This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated November 19, 2021
On November 11, 65-year-old Brian Astarita of Bath Beach was pulled over by police on the Belt Parkway near Bay 8th Street, but he drove away. An officer positioned her vehicle in front of Astarita’s Jeep to box him in, at which point he contacted her car. A mile later, after forcing him to stop near the Bay Parkway exit, Astarita exited his vehicle with what appeared to be a handgun and was shot and killed by two NYPD officers.
Multiple eyewitness cell phone videos show that Asterita, who looked uneasy on his feet, grabbed what we now know to be a BB gun. He did not respond to two officers who had their guns drawn and when he advanced toward them, they fired about seventeen total shots.
Cell phone video shows an officer frantically doing chest compressions on the critically injured, bleeding man, while the female officer who fired her gun looks on visibly distraught. Asterita’s seven prior arrests included offenses related to drugs and alcohol, as well as driving dangerously. Police sources have suggested that this may have been a case of suicide-by-cop.
Councilman Brannan shared some of the initially confirmed details early that evening on social media. From complaints about the traffic backup this deadly officer-involved shooting caused to people saying it was good that another thug was off the streets, many of the comments were disappointing, while some were downright disturbing.
What transpired was tragic. A senior citizen who acted irrationally with a pellet gun, not a real firearm, was shot and killed in public with many average citizens witnessing it. It would appear that he was experiencing a mental health crisis or that he was suicidal. The officers involved may have lasting psychological scars form this incident. One man who videoed the shooting can be heard saying he felt sick, having just seen a man killed in front of him.
“A real human being from Bath Beach with a wife and daughter is dead. Real human beings who were pushed into the situation of killing him must deal with that impossible choice they were confronted with while on the job that day.”
Yet so many commenters on Brannan’s informational post seemed delighted by what happened, boiling it down to some “good guys getting the bad guy” episode, when what actually occurred was that everyone involved in what happened, either actively or by simply witnessing it, will be forever affected, possibly traumatized, by it.
It is sad that so many people have so fully bought into this false narrative that crime by irredeemable, violent thugs is everywhere, that they see every police-involved event as an evil bad guy being taken out by a heroic good guy who loved doing it, when it’s actually a tragic outcome with terrible consequences for all involved.
A real human being from Bath Beach with a wife and daughter is dead. Real human beings who were pushed into the situation of killing him must deal with that impossible choice they were confronted with while on the job that day. Treating these human beings as if they are characters from a cop show or as props in an ever-escalating game where every instance of crime is eagerly used as proof that our community is devolving into a dangerous hellscape is deplorable. People need to do better. People need to be better.
The city council race for this district that just concluded embodied much of this fearmongering, as well as the anger it breeds. On November 16, the counting of the final absentee ballots confirmed that Justin Brannan had won reelection and his opponent issued a concession statement. Brannan had taken to saying his campaign was about love over hate, truth over lies, facts over fear, hope over despair. I truly hope that we can move forward and all get in touch with the love that there is throughout this community, basing our discourse on truth and facts.
I am, by nature, an optimistic person, but the past several months have challenged that. I have knocked on a door while trying to get the vote out for my candidate and been told that I kill babies. I have been called pure evil. I respect an honest difference of opinion, but there is no debate to be had with those who say they literally believe you have made a deal with the actual devil. Despite all of that, I am still about hope over despair.
