Gounardes Took Money From the NYPD….Why Wasn’t His Base Outraged?
A few people have asked Senator Andrew Gounardes to return the money he accepted from the NYPD, (See here, here, here, here and here) but Andrew Gounardes ignored all of those people.
Gournardes accepted $21,500. This amount is recorded on the here – a Progressive file ($16,000 from the NYPD and $5,500 from the corrections officers.
Both Bay Ridge Fight Back and RadioFree Back Bay Ridge, two activist groups in Bay Ridge put public messages out to Councilman Brannan to return the money he accepted from the NYPD, which was far less than what Gounardes accepted.
Councilman Brannan complied and donated the money to the a few organizations (see below):
Radiofree Bay Ridge also shared this tweet.
Yet, Senator Gounardes accepted quite a bit more than Brannan did and the two activist groups haven’t given him a hard time.
Where’s their outrage?
Interesting article: Is police money the new Real Estate Money? See here
(Personally, I don’t want to defund the police because I remember what it was like before…and it wasn’t good. I also know a lot of school security officers and they have been outstanding members of their school communities. But I do believe that in schools where tensions are high with students and officers, an immediate change should have been made by the Mayor)
Some parents in Brooklyn want to defund the NYPD (many don’t though). Some of the defunding parents have been adamant supports of Senator Gounardes base, so why haven’t they asked Gounardes to donate or return the money?
Ironically, they probably aren’t aware that Gounardes asked for a raise for the police in February 2020 (yes, this February). See here
Now for the real zinger…..not one paper mentioned this interesting campaign money discussion about Senator Gounardes. I waited to see if they would because it would be an important issue to discuss.
While political parties wheel and deal in our community, nothing gets done for Bay Ridge. The groups giving politicians money to own them is deplorable. Our community needs leaders whose focus is here with the community – not on special interest groups.
Hugs,
marlene
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