Who Burned the Bronx?

"In the summer of 2024, Denver TV station FOX 31 was tipped off that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over multiple apartment complexes in the nearby suburb of Aurora. The gang-takeover narrative catapulted through right-wing media to an eager Republican presidential campaign. By October, Donald Trump had seized upon the lie-which the city's police chief and its Republican mayor repeatedly refuted-and promised to launch "Operation Aurora," "the largest mass deportation in American history.""

"The truth, mundane and sinister, was that the landlord had neglected dozens of health and code violations, and that its tenants-mostly Venezuelan immigrants-had been living with roaches, bed bugs, rats, backed-up sewage, black mold, piled-up trash, and inadequate heat and hot water for years. (If FOX 31 had checked their archives, they'd have found their own 2021 exposé on uninhabitable conditions at one of the CBZ properties.)"

"Over that decade, tens of thousands of apartment buildings burned across the country in Black and Brown neighborhoods hollowed out by white flight. The fires killed an estimated 500 people a year and displaced 500,000 nationwide. Families found themselves settled after one fire, only to be burned out once more. But throughout that era and even now, residents themselves were assigned the blame. Even when landlords got caught with firebombs in hand, politicians, police, and news media stuck to the talking point."

In summer 2024, FOX 31 received a tip alleging the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over Aurora apartment complexes. Right-wing media amplified the narrative and a Republican presidential campaign seized on the claim despite refutations by the city's police chief and mayor. The buildings' landlord, CBZ Management, hired a PR team to pitch the tip while neglecting dozens of health and code violations. Tenants, mostly Venezuelan immigrants, endured roaches, bed bugs, rats, sewage backups, black mold, and inadequate heat and hot water. Political leaders proposed law-and-order crackdowns and mass deportation instead of social support. Historical parallels to 1970s arson in neglected neighborhoods show a pattern of blaming residents rather than condemning profit-driven property neglect.

Read at The New Republic