Woman pepper-sprayed at stoop sale raising money for Gaza

December 23, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

A woman shouts slogans during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. Photo: Francisco Seco/AP

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COBBLE HILL — A WOMAN WAS SPRAYED with pepper spray while she was taking part in a stoop sale raising money for humanitarian aid to Gaza on Nov. 23, and is now advocating for hate crime charges against her alleged assailant, reports the New York Daily News. She requested that the Daily News withhold her name.

Amy Kwalwasser, 53, a lawyer from Fort Greene, was charged with assault and other offenses after an argument between herself and the stoop sale volunteers turned physical. According to a video viewed by the Daily News, Kwalwasser began taking photos of the group of people attending the sale, and the victim began filming Kwalwasser in return. Allegedly, Kwalwasser escalated by grabbing and throwing the victim’s phone, and then pepper-sprayed the victim, according to the NYPD.

“This general indifference to Zionist-inspired violence against actual people stands in sharp contrast to the vigor with which you prosecute crimes committed by Palestinian supporters against Zionist property,” wrote the victim’s attorney Ron Kuby in a letter to the DA’s office, in reference to a June incident in which the home of Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak was vandalized with red paint.