Nicolas Niarchos

The Federal Communications Commission has identified New York as a problem area, and Brooklyn, with its diverse immigrant communities, is the epicenter of the city’s pirate scene. In 2017, when President Donald Trump appointed Ajit Pai Chairman of the FCC, Pai promised to “take aggressive action” to stamp out pirates. In early May, the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement, or pirate, Act was introduced in Congress; it would increase fines from a maximum of a hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to two million dollars.