New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Republican, was arrested Friday for carrying a firearm at a pro-Palestinian rally.
The police charged her with criminal possession of a firearm.
“Vernikov, who represents Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay in southern Brooklyn, attended the rally, which was held at Brooklyn College,” the Intelligencer writes.
“Pictures and videos of the councilwoman quickly circulated on social media that appeared to show Vernikov observing the rally with the butt of a handgun visible from her waistband,” the outlet added.
NYC councilwoman Inna Vernikov arrested for carrying gun at Palestine protest https://t.co/QhuS3U2dnr pic.twitter.com/nnQEMDFPAw
— New York Post (@nypost) October 13, 2023
Intelligencer reports:
According to the NYPD, the department notified Vernikov that she was in violation of the law after she left the rally, and she later turned herself in to the 70th Precinct at 2:50 a.m. accompanied by her lawyer. The councilwoman was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm, and she had to turn over her legally licensed firearm as well as her permit.
The councilwoman, who is Jewish and had criticized several pro-Palestinian rallies in the wake of the war in Israel, had announced her plans to attend the event ahead of time with two of her City Council colleagues, Farah Louis and Kalman Yeger. (The student-organized rally was initially slated to be held on the Brooklyn College campus, but was moved to a public sidewalk on Bedford Avenue.) Vernikov shared video of herself at the rally, denouncing attendees as “pro-Hamas.”
“If you are here today standing with these people, you’re nothing short of a terrorist without the bombs,” she said in the minute-long clip posted to her official Twitter account.
The New York Post added video coverage:
In September, the New York Post featured Vernikov in an article about NYC gun owners:
The number of New Yorkers legally packing guns is on the rise — and they’re not necessarily who you’d expect.
For a city where obtaining a license to carry a firearm was once, not that long ago, almost impossible, a surprising number of NYC residents — 17% — have bought a gun in the past year, according to a July Siena poll.
This comes after a landmark Supreme Court decision last year radically reshaped gun laws by striking down New York State’s century-old restrictions on carrying concealed firearms.
“I want it for protection,” Brooklyn councilwoman Inna Vernikov told The Post of her new gun.
She received her concealed carry license this month after her application was approved in July.
When the Jewish Ukrainian native heads to her local synagogue for the high holidays starting Friday, she’ll be carrying an increasingly popular temple accessory: a 9MM Smith & Wesson.
While she’s been taking self-defense classes like Krav Maga for the past few years, the 39-year-old Republican bought the firearm, which costs about $475, to “defend myself and my community.
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