Justin Brannan Had 16 Tickets For Speeding in School Zones Because He Isn’t Accountable To Anyone
Several years ago, Andrew Gounardes led a campaign against Marty Golden. He, the Bay Ridge Democrats and other community groups hammered Golden for his driving record. Gounardes won the election and put in the red light camera bill. (See bill)
NY Post journalist Sam Raskin reported that Justin Brannan received 16 tickets for speeding in school zone. (See here)
Four days later, Senator Gounardes hasn’t said anything about the speeding Councilman.
Years ago, Democratic District Leader, Chris McCreight lashed into Marty Golden about his driving. Since Friday, McCreight has been silent as he serves as Chief-of-Staff to Justin Brannan.
What about those activist groups from years ago? RadioFreeBR wrote that they were disappointed (see here).
No other local groups have spoken out publicly about Justin Brannan’s speeding in school zones. Years ago, this was a huge issue for Fight Back Bay Ridge.
What happened to street safety activists like Transalt and the Families for Safe Streets who protested and marched in our streets? All were silent on social media. Is this just politics for them?
What about local papers? No local papers covered the story.
Brannan paid for advertising with them in the past. BUT there’s something strange about this.
In January 2000, Justin Brannan was fined almost $2,000 by the NY Campaign Finance Board for problems on his disclosure statements from 2017. See here and here
The Brooklyn Media Group owned the local papers. It’s weird that the election ended in early November and there were late December payments. Notice the amount was $2500 – not $1000 as initially reported.
Since 2018, Brannan has been making statements about speeding and acting like he cared about street safety.
When the news showed Brannan’s driving record, Brannan went to Twitter and thought people weren’t going to be annoyed. When they criticized him, he wanted to argue with them – he didn’t own what he did.
Brannan went to a private Facebook group and blamed his opponent for planting the story with the journalist.
Why didn’t Brannan just apologize and offer a plan to remedy the situation?
Surprisingly, I saw some Ridgites on social media giving Brannan a pass on this. Some were people that protested Marty Golden. The reason Golden stayed in office so long was because people continued to support him, even when they knew there was some issues.
Sam Raskin responded to Brannan’s nonsense:
Last Thursday, Raskin saw the entitled politician parked in the No Parking zone outside the Williamburg’s venue using his placard.
Channel 1 Journalist, Jillian Jorgensen pointed out Brannan’s ridiculous claim:
Streetsblog and some good journalists are the only ones committed to holding Justin Brannan accountable.
And Justin Brannan refused to respond to Streetsblog because they asked Justin Brannan to give up his placard. (See here)
In 2019, Brannan’s staffer was caught using a placard to park his car. Brannan promised there would be no more placard abuse. (See here)
Bay Ridge, when leaders support people breaking the law, then we are saying that laws don’t matter.
Hugs,
marlene
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