Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News
(TNS)
After allegedly biting a cop in the arm during a protest against a homeless shelter development in her district, Brooklyn Councilwoman Susan Zhuang is expected to get a parade thrown in her honor in her borough, where her supporters maintain she was brutalized by the cops during the chaotic demonstration.
An email invitation obtained by the Daily News disseminated among constituents in Zhuang’s Bensonhurst-based 43rd Council District urges them to show up next week for the “Justice for Councilwoman Zhuang Wenyi Parade,” using the lawmaker’s full Chinese name.
“Please take time to attend, and also call on more associations, overseas Chinese groups and institutions to join this parade, for us Chinese to get fair and just cry together!” reads the invitation, signed by Tan Shan Chong, who identifies himself in the missive as a member of the Asian Rights Alliance General Assembly.
The invitation didn’t specify the date or location of the parade. But reached Friday, Tan said it’ll take place next Wednesday in downtown Brooklyn, starting near Borough Hall.
BREAKING: NYC Councilwoman Susan Zhuang (D) caught on video BITING an NYPD officer pic.twitter.com/hy05ZVC67g
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 18, 2024
Besides Tan’s group, among the organizations involved in hosting the parade is Asian American Community Empowerment, Inc., a Brooklyn nonprofit that has ties to China’s Communist Party and whose operations Zhuang used official Council email accounts to solicit donations for earlier this year, raising ethics concerns, as first reported by The News.
John Chan, the community empowerment’s group founder, couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.
Zhuang, a first-term conservative Democrat who has portrayed herself as a pro-police lawmaker, allegedly bit an NYPD chief in the arm so hard it drew blood early Wednesday morning while protesting a planned homeless shelter in Bensonhurst with dozens of local residents. Zhuang has been charged with felony assault and other charges, and pleaded not guilty.
Zhuang, who argues the shelter would jeopardize public safety in the area, has declined to comment specifically on the bite attack, but claimed in a press conference Thursday attended by dozens of supporters that she was a victim of “police brutality.”
Later Friday afternoon, Zhuang was seen walking into City Hall to meet with Mayor Adams and State Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
After the sit-down, Zhuang refused to answer questions from reporters, saying she had “another meeting.”
Bichotte Hermelyn, who has been among the few Democrats vouching for Zhuang since the attack, said she “remains an ally to the NYPD and law enforcement.”
“She remains an ally to the mayor,” she added.
An Adams spokesman didn’t return a request for a readout of the meeting. On Thursday, the mayor said there was “no excuse” for Zhuang’s alleged cop chomp, but that he considers her a “real partner” and planned to meet with her to help “resolve this issue.”
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