Joe Crowley voted to create ICE
The duplicity of first voting to create ICE and then protesting against ICE.
On Wednesday, Joseph Crowley (Establishment-NY) collapsed in a protest against the separation of families ordered by President Donald Trump (R).
As you know, Trump has been using the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in on-going attacks against immigrants. Congressman Crowley protested on behalf of the immigrants and suffered a physical collapse in front of everyone. But he showed no shame for having, in 2002, voted to create ICE. Crowley was lucky, because he recovered from his fall. But immigrants have very few ways to fight against detentions or deportations by the agency that Crowley voted to create.
This year, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running to replace Crowley in Congress. She has committed to close ICE. If you live in Queens or the Bronx, vote on June 26 for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress.
Joseph Crowley aprobó la ley que creó el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas
La duplicidad de votar para crear ICE y luego protestar contra ICE
El miércoles, Joseph Crowley (Wall Street-NY) colapsó en una protesta contra la separación de familias ordenada por el presidente Donald Trump (R). Como saben, Trump ha estado utilizando el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) en un ataque contra los inmigrantes. El Congresista Crowley protestó en nombre de los inmigrantes y sufrió delante de todos sufrió una debilidad relacionada con el calor. Pero no mostró ninguna vergüenza de que, en 2002, votó para crear el ICE.
Crowley tuvo suerte, porque se recuperó de sentirse débil por el calor. Pero los inmigrantes tienen muy pocas maneras de luchar contra las detenciones o las deportaciones que realiza la agencia que Crowley votó a favor de crear.
Este año, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez se postula para reemplazar a Crowley en el Congreso. Ella se ha prometido a cerrar ICE. Si vives en Queens o en el Bronx, vote el 26 de junio por Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez para el Congreso.
NYCHA Can Win This for Queens and the Bronx
For decades corrupt politicians have completely ignored the needs of NYCHA. Everyone – from Rudolph Giuliani to Michael Bloomberg to Andrew Cuomo to Bill de Blasio to Joseph Crowley – has taken NYCHA residents for granted. Periodically, politicians have given a few crumbs to public housing residents, by fixing up a playground or putting in security cameras, and then counted on the votes of public housing residents come election time. Politicians show up to public events for photo-ops with after school programs, pretend to be on the side of working class and low-income families, and then they go and meet with lobbyists to pass legislation for Big Real Estate and Wall Street to exploit public assets for private profit.
THE STATE OF NYCHA
Despite what the Democrats in power say, NYCHA is in a complete crisis. Just yesterday, a settlement was reached demanding that the city pay $2.2 billion dollars after a federal probe into lead paint issues, repairs backlogs, negligence, and more. You can read about it in the recent NY Post article here. This comes after former head of NYCHA, Shola Olatoye, stepped down for lying about her knowledge of false inspection certificates – where the agency knowingly and deliberately sat on information for months while thousands of families were exposed to lead paint. A crime for which probably no one will be held responsible.
Crowley made criminal justice in Queens about race long before he complained about the ethnicity of his primary challenger
Crowley confuses ethnicity and race with power and privilege
Today, the Intercept reported that Joseph Crowley (Establishment-NY) complained at a recent political event that his Democratic Party primary challenger, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was focusing her campaign too much on issues of ethnicity or race, remarking, according to the report, that these types of issues were “unnecessarily divisive.”
At many of Crowley’s political events, he loves to brag about his Irish background. Yet, he feels it is fair to deny Ocasio-Cortez any opportunity to speak about her heritage and background, seemingly solely because she is Hispanic.
Having all the power of being the Queens party boss is not enough for Crowley. He wants to use the privilege he has as a White male in power to snuff out his opponent by stoking fears about ethnicity or race to his largely White audiences, as his recent political event was described.
Long before Ocasio-Cortez ever decided to challenge Crowley in a Congressional primary this year, though, Crowley made issues of race central to how Queens was going to be governed. One need not look too far to see how Crowley has used race and White privilege in Queens to further his own ideas about what is fair about who holds elected office.
Before Crowley inherited his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Richard Brown (Establishment-NY) was first appointed and then reëlected, uninterruptedly, as the District Attorney for Queens County. Now an octogenarian, Brown has said he has no plans for retiring. Though he holds elected office, Brown acts as if being the District Attorney is a job he gets to decide how long he keeps. Like Crowley, Brown acts as if he is entitled to his elected post. The major problem caused to Queens County voters is that Brown is resisting criminal justice reform, as called for by Ocasio-Cortez. Brown wants to keep arresting his way through the opioid crisis, even though Whites are shown to mainly be turning to dangerous synthetic painkillers as lifestyle drugs. Because Brown also resists speedy calls for legalizing marijuana or decriminalizing other crimes that disproportionately affect minority communities, criminal justice in Queens is prosecuted with race-based overtones, notably Broken Windows policing.
Prelude to the Biggest Upset of 2018: A Look Back at Elizabeth Crowley’s Devastating Loss in Queens
Elizabeth Crowley lost — because the voters are tired of the Queens Machine
The Winds of Change
Many of those following national politics might be be unaware of a devastating development that occurred in Queens County back in the fall of 2017, and which foreshadows a potential upset in the upcoming contest for New York’s 14th congressional district. Congressman Joseph Crowley‘s cousin, Elizabeth Crowley, was running as an incumbent in a City Council election against the relatively unknown centrist Robert Holden, who she defeated in the Democratic Party primary — only to eventually lose to him in the General Election by 137 votes. Elizabeth Crowley, who raised 10 times the amount of Holden, and who had the backing of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (Establishment-NY) and the Queens Machine, should have crushed Holden in the General. When the votes were totaled and recounted, however, Holden squeaked by — pulling off an upset that many had thought was impossible.
Part of a Larger Pattern
Elizabeth Crowley is not the only neoliberal Democrat the People have grown tired of. One might recall Christine Quinn‘s epic loss to Bill de Blasio in the 2013 mayoral race. Quinn’s loss showed that the political left in America’s biggest city was ready to challenge the corporatist, big money Democrats. Several years later, Democrats ignored that lesson when Hillary Clinton noteworthy downfall demonstrated that the Democratic base was no longer inspired by big money politics.
Vote for Ocasio-Cortez on June 26
Ocasio-Cortez promises to end the Queens machine
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Justice Democrat, and one of us. She is running for Congress to be a champion of the people, not to represent the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. She will restore democratic functions to Queens civic bodies and end the machine-like control of the County party boss. On June 26, vote for Ocasio.
Fighting for Working Families, Against Rezonings and Luxury Development
Defending Public Housing. Ocasio-Cortez will fight to protect and to expand public housing in New York City. She will find the money to make much needed improvements and repairs to public housing. She will stop the conversion of public housing to Section 8 housing that is being used as a backdoor to privatization. Ocasio-Cortez will also fight to end any form of discrimination against public housing tenants, such as making sure that permanent exclusion is ended.
Stopping Gentrification. As a parent and the product of a working family, Ocasio-Cortez feels the pinch that New Yorkers experience in the pocketbook due to escalating rents, gentrification, and displacement of communities. Ocasio-Cortez showed up for the comunity in Elmhurst to protest the construction of a 13-story tower with a big-box store (a “Target“) in its commercial space. Ocasio-Cortez knows that unregulated real estate development, including the relentless construction of luxuyr housing, is the source of escalating rents in New York. If elected, Ocasio-Cortez will use her position within the Queens Democratic Party county committee to elect officials, who will end the non-stop gentrification of Queens.
Getting Big Money Out of Politics
Reforming the Queens Democratic Party. It has been reported that, in the lead-up to when U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (Establishment-NY) installed the real estate industry ally Corey Johnson as speaker of the New York City Council, the Queens Democratic Party county committee was accepting political donations from powerful real estate development firms, such as Rudin Management Company, which is headed by William Rudin, who is now chair of the Real Estate Board of New York (“REBNY”) ; BFC Partners, which was co-founded by Donald Capoccia, who was able to walk away with controversial development rights over the Bedford-Union Armory in Brooklyn ; and the Brodsky Organization, a real estate develoment company whose leadership includes Daniel, Alexander, and Thomas Brodsky, who were spearately campaign contributors to Speaker Johnson’s 2017 committee to reëlect. Were Ocasio-Cortez to defeat Crowley, she could be counted on not accepting corporate money to the Queens Democratic Party county committee.
Returning Democracy to Queens. Ocasio-Cortez will make reforming the Queens Democratic Party county committee a priority. She will see to it that participation, meetings, and the selection of leadership for the county committee is opened up to the public. Ocasio-Cortez’s commitment to transparency will end the undemocratic stronghold that Crowley has used to have his way with Queens politics.
Addressing Income and Wealth Inequality
Because Ocasio-Cortez will represent the people, she pledges to address the income and wealth inequalities that are making New York City a land of haves and have nots. She will take her sensibility of being a working New York City parent and fight for social, economic, and legal policies that will promote a living wage, job guarantees, and union protections.
Criminal Justice System Reform
For longer than Crowley has been in Congress, Richard Brown has been the District Attorney of Queens County. During this time, corruption scandal after corruption scandal has engulfed the careers of several Queens politicians. Separately, the whistleblower Adrian Schoolscraft was kidnapped and held against his will by police officers in Jamaica Hospital. The Occupy Wall Street, the Black Lives Matter, the Close Rikers, and the immigration justice social movements have focused on the need for ciminal justice system reform. And all the while, the Queens D.A. has resisted calls for reform. Because Brown runs for office with the express support of the Queens Democratic Party county committee, he has not answered to the public calls for ciminal justice system reform. Why should he, when his brand of race-based prosecution is enabled by Crowley ?
When you elect Ocasio-Cortez, she will make sure that there is a healthy — and long over-due — primary race for Queens D.A. Criminal justice system reform is being embraced in Brooklyn and, to some extent, in Manhattan. But Queens resists, because that is what Crowley wants.
Immigration Justice. Once Ocasio-Cortez brings new leadership to Queens, she will also push the Queens D.A. to stand up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who are being allowed to entrap New Yorkers in the Queens County courts. This silent complicity or collaboration by the Queens D.A. must come to an end.
Fighting for Women’s Rights
In Ocasio-Cortez, voters will be able to count on a leader of the Queens Democrats, who will not enable politicians, who, in turn, keep Republicans in power up in Albany in a political arrangement that undercuts the expansion of equal rights for women. Ocasio-Cortez believes in finally achieving equal pay for women. She also will continue the fight to end gender discrimination. She will defend against any attempt at rolling back civil rights by Republicans.
Medicare for All
Ocasio-Cortez has gone on the record to champion a single-payer healthcare system for the United States. As a member of the U.S. Congress, if elected, she will support and vote for legislation to make sure that everybody receives healthcare coverage regardless of income or occupation.
Vote for Ocasio – Get a Reminder to Vote on June 26
