A crowd of supporters cheered Brooklyn Councilmember Susan Zhuang as she exited a routine court hearing Tuesday in her criminal case for allegedly biting a police officer at a protest in her district against a forthcoming homeless shelter.
Zhuang pleaded not guilty in July to second degree assault and other charges, and on Tuesday morning she was in and out of the courtroom within minutes, with her case adjourned until January.
Zhuang and her attorney Steven Brounstein declined to comment after the proceeding.
Outside Brooklyn Supreme Court Zhuang, wearing a hot pink blazer, was greeted by dozens of cheering supporters, many waving signs including “Stand with Susan Zhuang” and “Equal Justice for All.”
“I think the police [are] making a big deal of this,” said Jenny Zhang, a retired teacher who has lived in Bensonhurst for 40 years. “She’s our hero [to] fight with the city. So we are here to support her. And I think it’s not fair, it’s not fair.”
Peter Huang, 70, said he thought biting a police officer was justified in the circumstances.
“Anybody would do it. Me, if the police [did] this also, I fight it. Anybody would have that action. That is why Susan is right.”
Strange Bitefellows
The scuffle with police erupted early on the morning of July 17 as an impromptu protest descended outside a construction site slated to become a homeless shelter in her southern Brooklyn district.
Videos showed an elderly woman trapped laying on the ground under a metal police barricade and protesters said they were trying to help her up when the confrontation with police turned physical. Zhuang said she was grabbed by the neck by a police officer, though video circulated widely on social media appears to show her biting the officer before he touches her neck in an effort to apprehend her. A photo circulated by the NYPD showed a bloody bite mark the officer sustained.
The City Council opened an ethics probe into Zhuang’s conduct, which is on hold until a decision comes down in the criminal case against her, Council spokesperson Shirley Limongi said. Zhuang opened a fund to raise money for her legal defense, though she reported not raising any money, according to filings released by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board Tuesday.
The situation has triggered some unlikely alliances. Zhuang is a conservative Democrat, who ran on a platform almost identical to that of her Republican counterpart last fall, and she is an ardent supporter of the police and a regular critic of bail reform. (Though the assault charge against her was bail eligible, she was released on her own recognizance.)
But Zhuang is also a close ally of Brooklyn’s top Democratic Party leader, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte, who rushed to Zhuang’s arraignment over the summer and later accompanied her to a personal meeting with Mayor Eric Adams.
Several left-leaning Democratic Council members groused that it would be hard to imagine them getting similar reception from Adams, a former police officer and ardent defender of the NYPD, if they’d been accused of such conduct.
But politically, the alliance made sense. Zhuang’s support was crucial for Bichotte, a longtime ally of Adams’ and one of the few voices of support for him after his historic indictment last month, during her recent bid to retain at the helm of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Bichotte secured another two-year term as the party’s leader, thanks in part to support from two district leaders Zhuang helped campaign for this past fall, successfully ousting one of her most vocal critics from the post.
