Mayor Eric Adams and some other city elected officials are not rushing to condemn City Council Member Susan Zhuang (D-Brooklyn) following her Wednesday arrest for allegedly biting a high-ranking NYPD officer.
Zhuang — an avowed supporter of the NYPD — was charged on July 17 with second- and third-degree assault, as well as resisting arrest and obstructing government administration, according to police. She was arrested during an impromptu Wednesday morning protest of a homeless shelter planned for the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, which has drawn immense pushback from the majority Asian-American community.
While Zhuang’s office told Brooklyn Paper that she was trying to protect an elderly woman who was shoved against a barricade, the NYPD countered that Zhuang allegedly prevented officers from talking to another woman on the ground, then shoved a metal barricade against them and ultimately bit a high-ranking official when he tried to cuff her.
During a Thursday news conference in ber district, Zhuang defended herself in front of a large crowd of her supporters. She claimed that she was “protecting an 81-year-old grandmother” and called for “accountability” for the officers who arrested her.
Even as several elected officials forcefully blasted Zhuang’s actions, Mayor Adams, stopped short of condemning the council member.
“I was a little surprised that this happened with the councilwoman, she is extremely supportive of police,” Adams said during a Thursday morning interview on Pix11. “I’m going to reach out to the councilwoman, she is a newly elected and she has been a real partner for the law enforcement community and for City Hall. It’s unfortunate that this happened and we are going to come to a resolution.”
The mayor said he hoped the NYPD chief who was bitten is okay, and appeared to agree that the charges filed against her were appropriate.
Council Member Robert Holden (D-Queens) — a conservative Democrat who, with Zhuang, is part of the council’s bipartisan Common Sense Caucus — said he condemns “any attack on police.” But Holden said they still need to “get all of the facts” and that Zhuang was “jostled around a lot” during the incident.
Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn took things a step further — giving a full-throated defense of Zhuang in a Wednesday night statement posted to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Bichotte Hermelyn appeared to contradict the NYPD’s telling of events, claiming that Zhuang “appeared to be acting in self-defense” after a “sudden mob of people who could not be easily identified” descended on peaceful protesters.
“Susan did not intend to hurt anyone … and surely not the NYPD, as she has a longstanding record of supporting law enforcement and is endorsed by several police unions,” Bichotte Hermelyn said.
Meanwhile, many others, including some of Zhuang’s fellow southern Brooklyn pols, were far less sparing in their comments.
City Council Member Justin Brannan and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who both backed Zhuang’s competitor in a bitter primary that she won last year, said her actions were “deeply disturbing” and “unbecoming” of an elected official.
“The law must be applied fairly and fully regardless of Council Member Zhuang’s status as an elected official or her self-portrayal as a champion of law and order,” Brannan and Gounardes said in a joint statement. “We support everyone’s right to protest and have their voices heard. But hateful rhetoric and violence crosses the line. By allegedly assaulting a police chief who played no role in the decision to site the shelter, Council Member Zhuang not only crossed that line, but also broke the law.”
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, during an unrelated Thursday news conference, said “violence is completely unacceptable,” but declined to comment further. However, she did add that she thinks that Mayor Adams would have had a different response were other council members whom she did not name who committed the alleged offense.
“I honestly don’t think that some of my other members would be receiving the same level of grace from the mayor, you know, and a sit down conversation right now,” she said.
With reporting from Kirstyn Brendlen
