Anti-cop Alessandra Biaggi for Congress: Can she make America forget her corrupt family past?
Liberal Bronx Democratic state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi is now running for Congress in a congressional district that includes Long Island, Queens, Westchester, and parts of the Bronx. Biaggi is a champion of “defunding” the police and had once called cops “soulless”. In the past, Biaggi had posted a number of anti-police funding tweets. Although many of the posts were deleted, the screengrabs remained.
Biaggi, 35, defeated ex-Bronx state Sen Jeff Klein in the 2018 primary. She is the granddaughter of the late Congressman Mario Biaggi, a 19-year representative and former cop. His career ended after he was convicted in two corruption scandals.
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“Today #TeamBiaggi dropped off 550 meals with Rethink Food NYC to New Yorkers at Occupy CityHall fighting for budget justice and defunding the police. Stay safe, and keep up the good work!#DefundTheNYPD,” Biaggi had said on social media on June 26, 2020. “We must defund the police," she had said on June 6, 2020. Following the Black Lives Matter movement, many activists, liberal groups, and even politicians have rallied behind -- defund the police. Recently, New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou “liked” a tweet comparing the thousands of New York City police officers who attended the funeral for fallen Officer Jason Rivera to Nazis and she was forced to tender an apology.
In one post, Biaggi had compared the cost to the city to pay for NYPD misconduct lawsuits to the potential price tag of providing free bus service to New Yorkers. She also posted a comparison of the costs of police riot gear to personal protective equipment for health care workers fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, she posted a story about cops allegedly thrashing a Black woman during a protest. “The police in this country are soulless,” Biaggi had said.
However, Biaggi's family history may do her some damage. Her grandfather who died in 2015 was a popular 10-term Democratic congressman from the Bronx but all his achievements became clouded by the corruption scandals to his name. It came as a shock to former fellow police officers, who once called him hero and a terrible loss to voters, who saw him as their champion in Washington. At nearly 70 and at the peak of his career, Mario's downfall began in 1987 with a federal indictment in Brooklyn charging that he had taken an unlawful gratuity — a $3,200 vacation at a Florida spa over the 1984-85 Christmas-New Year holidays — from Meade H. Esposito, the former Brooklyn Democratic leader. Prosecutors called it a bribe to get his help for Coastal Dry Dock and Repair Corporation, which was a client of Esposito’s insurance firm. Soon after Rudolph W Giuliani, the US attorney in Manhattan, accused Mario and five others of turning the Wedtech Corporation in the South Bronx into a criminal enterprise that paid bribes for no-bid military contracts. In 1988, Mario was convicted of 15 felonies, including extorting stock worth $1.8 million, to help Wedtech win contracts.
Rep. Tom Suozzi believes that Biaggi is not a good fit for the district. Suozzi is a Democrat who is giving up the congressional seat in order to run for governor. “The people of my district want a common-sense Democrat who will not pander to the left or back down to the right. I will not support anyone who is anti-Israel, supported by the Democratic Socialists, or who sides with the defund the police crowd,” Suozzi told New York Post.
Biaggi said of expected criticism of her support for defunding the police and bail reform, "I am committed to strengthening public safety, and every policy stance I take related to policing and criminal justice reform is rooted in supporting our communities. I have worked hard to make our communities safer, strengthening gun laws and protecting victims of sexual assault. I’ll continue to do that in Congress, making sure police are focused on violent crime, investing in violence prevention programs, and standing up to the NRA and Republicans so we can finally crackdown on the flow of illegal guns into New York."
Talking about why she is running on her website, Biaggi said, "As a New York State senator, I’ve delivered progressive change in Albany. Now I’m ready to do the same in Washington. I am running for Congress to protect and defend our democracy, to halt the climate crisis, to grow our supply of affordable housing, and to transform our government and economy to serve us all. Several of the most important fights in our country’s history are taking place in Washington right now, and I want to be on the frontlines."