Angelica Torres spoke out Tuesday after a man choked her while she was protesting at an event for Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Torres was picketing at the event outside the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, when an unidentified woman “who might have been a man” allegedly stole her anti-Hochul sign and threw it, Torres told Fox News. An unidentified man then grabbed Torres by the throat while Democratic Councilwoman Crystal Hudson held her arm, Torres alleged.
Torres told the outlet she believes the incident shows how polarized politics have become. “We can’t have civil conversations,” she said. (RELATED: ‘You Can’t Deny That’: Don Lemon Confronts Gov. Hochul On Surging Crime In New York City)
“We were just there, just, you know, exercising our First Amendment. And we just wanted our voices to be heard,” Torres told Fox correspondent Eric Shawn. “Just because, you know, people try to bully me and intimidate me doesn’t mean I’m going to change my stance on, you know, my morals and my beliefs.”
At the Rally for governor Hochul a counter protesters was choked during the protest. I spoke with the woman who was attacked. Here’s what she had to say pic.twitter.com/c60ad9LoiQ
— Viral News NY (@ViralNewsNYC) November 5, 2022
Zeldin denounced the incident on Sunday, tweeting that Hochul’s silence on the issue makes her “complicit in this attack.”
I have always condemned political violence of any kind, and Kathy Hochul must do the same. Her continued silence on her supporter choking out a woman simply exercising her First Amendment rights makes her complicit in this attack. pic.twitter.com/mDlPFkPdMs
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) November 7, 2022
A video of the incident showed Torres fending off Hudson and the man who eventually grabbed her by the throat. Police claimed that the man “was actually helping her” after she was attacked by another woman, Fox News reported. It remains unclear if the man was a Hochul supporter. No arrests were made in relation to the incident, according to the outlet.