Standing up for Black History and human rights means standing up to hate and ignorance.
During Black History Month, I have received hate-filled messages that oppose my efforts, alongside the efforts of a coalition of criminal justice reform advocates, to end Broken Windows Policing and stop the damage done by over policing.
During Black History Month, I have received hate mail in opposition to my efforts, alongside educators & advocates, to integrate Black History into New York schools’ curricula from grades K-12.
During Black History Month, I have also been targeted by those whose failed strategies deliver nothing to our community’s youth, by those who support a website that calls Black Lives Matters “thugs,” and those whose ignorance blinds them to the fact that building coalitions, building consensus, and building allies gets things done in Brooklyn and in Albany.
Know that all hate messages and threats will be reported to the proper authorities. There is no place in political discussion for the n-word laced tirades my office has received. With the assistance of the NYS Senate Sergeant at Arms and the NYPD, I will ensure the safety of my staff, my community partners, and the public who seek our help.
Know that, in the face of hate and in the face of ignorance, our efforts to dismantle Broken Windows Policing, to get Black History in our schools year round, and to build a New York that supports the well-being of all our communities – these critical efforts will not stop.
Know that we will redouble our efforts to make great strides forward for the Brooklyn neighborhoods I represent and for all New Yorkers.
Steps forward like delivering peace of mind to over 100 families whose children received free lead testing. Steps forward like graduating over 500 young people from our Campus program in Brownsville and East Flatbush in our first year. Steps forward like an unprecedented $10 million investment in free legal assistance to our immigrant communities. Steps forward like Raise the Age, ending an era of New York wrongfully and routinely treating children as adults.
Working alongside countless volunteers, mentors, educators, justice reform advocates, and people of good conscience, I will stand against hate and ignorance and stand up for the civil rights, human rights, and social justice New Yorkers deserve.
Editor’s Note: As the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of KCP, I have been made aware of and have seen a number of examples of Twitter/Facebook campaigns as well as emails and letters directed both towards myself and State Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Central Brooklyn) that either border on being hateful and racist or actually are hateful and racist.
To be clear some of these messages appear to be coming from the extreme right, but a majority of them are coming from the progressive left.
We at KCP stand shoulder to shoulder with Sen. Hamilton in regard to his work and in standing up against the hateful, racist messages delivered through social media and elsewhere. Further, our mission remains not to lean left or right, Democratic or Republican, but to foster ideas over ideology and bipartisanship, so that the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.
-Stephen Witt
