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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JANUARY 12, 2020
Locals rally after white nationalist signs posted in southern BK
Sunset shooting
BY BEN VERDE
A gunman wounded four people in a
bloody Sunset Park shooting on Thursday
night, according to authorities.
Police rushed to the scene near 62nd
Street and Third Avenue shortly after 8
pm, when they discovered four victims
— a 42-year-old man who was shot in the
arm, a 37-year-old man who was hit in the
leg, a 24-year-old man with a bullet wound
in the abdomen, and a 24-year-old woman
who suffered a gunshot to the leg.
Authorities do not know what led to
the shooting, according to a Police Department
spokesperson.
First responders took the three male
victims to NYU Langone, and the woman
to Maimonides Hospital. All victims are
expected to survive, according to authorities.
The shootings — which took place just
two days into the New Year — contrast a
historic drop in violent crime last year,
according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
“Thanks to the NYPD and to my hardworking
prosecutors, violent crime keeps
going down in Brooklyn,” said the borough’s
top cop.
Throughout 2019, shootings declined
by 6.8-percent across the borough — from
311 to 290 — compared to an almost threepercent
increase in all fi ve boroughs.
Not counting crimes that were reclassifi
ed as murders in 2019 — which include
incidents that occurred in previous years,
but were deemed as homicides in 2019 —
the borough saw 90 killings last year, the
lowest number in Brooklyn’s history.
No arrests have been made in connection
with Thursday’s shooting, and the investigation
remains ongoing.
Anyone with information in regard to
this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s
Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS
(8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA
(74782). The public can also submit their
tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers
website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.
COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. Cops inspect shell casings at the crime scene. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
BY ROSE ADAMS
Hundreds of locals joined
hands in southern Brooklyn on
Sunday to protest recruitment
fl yers for a white nationalist
group that were found plastered
late last week.
Passersby fi rst spotted a sign
advertising the Patriot Front —
a growing, Texas-based white
nationalist group — on 86th
Street and Third Avenue on Jan.
2. A photo of the poster spread
online and drew outrage from
locals, who quickly ripped the
fl yer down.
The signs continued to crop
across the neighborhood in the
following days. On Friday, locals
spotted a large banner
hanging over the Belt Parkway’s
80th Street pedestrian overpass
reading “protect American labor”
with a link to the Patriot
Front’s website, the Brooklyn
Eagle reported. Locals found
stickers for the Patriot Front on
76th Street and Ridge Road and
scattered throughout the park
hugging Shore Road on Saturday
and Sunday mornings, residents
reported.
The Patriot Front was founded
in 2017 and grew following its
participation in the “Unite the
Right” rally in Charlottesville,
Virginia in August, 2017, according
to the Anti-Defamation
League. The group preaches
white supremacism, anti-Semitism,
and often uses slick graphics
and vague, populist messaging
to lure supporters.
On Sunday, more than 250 locals
gathered on 86th Street and
Third Avenue at 2 pm to condemn
the signs and show their
support for Brooklyn’s immigrant
communities. During the
event, organized by Fight Back
Bay Ridge and a host of other
community groups, residents of
all ages stretched down Third
Avenue between 85th and 87th
streets chanting slogans that
rejected the hate group and promoted
a sense of community.
Many attendees held signs that
read, “Immigrants welcome and
valued here” and “We will protect
each other.”
Protesters said that the
group’s fl yers constitute not
only an act of hate speech, but a
violent threat.
“It’s not a free speech issue,
it’s a not-so-subtle call to arms,”
said Noah Weston, a local activist
who helped organize the
rally. “There is violence on the
end of what they’re saying.”
Other attendees noted that
the posters aren’t the fi rst
time white nationalists have
used Brooklyn as a recruiting
ground, but added that rallies
and protest have deterred the
groups in the past.
“When I was a kid growing
up in this neighborhood, the
KKK distributed some posters
in the ’80s, and I think they were
met with a similar pushback,”
said Bay Ridgite Kristen Pettit.
“They did not gain a foothold in
this neighborhood. We came out
loud and strong and showed this
group that they are not welcome
in this area.”
The Patriot Front’s signs
come weeks after a string of
anti-Semitic attacks plagued
Brooklyn, injuring three Jewish
adults and two children over
the course of Hanukkah. About
25,000 people marched over the
Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday in
response to the attacks, chanting,
“No hate, no fear.”
RACISTS INVADE
SOLIDARITY: More than 250 protesters gathered in Bay Ridge after a white nationalist
group hung signs across the neighborhood. Photo by Jordan Rathkopf
Supremacist signs: One sticker was
found on 76th Street and Ridge Boulevard
on Sunday morning.
Photo by Caroline McKinnon