Councilwoman calls for class action lawsuit against the city she represents

I’ve seen officials accuse other officials of “working against the city’s best interest” before but it was usually from a mayor trying to stifle a member of the Council for one reason of another.

But, what newly elected Councilwoman Anastasia Robertson, D-District 2, posted on Facebook is beyond any measure of petty political bickering.

She wrote: “Power in CLASS ACTION SUITS.....victims can band together and file in the federal courts.....POWER in CLASS ACTIONS SUITS......”

ROBERTSON

Her post was in response to one started by Rev. Willie Bacote, presumably addressing comments made by Tina Urzan during Wednesday’s Public Safety Committee meeting where the proprietor of Olde Judge Mansion said racism didn’t exist in Troy until Bacote showed up.

Bacote wrote:

“Racism did not exist until I got here?

INTERLOPER ?

Tactics of the devil, We The Troy African American Pastoral Alliance are now more United than ever before because you attack one, you attacked Us All!!
Pastor Willie is not the Problem In Troy, NY”

I suppose his post could also be in response to Police Benevolent Association President Bob Fitzgerald, who on Wednesday called on Bacote to resign from the alliance.

Either way, urging alleged victims of police brutality to ban together and sue the city she was elected to serve – and swore an oath reflecting as much – is just beyond the grasp of any rational person.

If Robertson, who is black, believes racism exists within the TPD, there are ways to go about trying to fix it without urging the alleged victims to sue the city for what could be millions of dollars.

First, she can help find out what actually happened. Yes, the videos show a disturbing scene where officers enter the establishment when everyone seemed to be leaving in an orderly fashion. Then all hell breaks loose when they attempt to arrest Rashwon Donley. The officer clearly hit Donley with a nightstick while others were restraining him. Police claim Donley hit the officer first and force was justified.

Police also released video of the scene outside the bar and it did look pretty crazy. In the end five people were arrested and eight officers were injured, six needing hospital care. But, while Bacote and others claim police inflamed the situation, police say the situation was already an inferno.

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I’m not sure if Robertson was there or not.

The only way to find out to the satisfaction of everyone involved is to have an outside entity examine the videos frame by frame and find and talk to some people actually involved in the ruckus.

Until that happens, Robertson would better serve her district and the by doing about anything but advocating for class action lawsuit.

I’m not saying she should just roll with everything that is going on by any stretch. She was duly elected to not be a robot, but to speak her mind and take a stand on things. She is doing that and for that I give her credit. (Though, she did pass on chairing a committee, which is part of being on the Council and all eight of her colleagues accepted that responsibility.)

She would be wiser, however, to march with Bacote, speak against any injustices she sees or has seen, work with Police Chief John Tedesco to implement the structural changes he was talking about Wednesday night or maybe even get to know some of the cops she and others have already indicted for heinous crimes.

Or, since many of the crowd at Kokopellis on Jan. 25 were black and are, for right or wrong, probably leery of police, she could even facilitate bringing the two sides together so the minority voice is heard where it matters rather than through papers filed by attorneys looking for a third of the settlement.