The owner of comedy club Q.E.D. Astoria has called on the NYPD to take action after an individual allegedly spent several months erasing sidewalk chalk art outside the venue and making numerous derogatory statements about her on social media.
Hannah Lieberman said she is happy to be the “canary in the coal mine” if her months-long experience can inspire a change in how the police respond to similar allegations. Many of Lieberman’s allegations fall under second-degree harassment, which is generally considered a violation and does not result in a criminal record. Officers are often unable to make an arrest unless the harassment is carried out in their presence.
Lieberman took over as Q.E.D. owner in March 2025, taking over from longtime owner and founder Kambri Crews. She said she aims to run Q.E.D. as “so much more” than a comedy club, offering a public meeting space for the local community.
“We hold charity events, storytelling shows. We have a free weekly toddler story time,” Lieberman said. “I love to advertise our more than 100 monthly events by doing sidewalk chalk.”
Lieberman said she had been advertising events at Q.E.D. all summer through “sidewalk chalk,” where she would draw colorful artistic notices on the pavement outside the comedy club.
In an interview with QNS, Lieberman said it takes her around two hours to complete the sidewalk chalk art but said she loves carrying out the regular artwork, stating that it gives her an opportunity to connect with her neighbors.
However, she added that an individual had been erasing the sidewalk art all summer long, alternating between coffee, water, and bleach to remove the notices.
This summer, Lieberman also hosted a “sidewalk chalkaton” with neighbors and artists to paint the whole block in chalk art. The event helped raise $250 for the Queens Community Defense Fund providing financial relief to local immigrant families through a cookie sale.
Q.E.D. hosted a “sidewalk chalk-a-thon” in response to the repeated erasure of the notices. Photo via Hannah Lieberman.
But the chalk was once again erased — this time with detergent.
Who did it? Q.E.D. Astoria points finger at Facebook troll
“At first, I thought maybe it was some bored teenager,” Lieberman said in a video posted on Instagram last week. However, surveillance footage at the club revealed the individual to be a middle-aged man.
She identified him as Ian Jensen, though he has not been charged by police with committing the vandalism.
Jensen had been previously arrested on suspicion of placing Trump stickers on the club’s facade in August 2024, damaging the club’s vinyl sign. He was charged with making graffiti, possession of a graffiti instrument and criminal mischief in connection with the incident, according to the NYPD.
Lieberman reported the more recent issue to the police but said she was informed that, because the sidewalk chalk was on public property, there was no case against Jensen.
Lieberman added that several local residents had confronted Jensen over the sidewalk chalk vandalism, with Jensen allegedly revealing that he removed the notices in response to a “We Stand With Immigrant Families” poster in the Q.E.D. window.
Jensen has not responded to a QNS request for comment.
But a Facebook account purportedly belonging to Jensen, under the Facebook alias Ian JDawg, included a post in which the author called Lieberman as a “puppetmaster,” accusing the Q.E.D. owner of manipulating her supporters into criticizing him.
Many other posts about Lieberman and Q.E.D. on the account used, at times, language that Lieberman and others have described as antisemitic or anti-LGBTQ. The posts are still available to view on the Facebook page as of Monday.
In one post, the author referred to Lieberman’s last name as “Liebermanstein” and “Liebersteinshitz.” In another, the author described sidewalk chalk art with LGBT flags as promoting “gay sex flags.”
Lieberman reported the Facebook activity to the 114th Precinct and said she was informed that if she commented on one of the posts telling Jensen not to mention her or Q.E.D. by name, she would have a “big case” for harassment if Jensen continued to do so.
Soon after, the author behind Jensen’s Facebook posts began referring to her as “Handjob Liebershitz” after Lieberman had explicitly told him to stop mentioning her.
No help from cops?
Lieberman again reported the incident to the police but said she had “no luck” reaching the officer who had advised her to make the initial comment. Eventually, she received a phone call from a different detective, who allegedly denied that the comments were antisemitic. Antisemitic speech is generally protected under the First Amendment.
The detective, Lieberman alleged, also informed her that the “solution” to the issue was to stop drawing chalk art on the sidewalk. When Lieberman argued that this would be “letting Ian Jensen win,” the detective allegedly told her that both parties were being “petty.” She further alleged that the detective indicated that he did not want to “pick a side” in the argument.
“It just felt like being told ‘you keep wearing that mini skirt, so they’re going to keep catcalling you,’” Lieberman told QNS.
It was at this point that Lieberman posted her most recent video about the situation, naming Jensen publicly for the first time as well as posting several photographs that appeared to catch him in the act of erasing the sidewalk chalk.
Crying what she described as “angry tears,” Lieberman blasted the 114th Precinct for what she described as its lack of support throughout.
“I never once cried over Ian Jensen. The only time I cried was when the detective talked to me the way he did… It felt like he didn’t have my back. I felt super dismissed,” she said. “I think it’s indicative of a much bigger problem where people’s complaints are not being taken seriously by the 114th… It’s disappointing, but for some people, it can be dangerous.”
The NYPD has not yet responded to a request for comment.
She described Jensen’s frequent comments about her on social media as “absolutely vile” and expressed fears that the situation could escalate before the police intervene.
“I don’t feel protected,” she said.
Harassment in the second degree, which covers online behavior without physical threats, generally results in a violation and does not result in a criminal record. Police generally cannot arrest an individual for a violation unless the act was committed in the presence of an officer.
Lieberman’s post, meanwhile, has drawn significant support from the local community, including from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Assemblymember Diana Moreno.
Ocasio-Cortez, who described the situation as “unacceptable,” pledged to contact the 114th Precinct in order to “keep everyone safe.” Moreno, meanwhile, told Lieberman that she has “got your back.”
Lieberman said the support of the local community has been “the most heartwarming and encouraging thing” about the situation.
“The sidewalk chalk-a-thon… was this just incredibly heartwarming, beautiful community gathering, and it’s the thing that makes Astoria so special,” she said. “As much as it’s been disappointing from the police side, it’s been so incredibly heartwarming from the community side, and I leave this experience with much more positivity and hope than negativity.”