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Police Remove Table Of Masks And COVID Prevention Fliers Outside Early Voting Site In Red Hook
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Oct 25, 2020
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Courtesy of the NYCLU
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Oct 25, 2020
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During the first morning of early voting on Saturday, NYPD officers removed a table where volunteers were distributing face masks and fliers from outside of a poll site in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in an incident that was captured on video and shared widely on social media.
The PPE seizure happened outside the Joseph A. Miccio Community Center. Volunteers who set up the table, including local City Councilmember and candidate for mayor in 2021 Carlos Menchaca, were offering fliers that included hours for early voting and official information in Spanish from the city’s Health + Hospitals Corporation on COVID-19 prevention. There were no political fliers on the table that would have violated NYC rules against electioneering within 100 feet of a poll site.
While the police action did not directly impact voters and their ability to access the site, several people on the scene described it as the type of voter intimidation officials are bracing for during this election season because the NYPD, whose officers are stationed at every poll site, confiscated the table’s contents. The items were later returned.
In a tweet, the NYPD said they removed the table after complaints from elections officials. The department’s official statement was retweeted by the Twitter account for the Police Benevolent Association, the union representing rank and file NYPD officers that endorsed the re-election of President Trump.
But volunteers present at the site during the incident disputed the NYPD’s account of the events.
On Twitter, Menchaca called the seizure "unacceptable," adding that "the NYPD must issue clear guidelines & not escalate situations at the polls."
A lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union visited the site on Saturday afternoon to investigate what happened.
“They were doing non-partisan voter assistance and public health education without obstructing the poll site entrance or the line of voters,” said Perry Grossman, NYCLU senior staff attorney. “That kind of assistance should be encouraged because it helps voters feel welcome and supported.”
A NYC BOE spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
Tagged
nypd
early voting
election 2020
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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