This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 20, 2023
The story was that hordes of migrants were observed outside the Best Western Gregory Hotel on Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge because they are now being sheltered there. The story appeared in multiple posts in multiple local Facebook groups, but it was just that: a story; a completely untrue misrepresentation about some guests who had patronized the hotel for a few days.
I saw these posts, along with the supposed photo evidence that purported to prove what one poster said Curtis Sliwa and Ari Kagan had correctly warned about at a protest they had held in Bay Ridge a week earlier: that migrant shelters were coming to the neighborhood. The person sharing the photos of a large group of Latino people, most seeming to be wearing coordinating clothes and red hats, labeled Councilman Brannan as a “filthy liar” for having said there was no truth to migrant shelters coming to Bay Ridge, but the fact is, those captured in the photos were not migrants and there is no shelter in Bay Ridge, nor are there any plans to have one sited there.
After days of he and his staff being inundated with calls and emails from constituents inquiring about migrants being housed at the Bay Ridge hotel, Brannan had to issue a statement clearing up the misinformation and dispelling the false rumor that was being spread on social media. There was absolutely no truth to the claim.
The group of non-white people photographed at the hotel had been there as paying guests over the weekend of Saturday, October 7. That was the day of the 2023 NYC Panamanian Parade in Prospect-Lefferts Garden, which was celebrating its 28th anniversary of honoring the culture and contributions of the country and its people here in America.
The groups that had been photographed outside the hotel were not “4 bus loads of migrants,” as one of the Facebook group posts alleged. They were 4 bus loads of paying hotel guests, including a marching band, that had decided to stay in Bay Ridge while in Brooklyn to participate in the annual event, which is a longtime October tradition here in our borough.
Sadly, just their presence here, as guests who chose to patronize a hotel and local restaurants in Bay ridge during their stay, brought out the ugliest assumptions and responses in our community. Performers here for a fun event, according to Brannan, “were photographed, recorded, and antagonized for staying at a hotel a few nights and patronizing our neighborhood businesses.”
As the posts in local Facebook groups referred to, there was definitely a connection between Ari Kagan’s repeated claims that opposing migrant shelters in Bay Ridge is a pressing issue that requires immediate action and the assumption that a group of brown folks speaking Spanish outside a hotel on Fourth Avenue were migrants who had just been bussed there to be sheltered in the neighborhood. This cannot be who we are.
The asylee crisis has presented many challenges, but we must deal in reality and facts. We cannot succumb to disinformation meant to stir up fear and anger, which some then direct at innocent people, whether that be Panamanian hotel guests or asylum seekers. We are better than that. We can debate how to address the influx of migrants without giving in to ignorance, and the only way to have any chance of doing that is by dealing in facts and not eagerly buying into lies.
Figures with public platforms who peddle falsehoods to whip up fear are demonstrating what little respect they have for those they are trying to reach. To put it bluntly, they think we all are not smart enough to discern the truth. They think that false claims that could benefit them if believed by many people, will be believed by many people if they throw them out there.
The fact that the proliferation of these false rumors coincides with a competitive election in this area makes it clear that this is largely political. Early voting begins Saturday, October 28 and you can confirm your early voting site at vote.nyc. It is as important as ever to get out there and cast our votes for someone who gets things done; someone who works to bring members of the community together, not divide them. It is imperative that between early voting from October 28 to November 5, and on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7 we head to the polls and help re-elect Councilman Brannan.
