple of words, a couple of people speak, then we’re going to meet at Nathan’s,” a man says on the recording. “Just hang in there man, you’re going to get paid.”

Another voice instructs someone to “Keep it on the low.”

Towsen told Brooklyn Paper he recorded the conversation while he was in line outside the Coney Island YMCA on the night of the hearing, waiting to testify. A man in line wearing a branded “The Coney” T-shirt was talking with a woman who was against the casino, he said. 

“He was kind of arguing with her, and then somebody else came up to him and asked him, like ‘Wait, when are we going to get paid?’” Towsen said. “Then he called some other guy up, and they were very slow in shutting him up. They were just talking really openly about [it.]”

When the meeting started at 5 p.m. the crowd was split, several attendees told Brooklyn Paper. On one side of the room sat a number of casino supporters, many with The Coney T-shirts and signs. On the other, the project’s opponents, with black-and-red “No No No Casino in Coney” signs. 

“I was really surprised when I got to the auditorium that there was such a flood of ‘yes’ folks,” said Bensonhurst resident Sarah W. “This was my first public meeting, but I’ve attended other meetings virtually, and from everything I saw it seemed like the community was pretty overwhelmingly against the casino.”

Sarah said much of the pro-casino testimony felt “uniform” and “influenced,” and Towsen believed speakers may have been told what to say. After the first CAC hearing on Aug. 26, Brooklyn Paper received a photo of a speaker holding what appeared to be a pro-The Coney script. 

“Talking points aren’t illegal, providing talking points is done by groups on all sides, it’s a good way to concentrate your strategy,” Towsen said. “But these people were being given free hats, free T-shirts, free ice cream from an ice cream truck parked directly outside the YMCA.”

At about 7:30 p.m., much of the pro-casino crowd left the meeting, multiple attendees told Brooklyn Paper. CAC members had been encouraging speakers to leave after making their testimony, in order to make space for those still waiting outside. 

But word had spread that pro-casino speakers would be leaving at 7:30 p.m. to get paid, said Lola Star, a longtime Coney Island business owner and artist. She was standing near the door when a “flood” of people got up and left together. 

Video posted online and provided to Brooklyn Paper shows people standing in line near Nathan’s, some of whom appear to be holding white The Coney T-shirts and at least one of whom is wearing a shirt with the casino’s logo. At the front of the line, a man holds what appear to be envelopes. 

One person, who asked not to be named, told Brooklyn Paper he recognized one of the pro-casino speakers while riding the bus home after the hearing.

“I was like, ‘Tell me, is it true that you guys are getting paid like $80?” he alleged. “He, like, smiled, he looked excited to talk about it. He was like, ‘Yeah, did you get yours?’”

In response, the source said, he held up his “No Casino” sign.

“I was like, no, they can keep their $80.”

Locals call for state investigation 

Star, who founded Save Coney Island in 2007, gathered the video and audio recordings submitted by her neighbors and sent them to the state’s Gaming Commission, which oversees the casino licensing process, and to Council Member Justin Brannan, the chair of the CAC. She urged the Gaming Commission to investigate. 

A Gaming Commission representative, in response, said the Commission “is a regulatory, not a law enforcement body,” according to an email shared with Brooklyn Paper, and would not investigate.

The representative said it is “generally regarded as acceptable” for groups to organize people in support of their causes, including organizing travel to meetings, providing T-shirts or signs, or drafting talking points.

They recommended that Star and Save Coney Island report “allegations of criminal activity” to the police.

“I actually did, I called the 60th Precinct,” Star said. “And I was like ‘You might think this is crazy,” and they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s crazy.’ Like, this is not what we do … so nobody is really taking it seriously.”

A Gaming Commission representative told Brooklyn Paper that “whether such actions are considered violations of Penal Law is not for the Commission to determine.” 

They added that the Commission, in partnership with the state police, is “undertaking a comprehensive suitability review of each casino applicant, which includes review of the integrity of both the corporate entity and its leadership.”

“Such allegations, especially if brought forward to law enforcement, may be considered in the context of such review,” the rep said. “This process is, of course, separate from the Community Advisory Committee process.”

Brannan said he received a similar answer.

Rebuffed by the Commission and the NYPD, Star was frustrated by what she felt was an unfair and potentially unlawful situation. 

“What I would like to see is [for the Commission] uphold their law,” she said. “I didn’t make the law. They have a law which dictates how this process should legally proceed.” 

Brannan said it was not clear if The Coney’s alleged actions were illegal or not. 

“Even if [the Commission] came back to us and said, ‘This is technically allowed,’ it doesn’t mean that you should be doing it,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that it reflects positively on your application.”

A representative for The Coney, when reached for comment, told Brooklyn Paper “We aren’t going to comment on baseless accusations.”

Supporters of at least one other proposed casino — The Avenir in Hell’s Kitchen — allegedly offered to pay people to speak in favor of the project. 

On Monday, a week before The Coney CAC is set to cast its final vote, Brannan announced he would vote ‘no.’ Three other CAC members later said they would vote against The Coney, too,  all but confirming that the bid will fail.

“I think we’re smart enough to know when someone is honestly speaking in favor, or ambiguous, or conflicted about something, and when someone has just been paid off to say ‘This is the greatest thing since sliced bread,’” Brannan said. “The fact that we all came out and said we’re going to vote no for this shows that even if they were paying people off, it didn’t work.”

A Bushwick retail building anchored by beloved Thai spot Tong and a MetroRock rock-climbing gym has sold for $17.5 million.

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