Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, has been known to criticize aggressive behavior directed at NYPD officers.
After video from a pro-Palestinian rally in Brooklyn showed officers punching at least three people, the mayor called for an investigation of the demonstrators who he said had spit at police. “I don’t think anything was more harmful than someone spitting in your face,” an indignant Adams told reporters in May. “That’s disgusting.”
But when asked on Thursday to comment on charges that a city councilmember from Brooklyn bit a police officer during a heated protest against a homeless shelter the day before, the mayor delivered an unusually sympathetic reaction. A photo of the officer’s arm shows a bloody gash.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Adams said during an interview on NY1. “These issues are so emotional as I move around the city.”
Adams said he planned to reach out to the councilmember, Susan Zhuang, who is charged with second-degree assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to a criminal complaint released by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
The criminal complaint alleges that Zhuang was pushing barricades toward the officer at the protest, and when the officer told her to stop, she turned her head toward him and bit his forearm. The officer sustained broken skin, teeth marks and “substantial pain,” and was treated with an antiviral cocktail and a tetanus shot at a nearby hospital, the document states.
Adams later added that violence was “never acceptable.”
Other Democrats argued on Thursday that the mayor’s relatively muted criticism reflected a double standard.
“It appears that the councilmember will get a very different treatment from most New Yorkers,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who pointed to a contrast in police treatment of Black and Muslim protesters rallying around social justice issues.
Nurse said she interpreted the mayor’s remarks as saying, “It’s okay to assault an officer as long as it’s against homeless shelters.”
Like other mayors, Adams has faced sharp backlash over the placement of new homeless shelters. He has said the city’s shelters have historically been too concentrated in some communities and that areas with few or no shelters need to accept them.
In Bensonhurst, a relatively conservative part of southern Brooklyn that Zhuang represents, residents have repeatedly rallied against the proposed shelter, which is now under construction. Zhuang, a first-term councilmember, ran a tightly contested race on a pro-policing platform and is a member of the City Council’s Common Sense Caucus, a group of Democrats and Republicans aligned on quality of life and public safety issues.
William Fowler, a spokesperson for Adams, rejected the claim that the mayor was using a double standard around Zhuang’s alleged assault on the officer. He pointed to multiple interviews on Wednesday morning where Adams said there was no excuse for biting an officer and that the charges were appropriate.
“Yes, there was assault on a police officer and we have been consistent about the increase in assault on police officers,” Adams said on PIX11. “I think the charges were appropriate charges.”
Zhuang, who pleaded not guilty to all the charges, was released on Wednesday evening. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zhuang’s supporters cheered for her at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, where she said was trying to protect an 81-year-old grandmother. Zhuang and her attorney Jerry Goldfeder declined to answer questions.
State Sen. Julia Salazar said Zhuang had received preferential treatment from the legal system.
“I’m glad [Councilmember] Zhuang is not currently sitting in one of the jails on Rikers Island, needlessly detained pretrial,” she wrote on X. “Sadly, that is not the case for thousands of New Yorkers who are equally deserving of their liberty as legally innocent people. And that’s a grave injustice.”
Councilmember Justin Brannan, who also represents parts of southern Brooklyn, called for “equal application of the law under all circumstances.”
“I think everyone agrees we must hold elected officials to a higher standard,” he wrote in an email. “Assaulting a cop who was just doing their job and trying to keep the peace doesn’t make you a hero.”
Brannan brought a set of prop teeth to a press conference on Thursday.
Others have come out in Zhuang’s defense.
Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and a key ally of the mayor, was among the few elected officials who defended Zhuang. In a statement, she said Zhuang had been “suddenly attacked by a mob of unknown forces, allegedly police officers, while she was aiding an 80-year-old woman.”
“Susan did not intend to hurt anyone,” said Bichotte Hermelyn. “She was standing up for her community, and surely not the NYPD, as she has a long-standing record of supporting law enforcement and is endorsed by several police unions.”
In an unexpected show of support, one of Adams’ fervent critics and political archenemies, Curtis Sliwa, also applauded Zhuang. Sliwa, a Republican who repeatedly takes swipes at the mayor on social media, called the shelter “dangerous for residents” and said it would create “an unsafe situation for homeless who need care.”
Sliwa has criticized the city’s location of shelters, including those for migrants.
“WE STAND WITH SUSAN,” he wrote on X.
Brittany Kriegstein and Catalina Gonella contributed reporting.