⚠️BREAKING: NYC Councilwoman Susan Zhuang (D) caught on video BITING an NYPD officer
— mandala (@mandala_mandy) July 18, 2024
Democrats are nuts ! pic.twitter.com/f2Ou4t8BvM
UPDATE: 8/4/2024 9:30 a.m.
A NYPD deputy chief is upset over the sympathetic attention a Brooklyn city councilwoman is receiving after she became violent during a protest and bit his arm.
According to the NY Post, Deputy Chief Frank DiGiacomo says Susan Zhuang bit his arm and drew blood during a protest at a proposed shelter site in July. DiGiacomo says he needed an anti-viral cocktail and tetanus shot because of the attack.
Zhuang has used the event and painted herself as a victim, saying she bit the office because he was choking her.
DiGiacomo maintains his arm was never around the politician and was instead on a metal crowd barrier when trying to pull the councilwoman away.
Original:
Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News
Brooklyn Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, under fire for allegedly biting a cop during a demonstration against a homeless shelter in her district, said over the weekend that she wasn’t involved in organizing a protest march condemning her arrest — but text messages obtained by the New York Daily News raise questions about that claim.
The Sunday event involved hundreds of demonstrators marching from Manhattan’s Foley Square to Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza to voice solidarity with Zhuang in the wake of her July 17 arrest on felony charges that she bit an NYPD chief so hard in the arm it drew blood during a chaotic protest against a shelter development in her Bensonhurst-based district. The district currently has no homeless shelters.
As first reported by The News, the Sunday march was co-organized by John Chan, a southern Brooklyn community advocate who has drawn scrutiny for his ties to China’s Communist Party as well as for getting help from Zhuang’s team to raise money for a local nonprofit group he operates.
Asked about Chan’s role in the march, Zhuang was quoted in a local report late Sunday as saying she is “not part” of his group and had “not been part of planning” the protest.
But texts Zhuang sent out Sunday morning to hundreds of constituents tell a different story.
In the texts, disseminated in a WeChat group just hours before the march got underway, Zhuang, a conservative Democrat, told constituents to not bring signs to the demonstration criticizing Mayor Eric Adams.
“Do not attack the mayor, we’re going to have opportunity to sit down with him to negotiate,” Zhuang wrote to the WeChat group, which has some 500 members, one of whom provided screengrabs of the messages to The News on condition of anonymity. “This sign is no good for negotiations.”
In a second message, Zhuang urged constituents to not “clash with the police” during the march. Both messages were written in Chinese and independently translated by The News.
Zhuang didn’t return a request for comment Monday on the discrepancy between her public remarks and the WeChat messages.
Esther Jensen, a rep from the Actum consulting firm Zhuang has hired to handle her communications operations, sought to clarify the nature of the Council member’s involvement in the march when shown copies of the WeChat messages.
“The Council member was not involved in the logistics for planning this event,” Jensen said. “The Council member was supporting the NYPD as she always has, and was advocating for the safety of her community.”
It’s unclear from the messages what type of negotiations with the mayor Zhuang was referencing. Jensen would only say Zhuang is “using her position as a public servant to collaborate with City Hall to best serve her constituents.”
Spokespeople for the mayor didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions.
Two days after her arrest, Zhuang, who has styled herself as a pro-police lawmaker, met privately with the mayor at City Hall.
The mayor, who’s politically aligned with Zhuang, has declined to say what they discussed in the meeting. He told reporters later on that he wants to help Zhuang “resolve” the criminal charges against her and the dispute over the shelter development in her district.
Zhuang, who has pleaded not guilty to the assault charges against her, maintains she was trying to help an elderly woman at the chaotic July 17 protest where she allegedly bit the chief. In public remarks, she has not specifically addressed the bite attack allegation.
The 32-room shelter that’s slated to be developed in Zhuang’s 43rd Council District would house single adult men.
Proponents of the shelter, including the mayor’s administration, have said it’s a much-needed addition in a neighborhood that currently isn’t providing any housing specifically meant for the homeless.
Zhuang and other residents counter that the shelter would cause public safety issues in the district and have argued building affordable housing on the site would be a better option.
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