AOC-backed Bed-Stuy
candidate under fi re for
derogatory tweets
organization formed to dismantle
stereotypes through training and
consultative services – found the
revelations deeply offensive.
“The tweet found by the NY Post
is outrageous! Though you explained
you were young and now condemn
it, that is not enough! You owe the
American Muslim community an
apology,” Almontaser tweeted.
Osse retorted that “the tweet is
an immature inside joke that the the
Post is trying to use to drag AOC.”
Meanwhile, rival candidates
Tahirah A. Moore and Henry Butler
– both of whom grew up in public
housing and have distinguished
records serving the district – said
they were shocked by the tweets.
“The communities deserve an
apology. If you want to be a leader
in the community, and you’ve done
or said something that is harmful,
your fi rst inclination should always
be to apologize,” said Moore,
the former Brooklyn Borough Director
in the NYC Mayor’s Community
Affairs Unit and who was
instrumental in getting a community
center in NYCHA’s Marcy
Houses where she grew up.
Moore, the only woman candidate
in the race, called for a corrective
conversation with Osse and the
community, and that ignoring it is
unfair to women in her area, and
that a lack of scrutiny of his actions
shows a disconnect between elements
of the Democratic Party.
“I’ve always thought that there’s
a little bit of a divide between the
progressive community and the
mainstream black community,”
Moore said. “I’m not a progressive,
I’m a serious progressive. And that
means there’s a difference, right.”
Butler said the tweets speak for
themselves and there is no room in
his or any city council district for
what was tweeted.
“We cannot tolerate anti-Muslim,
anti-Christian, and sadistic
comments about teenage girls,” he
said.
With reporting by Stephen Witt
COURIER LIFE, JUNE 18-24, 2021 13
NYC’s #1 Source for Political & Election News
Mayoral frontrunner Eric Adams at a Sunset Park rally on wJune 15. Photo by Stephen Witt
Get out the vote
Adams rallies with Mexican Americans in Sunset
Park seeking to build support among Latinos
BY STEPHEN WITT
Introduced with mariachi
music, mayoral
frontrunner Eric Adams
was in Sunset Park on
June 15, to rally the Mexican
American community
to get out the vote
for him.
The neighborhood
has a large Mexican-
American immigrant
population and Adams
seemed at home in rallying
not only for the Mexican
vote but the Latino
vote overall. According
to the latest polls, he is
leading all candidates
with the Latino vote.
“This vote is crucial.
And if you consolidate
this vote, you are going
to be on the major
pathway to become the
mayor of New York City.
And that’s why I’m here
focusing on letting them
Latino community
know I’m going to be a
mayor of this community,
the same way I’ve
been the borough president
of this community,”
said Adams.
“I didn’t come to
this community when I
wanted to run for mayor.
I was in this community
when I was a police offi
cer. Fighting against
immigrant harassment,
fi ghting the targeting of
this community. We have
a long relationship for so
many years, and when I
come to this community.
I am not introducing myself,
I’m saying ‘hello old
friend’ and I don’t believe
other candidates can do
that,” he added.
Adams also addressed
the need to reform the
police department. He
noted he was both arrested
by police offi cers
as a youth and was also
a member of the NYPD
rising to the rank of captain
before retiring.
“I understand the dynamics
of the police department,
where we need
to be allowing communities
here to interview
and choose that precinct
commander to build out a
real trust between police
and community because
our streets are going to
be controlled by the good
guys or the bad guys. We
can’t allow the bad guys
in between us and on our
streets,” said Adams.
“I’m going to show
how to build back that
trust between police and
community. We are going
to weed out those offi
cers that are abusive,
and ensure they can’t
take down the importance
of public policing,”
he added.
Adams noted many
tourists come from
China and they might reconsider
coming to the
city if they feel criminals
are targeting them with
anti-Asian hate crimes
or being slashed or assaulted
in the subway
and on city streets.
“If we don’t get the
anti-Asian violence under
control it is going to
have an impact on tourism,
which will impact
our recovery. So we have
to get crime under control
and we can do that,”
he said.
BY HARRY PARKER
The progressive darling city
council candidate to succeed
term-limited Robert Cornegy Jr.
in Bedford-Stuyvesant continues
to receive backlash and anger
over a series of derogatory Tweets
he made against the Muslim and
Christian faiths as well as women.
As fi rst reported in the New
York Post, Candidate Chi Ossé, 23,
issued the following on his campaign
Twitter feed: “Bro…your girl
smells like a halal cart”.
In another 2019 tweet, Ossé
wrote that “rumor has it” that
then-15-year-old British actress
Millie Bobbie Brown can “fi t 37 pistachios
up her ass.”
He also tweeted, “Knocked over
one of those Jesus worshippers on
the subway this morning…feeling
random and sinful”.
The district is home to the Masjid
At-Taqwa, one of the largest and most
prominent mosques in the borough,
and has numerous Arab-owned
businesses. Additionally, there are
dozens of churches – mainstay institutions
in Black-American neighborhoods
– in the district.
When the Post contacted Ossé
about the missives he blamed youthful
indiscretions and condemned the
Tweets before taking them down.
PoliticsNY has also received a half
dozen other Tweets, also taken down,
where he issues derogatory comments
against the LBGTQ+ community,
police and people suffering from
mental illness, among others.
His campaign did not return
emails from PoliticsNY seeking
further comment.
Ossé is the only candidate in 36th
City Council District race to receive
the endorsement from U.S. Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez‘s Courage
to Change PAC as well as from
progressive Comptroller Candidate
Brad Lander, the Working Families
Party and numerous other stalwart
progressive organizations.
Prominent Arab-American activist,
Dr. Debbie Almontaser, the CEO
of the Bridging Cultures Group – an
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