SEE IT: Brooklyn state senate staffer in ‘Black Lives Matter’ shirt removed from polling site by cops, threatened with arrest
An NYPD officer threatened to arrest a Brooklyn state senate staffer wearing a “Black Lives Matter” shirt at a polling site on Election Day and forced him to move 100 feet away, claiming the slogan was akin to a political statement.
In video obtained by the Daily News Friday, the cop is seen arguing with Carlos Jesus Calzadilla, 23, who works for State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn), over the shirt — with the officer insisting the BLM logo violated election law.
“You’re making a political statement,” the officer says to Calzadilla in the video, while trying to force the staffer and another man to move 100 feet away from the Bushwick polling site on Himrod St.
“That’s not what electioneering is. I know the law,” Calzadilla responds.
Calzadilla said he wasn’t working for Sen. Salazar on Tuesday when he appeared at the polling site. He’d just voted at a nearby location and went to the Himrod St. voting location to meet up with two friends.
He’d been allowed to vote at the other site while wearing his BLM shirt, Calzadilla said.
“(The officer) escalated and harassed me for the shirt I was wearing. It seemed like he was the one with a political agenda,” Calzadilla said. “He sees my shirt says 'Black Lives Matter’ and says, ‘That’s a political statement, if you don’t move I’m going to arrest you.’”
Calzadilla filed a complaint in the incident with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
New York election law mandates that all “political displays, placards or posters” can’t be displayed within 100 feet of polling locations. But two election lawyers told the Daily News that the law is meant to bar specific support of candidates, not a broad statement like “Black Lives Matter.”
“I believe the NYPD officer overstepped in this situation,” said lawyer Ali Najmi. “Electioneering really involves specific candidates and political parties, of which ‘Black Lives Matter’ is neither.”
Attorney Jerry Goldfeder agreed.
“It would have to be a campaign shirt and that’s not a campaign shirt,” he said. “That law relates to candidate campaign paraphernalia.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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