Andrew Gounardes and Bobby Carroll Played Politics Instead of Helping the Homeless in Bklyn
On November 11th, Adam White was arrested for removing a piece of plastic from around the license plate of a Chevy SUV parked near St. Marks Avenue. The other driver called the police. White was arrested and charged with criminal mischief.
White’s hearing was expected to be today, December 1st, but yesterday the Brooklyn District Attorney dropped the charges against White. Why did the Brooklyn DA take so long to drop the charges?
Streetsblog printed stories about the Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn DA dropping the charges against White yesterday.
Kathy Park Price from Transalt knew that the charges were dropped, but Transalt STILL wanted to have the presser. **They put their presser at 11:00 am, before the Clean Slate Presser at 12:00 pm (See here)
Today, Gounardes and Bobby Carroll should have dropped out of this presser and helped the homeless men on the R train! (See here) They are representatives for Brooklyn residents not staff for Transalt.
Watch the videos below – Andrew didn’t share it! Gounardes wasn’t able to stand up against his friends going through red light cameras (Justin Brannan, Brad Lander and Jumaane Williams), but when Transalt is next to him he talks a good game and pretends he is a street advocate.
>@agounardes to plate defacers: “Pay your fees. Pay your tolls. You’re not better than anybody else. What @adamlaw50 did was not a crime. What those other people [the plate defacers] were doing was a crime.” pic.twitter.com/VHcOFcRUeL
— Steve Vaccaro (@BicyclesOnly) December 1, 2022
Gounardes said it wasn’t a crime for Adam to remove the plastic around another person’s license plate. That can’t be correct – else people would be helping themselves to parts on other people’s cars every day.
Why didn’t Gounardes and Caroll meet with the police last month and help resolve this? We should not see politicians at pressers by groups going after the police like this! The politician’s job is to work for the community and resolve issues!
The man standing with Gounardes is holding a sign that is not true. The police have never said, “Go ahead, hide your license plate.
Today was a picture-taking moment for Gounardes and Caroll.
Who are these politicians representing?
Transportation Alternatives. The man has already been freed!! Instead of helping Brooklyn, they are playing politics for a picture.
On Twitter, Gounardes mentions his bill that went nowhere because Gounardes spent his time pushing a lobbyist bill for red light cameras (See here) instead of getting this bill out of committee. (See here)
Transportation Alternatives have lobbyists – the homeless men don’t.
Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Bay Ridge | 2 Comments »
December 3rd, 2022 at 11:42 am
Dear Queen of the Click,
I enjoy reading your column but, I must take exception with the the opinions you’ve expressed about Adam White for removing a piece of plastic from a license plate. I read all the articles you posted and I am confused about your position on the matter. I do not know Adam White. I only know what I’ve read about this incident.
Question: Did White remove the material from HIS license plate? I did not see evidence to that important fact, therefore I am assuming that was the case. If so, this is a crime. I believe it’s called “theft of services”. While you and I must pay our tickets, subway fair, tolls, etc., there are countless cheaters who don’t. The MTA has reported a loss of $144 million to scofflaws (StreetsblogNY, August 31,2022)!!! These funds must be recouped and at cost to the public.
Perhaps, the handling of the case was and over zealous, but if Mr White is a scofflaw, he should be prosecuted and heavily fined. White collar crime is still a crime and since this is a huge problem in our city, it seems only fair that the scofflaws should be made to return those funds back to the public in the form of stiff fines.
Thank you for a great blog. I look forward to the next issue.
Joanna
[email protected].
December 3rd, 2022 at 2:54 pm
White is an attorney for bike activists, he removed the something from another person’s license plate. HThe person whose car was touched called the police. The police arrested White.
While I don’t think White needed to be charged, Gounardes is saying that people can remove things from other people’s car – that can’t be correct.
Gounardes could have provided this man help last month. Having a presser after the DA released the charges says there was another motive for the presser.