The following is a press release from the Chelsea Midtown Democratic Club, and reproduced as it was received.
July 29, 2013
The head of the Chelsea
Midtown Democratic Club reported today that on Friday evening Thomas Johnson, a
59 year-old resident of the Elliot Chelsea housing projects, who was helping
distribute a fact sheet for the club, was physically attacked by City Council
candidate Corey Johnson and his campaign manager while another staffer for the
campaign waited outside.
On July 26th, 2013, Gene Glaberman, President
of the Chelsea Midtown Democrats (CMD) and former board member of the Penn South
Co-op, and Velma Murphy Hill, Executive Vice President of the CMD, former
assistant to the President of the United Federation of Teachers, civil rights
activist and labor leader, wrote a response to a letter distributed the prior
week by Mr. Johnson’s supporters. The July 26th letter was a fact check on the
previously circulated letter and reposted newspaper articles addressing Corey
Johnson's work as a real estate executive, his ties to Mayor Bloomberg and his
absence in the fight for St. Vincent’s Hospital. Attached is a copy of the
letter. [See CMD Johnson Facts 1, and CMD Johnson Facts 2]
On Friday, July 27th, at about 2:00 PM, Thomas Johnson, a
fifty-nine year old living in the Elliott Chelsea Houses, a development of the
New York City Housing Authority, agreed to help distribute the letter in the
Penn South co-op. At about 4:00 PM Thomas called to indicate that he had been
accosted by a man who told him that he could not distribute the material he was
given. The man was menacing and threatened to take and destroy the
flyers.
"Thomas Johnson was very shaken up," said Velma Hill. "I told
him to come back to my apartment so we could talk. I called our president,
Eugene Glaberman, who informed me that Corey Johnson has called him earlier that
day. He said that Corey was unhinged and abusive--crying and shouting that the
letter was filled with lies. He said he thought Gene was his friend but now he
would never talk to him again.
"Gene and I tried to comfort Thomas and
told him not to return to the co-op and finish the distribution until later when
someone would accompany him." Thomas decided he would go home to the Elliott
Chelsea Housing development. At the time, he had no idea that the man who had
accosted him in Penn South was the campaign manager of City Council Candidate
Corey Johnson.
"At about 8:30 that same evening, I received yet another
distraught call from Thomas, who informed me that he had been followed into the
NYCHA development by three men, including the one that had threatened him
earlier."
Thomas Johnson didn’t know at the time that the other two men
were City Council Candidate Corey Johnson and another campaign worker. "He told
me the men confronted him on the 3rd floor of the building, menacing and
shouting at him. They threw him against the wall and Corey Johnson punched him
in the chest. He then told Thomas that they were going to call the police and
get him arrested, and that the police would believe them and not Thomas. I was
shocked to hear this but before I could ask more, Thomas said that the police
had arrived and the phone went dead. Gene and I immediately rushed to the Senior
Citizen’s building on 27th Drive between 9th and 10th avenues and saw Thomas
being interviewed by Sergeant Bufanto and officer Dove of the 10th
Precinct."
"Thomas said that the police made him face the wall with his
face, hands and arms up against the building because they had been told that he
had a weapon. He did not have a weapon and no weapon was found. Corey Johnson
and two other men were on the opposite side of the street. Thomas was visibly
shaken and we assured him that no harm would come to him. He identified Corey
Johnson as the attacker who punched him in the chest. He also identified one of
the other men as the man who accosted him in the Penn South Co-op. We later
found out that the man who was so menacing in Penn South was Corey Johnson’s
campaign manager, Robert John Jordan."
"This incident has left all of us
shaken," said Eugene Glaberman, President of the Chelsea Midtown Democrats.
"Thomas and our club have every right to distribute political information, just
as Corey Johnson does, without fear of physical or verbal attack. It is
shocking that a candidate for elected office would conduct himself this way. No
one should be attacking seniors in our community, and these young men, including
Corey Johnson, have shown they do not have the temperament necessary for elected
office. Violence is never an option, even when you disagree with someone, and
freedom of speech and expression must be something our elected leaders protect,
not physically threaten."
Velma Hill
Eugene Glaberman
No comments:
Post a Comment