Brooklyn State Senator's Broken Windows Meeting Hijacked By Angry Protesters: "We Don't Want Fake...

Brooklyn State Senator's Broken Windows Meeting Hijacked By Angry Protesters: "We Don't Want Fake Democrats!"

Angry constituents confronted Brooklyn State Senator Jesse Hamilton on Thursday night at a heated community meeting over Broken Windows policing and its impact on immigrant communities.

The state senator, who joined the Independent Democratic Conference just hours before his November re-election, perhaps cynically steered the long-planned panel discussion hosted by Community Board 7 in Sunset Park away from questions about his IDC defection to the more pressing issue of how the NYPD and Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio are aiding federal authorities in deporting New York City’s immigrants.

Since Donald Trump's election, furious Democrats have turned their attention to the breakaway IDC, which gives Republicans the power in the state senate and thus stifles progressive legislation like universal healthcare, rent reform, increased transit funding, and the DREAM act. Earlier this month, protesters called the IDC's Jose Peralta a "traitor" at a raucous town hall meeting in Queens.

“Hamilton, cut the crap, we don’t want fake Democrats,” anti-IDC protesters chanted in the minutes leading up to the meeting. Hamilton, some supporters, and his staff chanted back “Black Lives Matter,” and attempted to portray the anti-IDC crowd as also being anti-immigrant. In fliers, Hamilton had re-christened the IDC as the “Immigrant Defense Coalition.”

Read more: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/brooklyn-state-senators-broken-windows-meeting-hijacked-by-angry-protesters-we-dont-want-fake-democrats-9688638