Zeldin supporter choked by man at Hochul rally, tussles with NYC councilwoman
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A woman protesting at a Manhattan rally for Governor Kathy Hochul was strangled by another person present on Saturday night, footage shows.
The video, posted by Viral news New Yorkshows the moments when a supporter of Republican governor candidate Lee Zeldin was attacked by at least two people while protesting the governor’s campaign.
Hochul held an event alongside Bravo’s Andy Cohen near the Stonewall Inn.
The video shows a man in shorts and a checkered shirt suffocating the woman, now identified as Angelica Torres, who wore a black sweatshirt.
The man in the plaid shirt and the woman to his left were both charged with physically injuring the woman in the black sweatshirt as she protested Governor Hochul’s rally in NYC
Tensions remain high in the final days of New York’s governorship campaign between Republican Lee Zeldin and Democrat Kathy Hochul
Also involved in the physical altercation was Councilman Crystal Hudson, a Democrat. Hudson represents Prospect Heights in Brooklyn.
A person with Viral News New York spoke to Torres who was choking. After the incident, she claimed she “never wanted to get physical.”
“I held my sign here, and—peaceful protest, against you know, Governor Hochul, and a woman—a very tall heavyset woman, I suppose, you know, could be a man—came and took my sign.” , the woman told the outlet.
It is unclear what led to the altercation, as the start of the fight was not captured on video.
“While I was trying to get my plate, another man came and strangled me, and there were two other people who came and stopped me from getting my plate,” she said.
Torres, who carried a “vote them out” sign with photos of Hochul and other Democrats running in November’s election, said she had no intention of doing anything but protesting peacefully.
‘[I] I never wanted to get physical with anyone, I was just there peacefully holding my plate, and you know, they didn’t want to hear what I had to say,” she said.
Torres also spoke with FOX News Sunday said she was angry that she was attacked because she had a difference of opinion.
“I was very shocked and upset that I could not express my opinion openly without violence. Crime and violence is a big problem in our city,” she said.
Torres also said she was seeking medical treatment and reported the incident to police.
Photos taken after the incident showed the man talking to police officers. However, it is not known whether he was arrested and charged.
The woman told Viral News New York that she wanted to protest peacefully Saturday night outside Hochul’s gathering at the Stonewall Inn.
Photos taken after the incident show the unidentified man talking to NYPD officers after the attack took place
The first video of the woman being choked is only 24 seconds long, but has nearly 300,000 views on Twitter.
Those on the social media app who saw the video reacted quickly to the incident, calling out Hochul and her supporters for the violence.
“Still, Hochul says crime is not increasing,” said one Twitter user.
“This was terrible,” one person wrote.
“Third world politics in action,” another commented.
The incident on Saturday happened just hours after Zeldin was confronted at his own rally by Hochul supporters who accused him of using rape to “promote his campaign.”
The group referenced Zeldin’s choice to deliver a speech at the scene of a horrific sexual assault in the West Village.
Yelling protesters waved signs defaced with messages branding Zeldin “as dangerous as Trump” when they disrupted Friday’s campaign event.
Zeldin gave a speech at the riverside location where a woman was asphyxiated, raped and robbed the day before.
Outrage over the attack grew after it emerged that the suspect, homeless Carl Phanor, has had 25 previous arrests and was also wanted for at least two other sex crimes in the city.
Protesters shouted over Zeldin’s campaign speech at West Village rape scene
Phanor’s criminal past led to furious questions about why he was free to prowl the streets and allegedly launch the attack.
Zeldin hit back at protesters on Twitter: ‘There is no crime emergency’ Kathy Hochul’s people are crying out at the scene of another rape yesterday in the Big Apple.
“These protesters and their far-left, pro-criminal agenda have somehow managed to set the agenda in the NYC Council & Albany in a dangerous way.”
The jogger attack is part of an alarming rise in crime that continues to plague New York City, where violent incidents are up nearly 30 percent from last year.
Zeldin said rising crime under Hochul’s watch meant New Yorkers were ‘forced to live in fear’
Crime continues to be rampant in the Big Apple, with violent crime rising nearly 30 percent
This year, police have reported 1,384 rape cases in the city so far, an increase of nearly 11 percent from the same time last year.
The crime rate is also up nearly 14 percent, with 21,767 cases so far this year, and robberies are up more than 32 percent compared to last year.
Since the beginning of the year, 102,914 serious crimes have been reported, compared to 78,892 in the same period of 2021, the latest NYPD data shows.
Afterwards, Zeldin said he chose to hold the event at the site of Thursday’s attack because of the “impact on shocking the local community.”
Zeldin’s rival, current governor Kathy Hochul, has been criticized for her silence about the rape
The most recent outbursts at the rallies come at a critical point in the governorship campaign.
With just a few days to go, polls from the Trafalgar Group showed Hochul and Zeldin in an almost neck-and-neck race.
The poll showed that both candidates had 48 percent of the vote each. However, Hochul’s average lead is still about 4 percent in other polls.
A recent poll put New York governor Hochul and Zeldin neck and neck in the governor’s race
Since winning his party’s nomination in March, Zeldin has publicized his “hard on crime” appearance.
“It’s about restoring order, it’s about supporting the blue,” Zeldin told congressmen.
“This is a rescue mission to save our state that will be successful.”
Zeldin called for a law enforcement law to ensure that police officers have the right to self-defense.
He has also vowed to repeal criminal justice reforms passed by the Democrat-led legislature in recent years, including a 2019 law banning bail and pre-trial detention on most felony and nonviolent crime charges.