(Photo courtesy of Émelia Decaudin)
May 27, 2021 By Allie Griffin
A city council candidate who held a public meeting on crime with NYPD officers in his campaign office last week has come under fire for allegedly using public employees to promote his campaign.
Brent O’Leary, who is running for city council in District 26, hosted a meeting for Spanish-speakers in his Sunnyside campaign office Thursday where he brought in officers from the local 108th Precinct to discuss crime.
O’Leary said that residents and local tenant groups had asked him to organize a meeting with police officers who speak Spanish, so that they could have their safety concerns heard.
He said that he has known the officers from the 108 Precinct for years and that he was providing a much-needed community service.
However some residents felt the meeting — which was promoted with flyers that had O’Leary’s campaign logo and face on them — was taking advantage of the NYPD and that the precinct should not have sent officers to a campaign office.
Émelia Decaudin, a Democratic District Leader representing the 37th Assembly District, spotted flyers for the meeting around her home in Sunnyside and stopped by the meeting briefly.
She said the flyers—which were in Spanish only— raised alarm bells. She felt it was inappropriate for uniformed on-duty NYPD officers to participate in a candidate’s event at their campaign office.
“I was surprised to see that the NYPD would be showing up at a campaign event,” Decaudin said. “As someone who’s worked in government, it’s drilled pretty heavily into you that you’re not supposed to attend those kind of events.”
An image of the flyer inviting the public to O’Leary’s campaign office to meet with the NYPD
Decaudin said four NYPD officers were present at the meeting and argued that they broke department regulations by being there.
The NYPD patrol guide prohibits officers from endorsing political candidates, or publicly expressing personal views and opinions concerning the merits of a candidate for office.
She said even if a formal endorsement wasn’t made, residents may take the officers’ participation in a meeting at O’Leary’s campaign office as an endorsement.
“I think it’s really important to remember that the appearance of being with a candidate in a campaign space is often enough regarded as an endorsement,” she said.
She added that O’Leary was wrong for involving the officers in his campaign.
A spokesperson for the NYPD, however, said that the four officers made no endorsement of O’Leary’s campaign and were present only to speak with residents about their concerns.
“The officers were present to discuss crime trends in the Precinct,” Sergeant Edward Riley said. “They did not endorse any candidate for public office.”
O’Leary said he has worked with officers from the 108 Precinct for years and asked them to come to the meeting at the request of the Latinx community leaders.
He said that as a part of canvasing the district, his team has been knocking on doors in the neighborhood and asking potential voters what issues they care about.
“We keep hearing safety especially from the Latino community and residents of NYCHA,” O’Leary told the Queens Post. “A number of the tenant leaders from the Latino community asked if we would be able to set up a meeting with the police so that they could express their concerns to the police department.”
He said that the tenant organizers created and distributed the flyer with his campaign logo on it and that the police officers didn’t see or approve the flyer beforehand.
O’Leary said about 50 people joined the meeting in person and even more joined online via Zoom.
He maintained that it was a meeting for community members to voice their concerns and not an endorsement from the officers.
“I think that my job as a community leader or as an elected official is to bridge the gap between the community and the government so that their needs are responded to,” O’Leary said.
He said that it was not a campaign event, but a meeting that the community asked for.
“I didn’t speak about my campaign. I let the community members have access to their police officers,” O’Leary said. “It was done at the request of Latino community leaders for their community in Spanish, so I was not promoting it as a campaign event. I was responding to their request to set it up.”
He added that it’s important that government serve constituents in the languages that they speak.
“It’s important that people whose first language is not English can access their government services and be responded to in the language that we need to serve them in.”
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16 Comments
If you are serious about the rising crime rate, perhaps it might be a good idea to get some input from the people whose actual job it is to fight crime on a daily basis?
Sounds quite logical to any rational human being.
Unfortunately, logic is not the strong suit for left-wingers nowadays.
This is how you win votes.
There was a time when JVB had a good working relationship with the 108th. There were monthly NYPD meetings with the Sunnyside community to discuss concerns, including crime. JVB should have hosted such a meeting, but I guess there’s no time for that when you’re campaigning for your next job or joining another protest.
Emilia Decaudin may be a district leader on paper and online, but that’s about it.
Emilia is absolutely in the right and has been a great district leader!
Unrelated, but did anyone even know that Manny Gomez is a Woodside district leader? He could certainly learn a lot from Emilia.
Emilia obviously has never lived in a neighborhood dominated by gangs. We need law and order and the skyrocketing crime rate is my number one issue as a voter.
Thanks for posting. Now I know to add Brent O’Leary to my ballot, because he seems responsive to constituent concerns.
Fake outrage from cop haters
What’s especially interesting is that Brent indicated in some progressive endorsement questionnaires and forums that he is for Defunding the Police. His which is it? Blue Lives Matter or Defund? Constituents deserve a representative who is honest about where they stand and doesn’t try to whatever side they need in the moment.
When he speaks to the south side: we are going to build truly affordable housing! Black Lives Matter!
When he speaks to the north side: we are going to block Phipps from building truly affordable housing! Blue Lives Matter!
While Brent clearly has authoritarian populist instincts, I have been surprised to see how he has campaigned out of both sides of his mouth depending on his audience in his utter desperation to win election.
This event was pandering to the Latino community leaders who need to see through this and steer their voting block well clear of this candidate! Everyone needs to leave Brent off their ballot! No voten por O’Leary!
Get him Emelia!
Luckily someone spoke up or he would continue with his shady campaign.
Practice what you PREACH!
What’s the big deal? They had a meeting, Spanish speaking Cops with the Latino the community. Why not challenge our current councilman and a host of other local politicians when they have taken contributions, money through PAC’s and non-profits disguised as donations, dinners, travels/airfare from special interests groups, Real Estate interests, etc.
Will Brent continue acting like he was already elected when he isn’t elected in a month?
Perhaps he is serious about stopping crime.
No doubt, that’s why liberals are upset over this. They want to outright defund the police.
Poor judgment. He’s not making one of my top 5.
is there anything they dont complain about? police offered NO endorsement…community requested Spanish speakers…get over yourself & move on
Emilia Decaudin and Jesse Laymon openly dislike the NYPD. Sunnyside Post printed their letter to stop summer rally for cops. Now she is worried about cops being used? Laymon is running for Van Bramer job. Van Bramer, Laymon, and Decaudin dislike the NYPD and O’Leary. If sincere, they would have tried to stop in advance.