NYC Councilwomen allege correction officers harassed them

Two Democratic Councilwomen allege they were harassed and threatened by correction officers on the steps of City Hall Wednesday morning after a set of dueling rallies devolved into a chaotic shouting match.

The rallies, which came ahead of a Council hearing on a bill that would ban solitary confinement in city jails, were scheduled to take place within the same two-hour span. But the first rally by members of the city correction officers’ unions ran about a half-hour late, prompting supporters of the bill to chant “time’s up” and demand that they be given their turn on the steps.

Verbal clashes ensued, and correction officers who stuck around on the steps attempted to drown out the anti-solitary confinement rally with boos and jeers. In the midst of it, Brooklyn Councilwoman Sandy Nurse was called misogynistic slurs by some correction officers, she told the Daily News on Thursday.

“(Officers) were calling me ‘b—h,’ there was a lot of nastiness,” said Nurse, a Democrat who helped organize the second rally. “There was a lot of disrespectful language going on.”

Fellow Brooklyn Councilwoman Shahana Hanif claimed officers subjected her to demeaning language, too, as she was on her way into City Hall.

“There were correction officers saying to myself and other women of color Council members, ‘Enjoy the gang rape,’” Hanif said toward the end of Wednesday’s rally.

[ NYC plan to ban solitary confinement leads to City Hall steps clash between supporters, Rikers correction officers ]

Hanif could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Michael Skelly, a spokesman for the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, dismissed the Council Democrats’ accusations. “The allegations being made against some members of our group are false,” he said.

And Benny Boscio, president of COBA, which is the city’s largest Department of Correction union, noted that his group’s rally featured testimony from female officers who have been sexually assaulted on the job.

“Despite a dozen officers recounting the horrific inmate assaults they incurred, including sexual assaults, the inmate advocates, along with their friends on the City Council, called us killers,” Boscio said, referencing a chant from the opposing rally that went, “C-O-B-A, how many people have you killed today?”

Speaking of what happened during the subsequent hearing, Boscio added, “Members of the public also interrupted and jeered us during our testimony. No other city workforce of essential workers should ever have to be treated in such a disgraceful manner.”

Mayor Adams, who missed the tumult because he was in Washington on Wednesday, has joined the correction unions in opposing the bill, arguing it’d make Rikers Island and other city jails less safe.

Still, Adams spokesman Jonah Allon said in response to the accusations against the COBA members: “The mayor strongly condemns any and all threats of physical violence and verbal harassment, and no one should feel unsafe while doing their job.”

Despite the mayor’s opposition, the solitary confinement ban bill is likely to become law as it has the support of a veto-proof majority of the Council that includes Speaker Adrienne Adams.

In a statement Thursday, the speaker condemned the alleged mistreatment of her members at the rally.

“The footage and reports of disrespectful actions, some directed at members of this body, are unacceptable and I am disappointed that this situation unfolded in the way it did,” she said. “This cannot be allowed to occur on the steps of City Hall in the future.”

A question mark remains over why NYPD officers assigned to City Hall security didn’t block the COBA members from interrupting the anti-solitary confinement rally.

Skelly said COBA members were told by security to remain on the steps after their rally and wait to be let into the Council chamber for the hearing. A City Hall official said that was in compliance with “all appropriate protocol.”

But a Council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it’s protocol for NYPD to make sure dueling rallies on the steps don’t “get out of control” like they did Wednesday.

“But I’m not surprised. They’re adjacent agencies,” the member said, referencing the NYPD and the DOC.