Bed-Stuy Council Candidate Offers Apology For Offensive Tweets

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A progressive Brooklyn City Council candidate under fire for derogatory tweets about women, religious groups and others has offered an apology and says he will discuss the posts with groups impacted this week.

Chi Ossé, who is running to represent Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights' 36th District, has been under fire for nearly a week for several tweets first reported by the New York Post.

“Bro…your girl smells like a halal cart," Ossé wrote in one 2019 post, sent from his campaign feed.

“Knocked over one of those Jesus worshippers on the subway this morning…feeling random and sinful," he said in another.

In a third he wrote that “rumor has it" then 15-year-old actress Millie Bobbie Brown can “fit 37 pistachios up her ass.”

Ossé quickly deleted the tweets, telling the Post he "condemned" them, but had refrained from offering an outright apology until this week despite repeated calls from opponents, as well as women and Muslim groups, to do so.

"I apologize for the tweets, for the damage and for not thinking of the larger picture," Ossé said in a statement to Patch on Thursday, first echoing his earlier claims that the Post "decided to use some of the Tweets to create a narrative to attack [Alexandria Ocasio Cortez]," whose PAC has endorsed Ossé.

Ossé said the tweets were from a time when he and friends used Twitter as a "platform for sarcastic humor directed at a small audience" and that they "are not reflective" of his character.

"If media outlets are truly interested in fair and honest reporting then create a comparative between the tweets and my growth," he said. "Discuss my work on violence prevention, cultural equity, gender rights, BLM, senior care, food justice and the other issues that matter to my community. My character is demonstrated and defined by my consistency, not a bad set of tweets."

He added that he plans to meet with leaders of the Muslim faith on Friday and that the tweets will "undoubtedly" be part of the conversation.

But Thursday's statement was not sufficient for at least one rival candidate among those asking Ossé to apologize. The campaign for Tahirah A. Moore, the only woman running in the 36th District, told Patch they stand by an earlier statement calling Ossé to publicly apologize and meet with community leaders.

"You don’t start an apology by blaming the right and AOC — this is not even an apology," said a campaign staffer reached Thursday. "It’s only happening because you’re getting pressure from people saying you need to apologize."

It was not immediately clear how others who had decried the tweets would react to Ossé's statement.

Dr. Debbie Almontaser, the CEO of the Bridging Cultures Group, had previously condemned Ossé's earlier explanations for the posts, saying "Though you explained you were young and now condemn it, that is not enough! You owe the American Muslim community an apology. A prominent mosque in NYC is in your district. Shameful."

Prominent women's group Emily's List, who backs Moore, put out a statement Wednesday calling the comments "hateful."

"...We believe it’s critical to elect people who not only represent but also respect the qualities that make us who we are," they said.

Ossé told Patch that his "foolishness" should serve as a reminder that "a good laugh is not more important than kindness" and that "evolving is human."

"I was never nefarious but I was clearly foolhardy," he said. "...Growth and change are possible."