Upper East Side Candidate Says Black Staffer Was Harassed By NYPD

Upper East Side NY

05 March, 2021

1:58 PM

Description

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A candidate for City Council is alleging that police officers harassed a Black campaign worker while he was canvassing on the Upper East Side this week by stopping him without cause and confiscating several pages of voter signatures. The candidate, Chris Sosa, said the NYPD has not returned about 120 signatures that officers took from the man after stopping him on Wednesday. Candidates for City Council are required by law to gather several hundred valid signatures by March 25 to appear on the June primary ballot. According to Sosa and the worker's supervisor, four officers stopped the man around 7:35 p.m. Wednesday near the corner of East 88th Street and Second Avenue. Officers told the man they had received reports that he was soliciting illegally, ran his ID card and confiscated 20 pages of signatures — about 120 in total — which the man had worked since 11 a.m. to gather, according to Sosa and the supervisor, who confirmed the account to Patch. "His work was stolen. They took it and did not give it back," said Sosa, who declined to make the man available for an interview, saying he was still "very shaken up." This petitioning sheet, which police did not confiscate, was partly torn when officers ripped the other sheets from the worker's hands, according to Sosa. (Courtesy of Chris Sosa) The worker, who was contracted to Sosa's campaign by an outside firm, called his supervisor immediately afterward to report the incident. In a statement, an NYPD spokesperson said: "As soon as the NYPD became aware of the allegation we initiated an internal investigation. That investigation is active and ongoing at this time." Sosa said he received a call Friday afternoon from a detective at the NYPD's 19th Precinct, who pledged to investigate what happened and work to return the signatures. Sosa is one of nine candidates running in District 5 on the Upper East Side, vying to replace incumbent Ben Kallos, who is running for Manhattan Borough President. Kallos, in a statement, noted that candidates had sought to avoid petitioning altogether, fearing it would put them and their staff at risk of contracting COVID-19. He added that "the NYPD must know that petitioning is protected by the First Amendment at the highest order of protected political speech and to leave canvassers alone. "I am here to support the canvasser who shared their story and ensure anyone running anywhere is able to petition free of harassment," Kallos said. Sosa, whose campaign condemned what it called "illegal and humiliating harassment" by the NYPD, said he hoped the internal investigation would undo some of the harm caused by the initial stop. "This gentleman was nearly arrested for engaging in legal behavior and participating in democracy," he said.