Summer is behind us,
the Democratic primary is over and councilmembers are really buckling
down to business once more.
Of course all the members who faced challenges are glad
to have been returned to the council.
Two
who came through hard-fought elections expressed gratitude for the
support of their colleagues. Allan Jennings thanked Council
Member Oliver Koppell in particular for representing him in court
without asking for a penny in legal fees. Jennings continued, "I'm here
because I did the right thing on behalf of my constituents. If you do
the right thing by them all the time, they will reward you all the
time."
Council
Member Kendall Stewart mentioned that the primary in his district had
gotten real dirty and said of his victory, "It proves that there's no
need to get down into gutter politics to win. I felt I had to set the
example and stay away from that. By staying away, I prevailed."
Perhaps the most important issue discussed at the meeting was the
rash of racially motivated attacks that have taken place on Staten
Island this month and how the police and local politicians, especially
the mayor, have responded.
It began on Labor Day when college student, Rachel Carter and several
friends, some of them white, came to Staten Island to attend a barbeque.
A group of white youths shouted racial epithets at her and punched her
in the face. When she and her friends tried to file a complaint with the
police, the two responding officers discouraged them from doing so.
Before there'd been an investigation into what had occurred, Mayor
Bloomberg commented that he believed the Police Department had handled
the situation appropriately - although he's now had to admit that these
officers "may have stumbled" during their initial response. They now
face disciplinary charges for lying to internal investigators and as
many as a dozen other violations of department procedures, including
failing to fill out certain police reports and making false entries in
their activity logs. A sergeant also faces charges.
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Since then, several additional attacks on people of color have taken
place in Staten Island's predominantly white south side, and activists
are irate.
At
the City Council meeting, Council Member and mayoral candidate Charles
Barron stated, "I think it's despicable that in this day and age we
still have to be addressing this question." He was especially critical
of the mayor's response and said also that he thought the Police
Commissioner should have come out stronger. He stated, too, "I repeat:
had the complexion of the persons been different and the roles reversed,
the people of this city would have been outraged. We have to make sure
that every life is seen as valuable in this city, and we should
begin to dialogue to make sure that this kind of racism is rooted out of
New York City."
Staten
Island Council Member Michael McMahon responded, "We all agree that this
very unfortunate incident was wrong and it never should happen in this
city again." He went on to defend his borough, saying that in the days
immediately following the "event," under the leadership of the Council
of Churches and Staten Island's Black Ministerial Alliance, elected
officials and community leaders came together with Rachael Carter and
her family to express their sorrow and outrage that this could happen in
their community and to state their commitment to making sure it never
happened again.
Council
Member Helen Foster rose to point out the fact that it was a woman who
was attacked, and that crime against women is increasing. "I don't think
the issue is whether Staten Island is or is not racist," she said.
"Racism is alive and well in America. The issue is, a woman was attacked
and attention was not called to it immediately. We have to rally
together and figure out how to address issues that involve race and
gender bias in this city."
Council
Member Yvette Clarke echoed that sentiment. She declared, too, that
though efforts were made, she didn't believe they were good enough
because if they were, there would not have been the other racist
incidents taking place shortly afterwards.
Clarke continued, "We had two violent incidents in this city this
summer. One was the [white] tourist from Massachusetts who was robbed.
The mayor wanted to take her to lunch, though unfortunately, there was a
black out. Now we have another visitor from New Jersey who comes to
Staten Island. For no motive other than that she was a Black woman, she
was attacked. No one invited her to lunch. I don't care how much you
apologize to a family," she concluded. "Let's treat everyone equally. A
crime is a crime, and let's deal with it honestly and forthrightly."
