The NYPD chief who was bitten by a City Council member during a raucous shelter protest in Brooklyn last week is “angry” that the member is acting like he’s the victim, The Washington Post has learned.
“I’ve been doing this for 31 years and I’ve never been bitten. I can’t believe someone would bite another human being,” Deputy Police Chief Frank DiGiacomo told a friend after City Council Member Susan Juan allegedly bit him at a proposed New York shelter site. Bensonhurst July 24. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to put someone else’s blood in their mouth.
“What bothers me the most is that she’s acting as if she’s the victim,” he told a friend.
“He had lost a lot of blood and needed a cocktail of antiviral drugs and a tetanus shot,” the veteran police chief also told friends.
Juan, a Democratic member of the 43rd District based in Sunset Park, told associates that DiGiacomo had tried to choke him, which is why he bit him.
But DiGiacomo denied the allegations and insisted his arm was on a metal security fence, not on a politician, when he felt her teeth sink into his arm, the friend said.
“The bite marks were on the outside of her arm,” her friend recalled, “so it wasn’t on the inside of her arm where it was wrapped.”
Zhuang’s office claims she was trying to protect an elderly woman who had been knocked to the ground, but police officials officially said the woman had walked to the traffic barrier and lay down in an act of civil disobedience.
The NYPD called an ambulance for the woman, but rioters began pushing against the barriers before the ambulance could arrive, police said.
Police sources said the woman continued to take part in protests for the rest of the day.
DiGiacomo told his friend he wanted an apology.
“No one goes to prison for these kinds of crimes anymore,” he told a friend, “but I thought there would at least be an apology or some acknowledgment of what happened. Instead, she keeps doubling down.”
The assault, which comes at a time when the city council is frequently at odds with the police, outraged the officer, who has been with the company for 20 years.
“For a public official to take such action is to condone future attacks,” the veteran fumed. “If someone in this political position were to justify such actions and make it public, it might encourage more people.”
Officers believe Zhuang will ultimately receive a light punishment.
“Even if it’s a terrible act, the charges will be lesser. Nothing will happen,” he said.
The city’s largest police union also voiced its support for the deputy chief.
“The facts are that Councilwoman Juan led protests that left multiple officers injured and bashed the NYPD chief,” said Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association. “There are no excuses or explanations that change this reality,” he said. “She needs to take responsibility for her actions, not just shift the blame to officers who were just doing their jobs.”
