Dear Governor Hochul,
Why is your college paying a cop killer to spew hate?
Why are you allowing this to happen?
On April 6, Anthony Bottom is scheduled to speak at SUNY Brockport. He murdered two police officers, planned the murder of a third, and would have killed a fourth, but his machinegun jammed.
Now, his murders unmentioned, he is being described as a “political prisoner” and he’s going to give a speech described as an “intellectual” discussion on “genocide” in America.
On your watch.
This is your state, this your college, this is your mess. You might as well introduce the guy to the gathered students. Maybe you and he can simultaneously get honorary degrees. Maybe you can lead the students in a “defund the police” or “ACAB” chant.
Or maybe you can pick up the phone and cancel this guy’s invitation.
If people want to listen to a cop killer, let them do so without taxpayer subsidy.
You knew that, right? Your university said he’s getting $1,300 in a taxpayer grant to give a talk. That’s money coming out of the taxes of waitresses and welders – and cops. And your administration is giving it to a cop killer.
That ought to look good in a Lee Zeldin ad.
Your administration is allowing a taxpayer-funded school to use its taxpayer-funded facilities to host a man who, as a thrice-wounded and incapacitated officer lie on the ground begging for his life, shot the officer in the groin and in the rectum.
That’s Anthony Bottom, community elder.
That’s who your college is implicitly glorifying.
That’s who you are, by your silence, allowing to speak on the taxpayer’s dime.
I don’t think that’s going to play well in Westchester.
The college president wrote that it’s about freedom. That this is what higher education is about.
Freedom? Of speech? On a New York college campus? Right. That’s kind of comical. Maybe you could ask Ben Shapiro about that.
This isn’t about freedom, it’s about advancing a progressive narrative, and everybody knows that.
And Anthony Bottom is absolutely free to speak, and his disciples are free to gather and listen. Just let them do so on private property. There are plenty of woke churches which would welcome him with open arms. Maybe somebody could rent a party house or convention center. If he’s got to be paid, then take up a collection at the door, or post a Go Fund Me.
But don’t make the taxpayer foot the bill, by providing the facility or the stipend. And don’t affix the implied seal of approval that comes from welcoming a murderer as a paid speaker at the Kathy Hochul administration’s State University of New York.
And if this viewpoint is essential to education, there are plenty of people who could speak without staining your administration with their blood-soaked hands. In the Rochester area, longtime activist Lewis Stewart is passionate on the subject of the police, and newly elected City Councilmember Stanley Martin was a prime mover behind the local BLM movement.
Ideas are shared by non-violent people. People who use violence to advance their ideas are terrorists.
Share all the ideas you want, just don’t bankroll terrorists.
And don’t sit on your hands pretending that this isn’t your decision. You rule this state with an iron fist. Ask any unvaccinated RN. What Kathy says, goes. And what goes, has Kathy’s approval.
And that includes Anthony Bottom.
You own this, Madame Governor.
And if your gut doesn’t tell you this is wrong, if somehow you find yourself intellectually and emotionally taking the side of the cop killer, maybe you should consider your political situation.
Polls show that when it’s you head to head against Cuomo, it’s a dead heat, and when it’s you head to head against Zeldin, it’s a dead heat. That means you are a sneeze away from being a former governor, in a state where poll after poll shows that the number one issue for Democrats and Republicans alike is public safety, and the fear of becoming a victim of violence.
You’ve ridiculously defended the Democrat no-bail policy and other society-endangering “criminal-justice reforms.” You had to do that to stay on the good side of the speaker and majority leader. Unfortunately, it put you on the wrong side of the voters, as if being the New York standard bearer of the “defund the police” party wasn’t bad enough.
And now your administration is siding with a cop killer.
Your university system is doubling down on its decision to provide a forum for a man who murdered two young fathers who wore a gun and a badge in defense and service of the community.
Good luck explaining that to your State Police detail.
Unless you take action, Anthony Bottom will be the first speaker in what will be a short-lived Kathy Hochul Lecture Series at SUNY Brockport.
The person who forwarded this to you hopes that you will take prompt action to address this matter, or begin making preparations for your impending retirement.
Kindly,
A New Yorker