Two Brooklyn activists were pulled from their homes before dawn last Tuesday and charged with stalking and harassment after plastering flyers near an NYPD officer’s apartment that accused him of killing a Crown Heights man in 2021. Jamie Kowalski and Daniel Koh, both members of the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, now find themselves at the center of a fight over how far protest speech can go when it targets an individual officer’s home address.
According to Fight Back! News, Kowalski was arrested at his home at 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 20, and Koh was taken into custody an hour later. Brooklyn prosecutors said the two posted fliers outside NYPD Officer Conrado Abreu-Gerez’s apartment building, on his street, and at a nearby subway station, accusing him of killing Eudes Pierre in Crown Heights, as reported by Gothamist. Both activists were charged with misdemeanor stalking and harassment.
What the Flyers Said and Where They Went Up
Gothamist reports that NYPD spokesperson Bradley Weekes said officers worked with Brooklyn prosecutors to determine what crimes had occurred, basing the charges on three separate incidents. The first, Weekes said, happened in August, when activists knocked on the officer’s door and asked a family member if he lived there; activists later posted a poster reading “wanted killer cop” on a lamppost across the street. After Abreu-Gerez moved to another Brooklyn apartment, police and prosecutors say Kowalski and Koh posted fliers twice more — on the new building’s entrance, a nearby subway entrance, and a nearby lamppost, with messages reading “wanted for murder” and “a killer cop lives here.”
Fight Back! News reported that the alliance posted notices near Abreu-Gerez’s apartment in Sunset Park on Sept. 19 during a speakout, and again on Oct. 18, just two days before the arrests. At the September event, activists distributed fliers reading “Wanted: Killer cop!” and “Justice for Eudes Pierre!” — fliers that, per the same outlet, drew an overwhelmingly positive response from the community. Kowalski and Koh have acknowledged posting fliers in Abreu-Gerez’s neighborhood, and told Gothamist the material featured his photo and badge number distributed around the 71st Precinct and his Brooklyn block. The pair said they focused on Abreu-Gerez specifically because the other officer accused in the shooting had since retired.
The 2021 Shooting That Sparked the Campaign
Eudes Pierre was fatally shot by two NYPD officers on Dec. 20, 2021, after police responding to an early-morning 911 call found him on Eastern Parkway near Utica Avenue in Crown Heights, according to the New York Daily News. When officers moved from the subway station back up to the street, Pierre ran toward them with a knife, and the officers fired a total of 10 shots, killing him. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced in March 2023 that the officers would face no criminal charges, with the Daily News reporting that investigators concluded a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ use of deadly force was legally justified. Gothamist additionally reports that a police oversight agency found the officers’ actions fell within NYPD guidelines…