A crowd of supporters cheered Brooklyn Councilmember Susan Zhuang as she exited a routine court docket listening to Tuesday in her prison case for allegedly biting a police officer at a protest in her district towards a forthcoming homeless shelter.
Zhuang pleaded not responsible in July to second diploma assault and different costs, and on Tuesday morning she was out and in of the courtroom inside minutes, together with her case adjourned till January.
Zhuang and her legal professional Steven Brounstein declined to remark after the continuing.
Councilmember Susan Zhuang’s supporters rally outdoors Brooklyn Supreme Courtroom forward of a listening to in her NYPD officer assault case, Oct. 15, 2024. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Outdoors Brooklyn Supreme Courtroom Zhuang, carrying a sizzling pink blazer, was greeted by dozens of cheering supporters, many waving indicators together with “Stand with Susan Zhuang” and “Equal Justice for All.”
“I think the police [are] making a big deal of this,” stated Jenny Zhang, a retired instructor who has lived in Bensonhurst for 40 years. “She’s our hero [to] fight with the city. So we are here to support her. And I think it’s not fair, it’s not fair.”
Peter Huang, 70, stated he thought biting a police officer was justified within the circumstances.
“Anybody would do it. Me, if the police [did] this also, I fight it. Anybody would have that action. That is why Susan is right.”
Unusual Bitefellows
The scuffle with police erupted early on the morning of July 17 as an impromptu protest descended outdoors a building web site slated to turn out to be a homeless shelter in her southern Brooklyn district.
Movies confirmed an aged lady trapped laying on the bottom below a steel police barricade and protesters stated they had been making an attempt to assist her up when the confrontation with police turned bodily. Zhuang stated she was grabbed by the neck by a police officer, although video circulated extensively on social media seems to point out her biting the officer earlier than he touches her neck in an effort to apprehend her. A photograph circulated by the NYPD confirmed a bloody chew mark the officer sustained.
The Metropolis Council opened an ethics probe into Zhuang’s conduct, which is on maintain till a choice comes down within the prison case towards her, Council spokesperson Shirley Limongi stated. Zhuang opened a fund to boost cash for her authorized protection, although she reported not elevating any cash, based on filings launched by the town’s Battle of Curiosity Board Tuesday.
The scenario has triggered some unlikely alliances. Zhuang is a conservative Democrat, who ran on a platform virtually an identical to that of her Republican counterpart final fall, and she or he is an ardent supporter of the police and an everyday critic of bail reform. (Although the assault cost towards her was bail eligible, she was launched on her personal recognizance.)
However Zhuang can also be a detailed ally of Brooklyn’s high Democratic Celebration chief, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte, who rushed to Zhuang’s arraignment over the summer time and later accompanied her to a private assembly with Mayor Eric Adams.
Councilmember Susan Zhuang’s (D-Brooklyn) supporters rally outdoors Brooklyn Supreme Courtroom forward of a listening to in her NYPD officer assault case, Oct. 15, 2024. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
A number of left-leaning Democratic Council members groused that it will be arduous to think about them getting comparable reception from Adams, a former police officer and ardent defender of the NYPD, in the event that they’d been accused of such conduct.
However politically, the alliance made sense. Zhuang’s assist was essential for Bichotte, a longtime ally of Adams’ and one of many few voices of assist for him after his historic indictment final month, throughout her current bid to retain on the helm of the Brooklyn Democratic Celebration. Bichotte secured one other two-year time period because the occasion’s chief, thanks partly to assist from two district leaders Zhuang helped marketing campaign for this previous fall, efficiently ousting certainly one of her most vocal critics from the submit.
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