Brad Lander Arrested Protesting Outside Marty Golden's Office

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — City Councilman Brad Lander was arrested Friday morning, one week after a four-year-old girl was fatally run down near a public school, in a protest to demand the state renew a school-zone speed camera program set to expire.

“This morning I was arrested along with some of the most courageous women I know,” Lander tweeted, “family members, who have lost loved ones in traffic crashes, now putting themselves on the line to save the lives other people’s children.”

Police arrested Lander — the Democratic councilman who represents Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope — during what was meant to be a 24-hour sit-in outside State Senator Marty Golden’s Borough Park office at 7408 5th Ave., the city councilman said.

Police confirmed that Lander and four women received summons for disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.

Lander and activists from Families For Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives hoped to pressure Golden and other state senators to reconvene in Albany so they could renew the school-zone speed camera policy they failed to vote on last week.

The legislation, slated to expire July 25, allows officials to use cameras to ticket speeding drivers in 140 of the city's school zones. Mayor Bill de Blasio, and a slew of other city politicians, were outraged that the senate adjourned for the summer without renewing the law.

"Kids will be in danger,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Kids will lose their lives."

Lander’s protest came less than a week after four-year-old Luz Gonzalez was run over by an SUV driver in a Bushwick school zone, which prompted the girl’s parents, along with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, to demand Wednesday the state senate reconvene.

But Lander said it was the deaths of four-year-old Abigail Blumenstein and one-year-old Joshua Lew — who were both killed earlier this year by a reckless driver in Park Slope — that prompted him to risk arrest Friday morning.

“What’s our goal? To keep more kids from dying,” Lander wrote in a Facebook post. “Golden’s failure to reauthorize the camera program … is both obscene and dangerous.”

Golden’s spokesman John Quaglione told Patch the state senator supported the protesters who stood outside his office Friday morning.

"Senator Golden commends the dedication of those who kept vigil outside his office and stands by his commitment to ensuring the safety of all New Yorkers" Quaglione wrote in an email. "[Golden] is strongly advocating for the Senate to return to Albany to approve this measure."

Golden's stance on speed cameras has been notoriously difficult to track — in May the New York Times reported Golden supported more cameras but then last week Golden announced he would co-sponsor a law to replace speed cameras with stop signs and traffic lights — and TransAlt representatives said his statement contradicts a Tweet sent out Thursday night and later deleted.

Perhaps some reporters want to ask Senator Marty Golden about this (now deleted) tweet?

"You people" in this case are the grieving mother of children killed by reckless and speeding drivers. pic.twitter.com/CaHADN5jwt
— TransAlt (@TransAlt) June 28, 2018

Quaglione replied to Patch's request for comment on the Tweet by email, writing the statement sent to Patch was Golden's official response.

The Friday morning protest was organized by Amy Cohen, an activist whose son Sammy was killed when he was hit by a car on Prospect Park West five years ago, Lander said.

“The courage that Amy — and other families who have lost loves ones — have shown in their effort to save the lives of other people’s children is nothing short of heroic,” Lander wrote.

Lander concluded his statement with a dig at the Borough Park state senator's own driving record: Golden was recently spotted evading a parking ticket with a fist bump and he fatally hit a senior citizen with his car in 2005, the Post and the Daily News reported.

“I pray that Senator Golden heeds their voices and gets the speed cameras renewed. If not, it’ll be more than his car that needs the boot.”

Photos courtesy of City Councilman Brad Lander/Twitter and Facebook