Inside the Grassroots Campaign That Pushed a Drone Company Out of Brooklyn

On the morning of February 11, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC), a non-profit landlord responsible for developing the Brooklyn Navy Yard, convened a closed-doors meeting. One item of business concerned the lease of Easy Aerial, an AI drone manufacturer with material ties to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Israeli military, and one of 550 businesses housed inside of the city-owned industrial hub.

Meanwhile, 30 community members with the grassroots campaign Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (DBNY) occupied the lobby of Navy Yard Building 77, where Easy Aerial is headquartered. “We arrived with noisemakers and drums; we chanted and gave speeches,” said Leila Rafiq, a DBNY organizer using a pseudonym to protect her privacy. Outside, dozens of additional protesters picketed the building entrance.

In September 2024, DBNY launched publicly with a clear and enticing thesis. “A militant, consistent, and organized group that employs a multiplicity of tactics can win,” said Rafiq. After an intensive research process, the campaign landed on two primary targets: Easy Aerial and Crye Precision, a tactical gear manufacturer. What started as a small group of committed organizers now involves many community members, Navy Yard tenants and workers, students, and neighbors, all with different roles and levels of engagement.

Unlike other segments of the New York City Palestine Solidarity Movement, which revolve around sporadic mass mobilizations, Rafiq contends that DBNY is showing an alternative pathway: hyper-local organizing targeting suppliers of genocide.

Easy Aerial drones are used by both U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) at the U.S.-Mexico border, and by the Israeli military at the Israel-Gaza border.

During the DBNY occupation, news broke that BNYDC had made a decision about Easy Aerial: the drone company would no longer be welcome in the Navy Yard when their lease expires in May. Felicity Doyle, a Brooklynite who participated in the morning’s action, described feeling “utter disbelief,” at the news. “It was a small shred of hope,” she said.

While BNYDC claims the non-renewal was “for business reasons,” Rafiq said that “What resulted in their eviction is pressuring them from so many different angles with consistency.”

Global and Local Implications

Alongside militant, disruptive tactics, DBNY also prioritizes community organizing. One effective communications approach has been emphasizing the global and local implications of the campaign. “This is about Palestine, but it’s also local because they’re supplying entities targeting migrants, Black and Brown people,” said Rafiq.

A 2022 Times of Israel article reported that Easy Aerial drones are used by both U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) at the U.S.-Mexico border, and by the Israeli military at the Israel-Gaza border. Since then, the Gaza genocide appears to have been good for business — in 2024, Easy Aerial’s co-founder and chief product officer, a former Israeli soldier, told Truthout about Israel’s “immediate need” for autonomous drones after October 7. The company contracts with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, supplying drones for Israeli ground and sea weapons systems. In August 2025, CBP solicited a $1-2 million contract from Easy Aerial for enhancement of its drone surveillance capabilities. Easy Aerial did not respond to Truthout’s request for comment about its DHS contracts.

DBNY’s other primary target is Crye Precision, a tactical uniform manufacturer that licenses camouflage technology to a supplier for the Israeli military, and has numerous DHS contracts, including a recent “rapid order” worth $40,000 to supply CBP agents operating in Maine with Crye Precision cold weather apparel. The federal agents who murdered Alex Pretti in Minneapolis appear to be wearing Crye Precision equipment. Truthout reached out to Crye Precision to verify if agents were wearing its gear and did not receive a response. DBNY is leveraging the recent surge of anti-ICE sentiment to increase public pressure on the BNYDC.

Doyle, a musician and artist, attended a DBNY teach-in outside the Navy Yard, where she got plugged into a civic engagement role. “With my theater and performance background, I am comfortable speaking in public,” she said. One venue for her skills is Community Board meetings, neighborhood bodies where civic leaders gather testimony from community members and share budgeting recommendations to the city government. Doyle has spoken about Easy Aerial and Crye Precision at several Community Board meetings, distributing flyers and encouraging audience members to sign DBNY’s petition.

The petition, which DBNY said has more than 1,000 signatures, including hundreds of Navy Yard workers and tenants, demands that the BNYDC board of directors terminate lease agreements with Easy Aerial and Crye Precision. The BNYDC board is appointed by the mayor, but Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not appointed any new board members, nor taken a position on DBNY’s demands. Mayor Mamdani’s press office did not respond to Truthout’s request for comment.

Many Roles for Many People

One evening in October 2024, Jacob was taking an online exam for a graduate course in his apartment across from the Navy Yard, when he heard protesters banging drums and blaring airhorns outside. Jacob, who requested a pseudonym to protect his privacy, is an anti-Zionist Jewish organizer from Brooklyn. He described feeling dissonance while “participating in careerism, as organizers did the real work of trying to put their bodies in the gears of a genocide.” Afterward, he approached DBNY during a community outreach session outside the Navy Yard, gradually becoming a regular participant.

Weekly pickets and noise demos are the cornerstone of DBNY, “providing a baseline of pressure basically every week to remind people of our presence and the presence of these companies at the Navy Yard,” Jacob said. At these actions, organizers approach curious passersby and share information about the campaign, inviting them to sign the petition and join the picket. Unlike seeing a social media post, Jacob said, “You can’t scroll past bullhorns and drummers and chanting about the mechanisms of genocide you live next-door to.”

While these pickets are a consistent way for New Yorkers to engage with DBNY, the campaign spikes the pressure during strategic moments. “Whenever the Board meets we put on a special show for them,” said Jacob.

“Our aim is to fully demilitarize. We want to change the name to the Brooklyn Neighborhood Yard.”

These “special shows” can include multiple simultaneous tactics, demonstrating DBNY’s organizing approach: many pressure points, many degrees of escalation, many roles for many people. For example, during the September 2025 BNYDC board meeting, neighbors including Jacob held a press conference; civic engagement organizers attempted to enter the meeting to give public comment (and were denied access); protesters picketed outside of Building 77; and autonomous climate activists blockaded an entrance — all at the same time.

Jonathan Bloom, a labor organizer and community member who participates in DBNY, including outreach sessions with workers, believes that building labor power will generate additional pressure on the BNYDC board. Bloom engages workers at pickets and during their lunch breaks. “When I talk to people, I say, there’s an issue here in your workplace, where you can materially impact the supply chain of genocide. And that’s a really big opportunity,” he said.

The Navy Yard is marketed as an industrial center for small businesses, sustainability startups, and justice-oriented entrepreneurs, offering below-market, tax-subsidized rental rates. But this has allowed Crye Precision and Easy Aerial — labeled by the Navy Yard as “fashion/accessories” and “fine art/photography” companies, respectively, to exploit the same benefits while obfuscating their military connections.

According to Bloom, after learning about their military contractor neighbors, Navy Yard workers have supported the campaign by organizing teach-ins, signing letters, and joining weekly pickets. “If enough workers were to stand up and say this isn’t acceptable to have genocide suppliers in their midst, they have a lot of power to disrupt, whether that’s withholding labor or generally applying pressure from the inside, because BNYDC cares about their image and maintaining a community of artists, designers, and makers.”

A few blocks from the Navy Yard, students at Pratt Institute have also participated in the campaign against Easy Aerial and Crye Precision. “Frankly, most students don’t actually know the Navy Yard is producing military equipment for the IDF and ICE,” said Alex Pell, a Pratt Students for Justice in Palestine (PSJP) organizer using a pseudonym. “So our job right now is just to raise awareness and show solidarity by participating in their actions through PSJP.”

“Most students don’t actually know the Navy Yard is producing military equipment for the IDF and ICE.”

Pratt Institute, a private university known for its arts and design programs, leases space from the Navy Yard for graduate programs and promotes the Navy Yard as a community arts center. “Pratt carries a lot of cultural prestige within the neighborhood. And when we can expose the hypocrisy of its partnership with the Navy Yard, it puts pressure on both Pratt and the Navy Yard,” said Pell. When students show up at pickets with signs identifying themselves as such, Pell said “it makes it more difficult for them to hold this facade.”

Multiple DBNY organizers told Truthout that one of the most effective strategies that resulted in Easy Aerial’s eviction was personalizing the pressure toward members of BNYDC. In December, DBNY demonstrated outside the apartment of BNYDC President and CEO Lindsay Greene, greeting her with drums, chants, and trumpets, while canvassing her neighbors about Easy Aerial and Crye Precision. “House actions are really important,” said Rafiq. “Telling their neighbors about who they are, and confronting them with their names and faces on a banner, that’s effective.” DBNY has also demonstrated outside the home of BNYDC Board Chair Hank Gutman.

“From my perspective, that’s a very direct method of applying pressure to the people who can really make the decisions,” Jacob added. “I think that Easy Aerial became toxic, like an albatross hanging around the neck of the Navy Yard. And it grew more costly as time went on.”

Now, DBNY sets its sights on the future. In addition to holding BNYDC accountable by ensuring Easy Aerial really leaves in May, the campaign continues to target Crye Precision. They are eyeing other Navy Yard tenants with military contracts, including Radical AI and CubeFabs, the latter of which is backed by Peter Thiel. DBNY also participates in the NYC chapter of a national campaign against Capital One — a major investor in Elbit Systems. “Our aim is to fully demilitarize,” said Rafiq. “We want to change the name to the Brooklyn Neighborhood Yard.”

On March 4, the campaign organized a noise demonstration at Navy Yard Building 77 to commemorate the recent victory. Picketers picketed, drummers drummed, bikers stopped to holler in approval, organizers flyered onlookers, and the crowd erupted in the chant: “Easy Aerial go to hell.” Soon, the sun set against the backdrop of the hulking Navy Yard facility, as it seems to be setting on Easy Aerial’s lease.

Before departing, picketers converged at the Building 77 windows, staring down NYPD officers posted inside, hollering “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” harnessing momentum for the fight to come.