➤ DE BLASIO, from p.38
city, though he has by no means
solved that problem. He substantially
reduced the police stop and
frisk practice in the city from nearly
700,000 in 2011 under Michael
Bloomberg to 13,459 in 2019, according
to data compiled by the
New York Civil Liberties Union.
And de Blasio endorsed the Plan to
End AIDS, and the city is spending
not insignifi cant amounts of money
on that effort to signifi cantly reduce
new HIV infections.
“There isn’t a mayor in my lifetime
who cannot point to something
that I would approve of,” said
Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim
Owles Liberal Democratic Club.
“He misuses his offi ce, most of
what he does are stunts.”
There have been complaints from
progressives about de Blasio since
the start of his mayoralty. Some of
his choices for senior positions in
his administration were seen as
“establishment,” Roskoff said in
2013, or “retreads,” Pauline Park,
now the board president of the
Queens Pride House, said then.
Selecting William Bratton, a
champion of more intrusive policing,
as his fi rst police commissioner
was criticized by proponents
of police reform and others on the
left. In 2016, the mayor brought his
wife, Chirlane McCray, and Bratton
to a vigil near the Stonewall Inn for
the 49 people murdered by a gunman
in a Florida LGBTQ nightclub.
When Bratton spoke, the heckling
and booing were so loud that his
comments could not be heard.
In 2014, de Blasio denied a request
from some activists who
wanted city employees who march
in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade,
which then banned LGBTQ
groups, to be barred from wearing
their uniforms. The organizers of
that parade have since ended their
ban on LGBTQ groups.
In 2019 and 2020, de Blasio was
perceived as not advancing a progressive
agenda and the criticisms,
while still limited, grew louder.
While critics will concede he has
made some gains, they also say
those gains are not suffi cient.
“He’s not a decisive leader,” said
Jon Winkleman, a longtime Democratic
Party activist. “As much as he
talks about bold change and uses
bold rhetoric in his campaigns, you
don’t see bold policies.”
It took the NYPD response to the
George Floyd protests, which has
grown more aggressive through
the evenings of June 3 and June 4,
for progressives to emerge as some
of the loudest de Blasio critics.
Some former and current members
of his administration have
objected to his handling of the protests,
and protestors are chanting
“De Blasio Resign” during marches.
At a June 4 rally in Brooklyn
that was held as a memorial for
Floyd took place in Minneapolis,
de Blasio was booed and heckled
throughout the 90-second speech
he gave. The NYPD actions during
the New York City protests suggest
that anything de Blasio has done
on police reform has not produced
change.
“He ran on a platform of police
reform and betrayed that promise
from day one,” Park told Gay City
News. “As soon as he got into offi
ce, he became a mouthpiece for
the NYPD.”
The city’s shifting positions on
the in-person protests have not
been helpful. The NYPD had varying
reactions to such protests after
public gatherings were banned due
to COVID-19. Sometimes they were
ignored, sometimes a few organizers
were given a summons, and arrests
were made a few times.
After the Reclaim Pride Coalition
(RPC) held an in-person press
conference on May 3 to object to
Samaritan’s Purse, a right-wing,
evangelical group, being allowed to
operate a fi eld hospital in Central
Park, de Blasio called in-person
protests “idiotic.” When the Floyd
protests with thousands of people
began, he endorsed them. When
the city’s 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew
began on June 2, de Blasio alternately
indicated that peaceful protests
are allowed after 8 p.m. and
people should stay home after 8.
On June 4, the Coalition laid
down a defi ant marker when it announced
it would hold an in-person
Queer Liberation March for Black
Lives and Against Police Brutality
on June 28 to mark the 50th anniversary
of the fi rst march that
commemorated the 1969 Stonewall
riots seen as marking the
start of the modern LGBTQ rights
movement.
“This moment, the principles
of the 1970 march, and the RPC
founding mission demand it,” the
Coalition said in a press release.
“Black Americans and their children
have suffered disproportionate
abuse at the hands of America’s
white supremacist power
structure.”
The Coalition produced a march
and rally last year that commemorated
the 50th anniversary of the
1969 riots. Those events drew tens
of thousands of participants. The
Pride March and related events
that are produced by Heritage of
Pride have already been canceled.
The mayor has consistently defended
the NYPD’s actions during
the Floyd protests saying offi cers
have acted with “restraint” and that
the curfew has produced an “overwhelmingly
peaceful city” with an
end to looting. Dermot Shea, the
police commissioner, said there
have been “very few serious injuries”
among protestors during a
June 5 press conference.
“I think that people were willing
to let things slide for a while,” Park
said. “I don’t know any progressive
activists, including LGBT activists,
who still think that Bill de Blasio is
progressive or effective in pursuing
a progressive agenda.”
➤ LAWMAKERS’ DOORS, from p.36
Brooklyn and Mark Levine of Manhattan,
out gay 2021 Queens City
Council candidate Rod Townsend,
and out gay District Leader John
Blasco, who works for out gay
Speaker Corey Johnson.
Johnson also tweeted on the
same night, writing, “Danny is a
trailblazer, a hero to so many, and
has been a tireless leader on the
front lines for social and racial justice
for decades. He is a role model
and a gem.”
However, neither Johnson nor
many others in the LGBTQ community
are strangers to mounting
aggressive protests outside of the
homes of elected leaders. When
Brooklyn State Senator Carl Kruger
voted against marriage equality
in 2009, Gay City News reported
that Johnson and Jim Owles Liberal
Democratic Club president Allen
Roskoff went to Kruger’s home
and shouted about the hypocrisy
of his vote given that he was a closeted
gay man.
Among numerous other examples
of LGBTQ and allied protesters
bring their complaints directly
to the homes of legislators, in 1991
members of ACT UP placed a giant
condom over North Carolina Senator
Jesse Helms’ home in response
to his homophobia and abhorrent
actions against HIV/ AIDS funding.
Five years later, protesters
turned up in Brooklyn outside
the Prospect Park West apartment
building of then-Representative
Charles Schumer to protest his
vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage
Act.
In a more recent example, Gays
Against Guns went to Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell’s
home in Washington, DC, last year
and attached signs to his windows
saying, “FOR SALE, SOLD – TO
THE NRA, MASSACRE MITCH.”
The protesters also stood in front
of the door of his house with a
large sign reading “MASSACRE
MITCH.”
On the same day that protesters
went to Dromm and Cumbo’s
homes, a large group of parents,
teachers, and students showed up
at the home of Education Chancellor
Richard A. Carranza, where
they demanded that cops be removed
from city schools. Carranza
made no comments about the protest
on social media.
Aside from the issue of the protesters’
aggressiveness, Dromm
painted the scene as one in which
the DSA attacked the wrong person,
writing in one tweet, “I am an
ally so I’m miffed why they chose to
do this to me.”
But that did not square with the
goal of the protest: The Council
has only committed to a $1 billion
reduction in the NYPD’s budget,
while DSA members are calling for
a $3 billion cut.
The response to the DSA demonstrations
raised questions about
the limits of political demonstration
at the homes of elected offi -
cials.
Is it acceptable to stage elaborate
protests at the homes of homophobes,
but not at the homes of
lawmakers calling for a smaller reduction
in the NYPD budget than
some advocates are seeking?
A spokesperson for Dromm did
not respond to a request for comment
and Cumbo’s offi ce did not
answer a call seeking comment on
June 19.
June 25- July 15, 2 40 020 | GayCityNews.com
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