Irish American Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, 47, a rising star in New York City’s Democratic political circles, has received a death threat following his announcement of a march to protest Donald Trump’s policies to be held this Saturday. A planning meeting for the march drew nearly 700 Queens residents and concerned citizens.
Thank you to the 700+ who packed the house tonight in #Sunnyside for #CommunitySpeakOut! Never been prouder! #QueensResponds #QUEENSVALUES pic.twitter.com/P8kvMzRAF8
— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) November 17, 2016
In an e-mail sent to his office on Thursday afternoon, an unidentified poster claimed Van Bramer was a traitor who should be executed.
The threat came half an hour after Van Bramer’s office sent a mass e-mail to constituents reminding them about Saturday’s march, which he will lead across the Queensboro Bridge to Trump Tower, where participants plan to protest the President Elect’s discriminatory pledges.
In the threatening letter the poster called the the meeting's 700 attendees and expected march participants “communistic socialists” who were destroying the neighborhood.
The poster continued: “The rest of the people from Queens do not agree with your homosexual lifestyle (Van Bramer is married to his longtime same-sex partner) so get the f--k out of this country, you f--king traitor.”
“I will keep a close eye on your every move so that when it’s time to execute traitors, I will try my best so that your name is included in that list of traitors. Execution is the penalty for a traitor, that is the Law of this Land.”
According to The Sunnyside Post the NYPD is now investigating the matter.
Van Bramer is unbowed by the threat. “I’m not terrified and I’m certainly not stopping,” he told the press on Thursday.
Van Bramer is city councilman for Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside. His family is mostly Irish-American and he is the fifth of eight children in a practicing Catholic family.
“We may not be able to reverse the results of this election but we can and should fulfill our obligation to resist all these things which have been explicitly promised and threatened by Trump and Pence,” Van Bramer said in a statement earlier in the week outlining the rationale for the march.
“I fully support and am even encouraged by the hundreds of thousands of people who have peacefully taken to the streets all over the country.”
The protest march will start at 1 P.M. on Saturday, November 19, at Northern Boulevard and Queens Plaza North in Long Island City.
Participants will then march over the Queensboro Bridge to Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Avenue.
Van Bramer has received an outpouring of support on Twitter, with many reaffirming their commitment to the march.
People are fools if they think @JimmyVanBramer is going to back down. https://t.co/GnSyDbfVUS
— Meg Cotner (@harmoniousbelly) November 18, 2016
Rock on! https://t.co/7cyCzFvJO1
— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) November 18, 2016
#Together #WeRise https://t.co/s2dOdsqUh7
— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) November 18, 2016
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