New York Metropolis Councilmember Erik Bottcher was leaving a synagogue after a menorah lighting ceremony on Monday when he noticed that he had missed a number of telephone calls from his neighbors. Protesters had proven up at his house constructing, vandalized the sidewalk and managed to make it inside earlier than the constructing’s superintendent known as the police.
Bottcher, who represents elements of Manhattan, arrived house to see anti-gay slurs written on the bottom outdoors his constructing.
“After I bought to the constructing, I noticed on the sidewalk, there have been actually terrible anti-gay messages calling me a pedophile, a sexual predator, and a groomer,” Bottcher instructed JHB.
Protesters had proven up at his district workplace and made their solution to the ground the place his workplace is situated earlier on Monday, Bottcher mentioned.
“They have been banging on and shaking the door and screaming and yelling disgusting issues for round half an hour with all my workers inside,” he mentioned. He additionally tweeted that the group vandalized the hallway.
The New York Metropolis Police Division (NYPD) instructed JHB that unidentified individuals entered the constructing with out permission and graffitied the partitions however that no arrests have been made.
About two hours later, demonstrators arrived at Bottcher’s house constructing. They wrote homophobic slurs on the sidewalk in entrance of the constructing and made their manner inside.
“I’ve been focused on the web earlier than,” Bottcher mentioned, “however that is the primary time one thing like this has occurred.”
The NYPD mentioned two individuals — Erica Sanchez, 44, and D’Anna Morgan, 27 — have been arrested for legal trespassing.
It’s unclear if the individuals concerned within the incident at Bottcher’s workplace are the identical individuals who confirmed up at his house.
For months, far-right demonstrators have focused drag queen story hours across the U.S., smearing hosts and attendees of those family-friendly occasions as groomers and pedophiles.
Protesters confirmed up outdoors such an occasion held at a library within the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on Saturday. Bottcher, additionally on the story hour, tweeted a video of a number of the protesters.
“They have been there harassing and intimidating the households who have been making an attempt to go out and in,” he mentioned. “I videotaped them saying actually disgusting issues and put it on-line.”
Conservative media pundits and Republican elected officers have largely been behind fearmongering that drag queens are grooming children and that books with LGBTQ themes are pornographic. Nonetheless, Bottcher mentioned he wasn’t stunned that such an incident might occur in an ostensibly liberal place like New York Metropolis.
“Despite the fact that New York is taken into account one of the crucial welcoming and various locations on the earth, now we have individuals right here who harbor excessive right-wing views,” he mentioned. “And a few of them are unhinged people who site visitors in right-wing conspiracy theories.”
Bottcher added: “I’ve little question that these persons are going to proceed making an attempt to silence us and making an attempt to unfold lies about our neighborhood. However they’re not going to achieve success.”