At the general membership meeting of the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND) last night candidates for the Brooklyn District Attorney race appealed to the organization for support.
The current acting DA Eric Gonzalez, who was the late DA Ken Thompson’s pick to succeed him, was not in attendance as he has yet to announce he is running. Those in attendance were Ama Dwimoh, Marc Fleidner, John Gangemi, Patricia Gatling and District 43 Councilmember Vincent Gentile.
John F. Gangemi, who is one of the older candidates in the race has a history dating back to Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a legislative assistant. Back in 1971 he was a council member of the borough at-large and ran a failed bid for Borough President against Eric Adams back in 2013.
He is a strong supporter of Mayor de Blasio, even going so far as to hint that anyone running against the mayor should “fuhgeddaboudit.” Early yesterday, it was announced that the federal investigation into Mayor De Blasio fundraising practices yielded no criminal charges.
“I have a passion for the law and I have a passion for public service. The DA position right now is vacant. Although we have a young man, an acting DA, who is fairly confident in what he’s doing and going forward in carrying the DA’s office. However, what he’s doing and what the other’s are projecting that they are going to do is different than what I did as an Assistant DA. When I was an Assistant DA, we took a case from the beginning and brought it to a conclusion. I prosecuted 2500 cases from the beginning until the end. Our priority is prosecution,” said Gangemi.
Fleidner has a background as a victim advocate of sex crimes, child abuse and domestic violence. He has worked under former Brooklyn DA Elizabeth Holtzman after graduating from George Washington University Law School in 1987.
“After thirty years of standing on both sides of the courtroom, in the context of criminal justice, I have reached a conclusion, very clearly, that the system continues to be broken. We have a desperate need for criminal justice reform. The only way the criminal justice reform is going to be achieved in our nation and in Brooklyn, is if the prosecutors at the local level take the wheel, because the prosecutors hold all the discretion,” said Fleidner.
He believes that a successful, modern District Attorney’s Office needs to defend and protect the rights of those accused of crimes and the futures of those accused of crimes and reform the way in which victims of crimes are handled.
Fleidner is the first openly gay candidate to run for Brooklyn’s DA position.
Gentile didn’t officially announce his candidacy but said that he is “seriously considering a bid” and highlighted the fact that as a City Council member he has a strong relationship with the DA position already and has enacted criminal justice laws.
Gentile currently represents the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Bath Beach.
“I have a working relationship already with all of the five district attorneys through my work on the City Council. In the City Council we vote on the budget for each District Attorney’s Office, so I’ve had that interaction. I’m the only one in this race that’s a legislator. As a legislator I can act right now to affect the criminal justice system and because I can act right now, you can use that as some insight into what I would do as your new District Attorney. Last year, the City Council passed legislation that converted many of the low level criminal offenses into civil penalties so that youngsters who ended up getting summons for an open container in a public park wouldn’t end up with a criminal record,” said Gentile.
The other candidates at the meeting had to leave early as they had other scheduled events.
