An apparent supporter of President Donald Trump called police on state Sen. Jesse Hamilton while he spoke with constituents outside of a Brooklyn subway station Thursday morning, the senator said.
The Democratic lawmaker and members of his staff were handing out pamphlets and speaking with constituents outside of the Parkside Avenue subway station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens around 7:45 a.m. when a woman approached the group.
The unidentified woman can be seen in a video posted to Hamilton’s Facebook page telling a member of his staff that an anti-Trump slogan printed on the flyer, “should not be here,” and accused the group of being divisive.
The woman then called police, according to Hamilton.
Officers arrived at the subway station about 15 minutes later but took no further action, finding that, “public assembly and free speech are not against the law,” according to the senator’s office.
Hamilton – whose district includes Prospect Lefferts Gardens, among other nearby Brooklyn neighborhoods – said he feels his race played a role in the woman’s decision to call the police.
“This pattern of calling the police on black people going about their business and participating in the life of our country has to stop,” the senator said in an emailed statement.
Hamilton listed several examples of recent incidents in which cops were called on black people for innocuous reasons, including a student who was eating lunch at Smith College.
“I will continue to speak to neighborhood residents about the important work we must accomplish together – including changing a culture of targeting black men and women for living while black,” the senator added.
The woman did not mention race in the video posted to Hamilton’s Facebook page, but she did object to Hamilton speaking to people outside of the subway station.
The NYPD did not immediately return a request for information regarding the 911 call.
