A New Jersey council member is facing intense calls to resign after video footage released last week shows the elected official allegedly hitting a cyclist and driving away from the scene.
In CCTV footage released by the Jersey City’s mayor office last week, Amy DeGise is seen driving her black Nissan Rogue on the morning of 19 July through an intersection at Forrest Street and MLK Drive.
While Ms DeGise had a green light, a cyclist, later identified as 29-year-old Andrew Black, travelling south down MLK Drive crossed into the intersection. The black SUV is then seen striking the biker in a near head-on collision before he rolls up onto the hood of the car and then proceeds to fall onto the pavement.
The 29-year-old can then be seen collecting himself from the ground and staggering over to the corner where several bystanders who saw the incident proceed to assist the shaken man, with one man being seen grabbing his flip flops that fell off in the crash from the centre of the road.
The crash, which occurred at around 8am on Tuesday, according to the Jersey Journal via a crash report from the police, was not reported by the council member to West District Police Station until 2pm on the same day, according to surveillance video released by The Hudson County View.
The council member was reportedly charged with failure to report the accident and leaving the scene, NBC New York reported.
Mr Black, who had been making an Uber Eats delivery on the morning of the crash, has publicly acknowledged that he did not have the right of way when he was struck, but has admonished the driver of the vehicle for not remaining at the scene after to see if he was OK.
“I look up and I realise, ‘Oh no. I’m going down a one-way street,’ and the hit was faster than I could even think,” he said to News 12 New Jersey in an interview recently. “The fact that she just drove away, that’s what I’m worried about.”
In the wake of the brazen footage being released, several council members, grassroots organisations and members of the public have made a motion to call for Ms DeGise’s resignation.
“Councilwoman DeGise demonstrated poor judgement, a disregard for the law, reckless operation of a motor vehicle and a lack of concern for the harm she may have caused,” wrote Safe Streets JC and Bike JC in a joint statement after the video footage was released by the mayor’s office last week. “Given this criminal behavior and blatant disregard for the health and well-being of her constituents as well as the damage to the credibility of her office, we believe Councilwoman DeGise has demonstrated herself unfit for the office she serves. We urge her to resign immediately.”
For her part, Ms DeGise does not appear prepared to resign before the end of serving her four-year term, which she won last year after serving as a chairwoman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey City elected official said in a statement about the incident that she had “no intention of walking away”, particularly after being “elected overwhelmingly just a few months ago”.
“She will not resign and plans to complete her full term and continue in public service. Amy recognizes the calls that have been made for additional information and transparency,” said Phil Swibinski, a spokesperson for Ms DeGise, in a statement to The Hudson County View.
“She would very much like to address this situation more comprehensively, but there is a legal process that must play out first and she will not be making any additional public comment at this time,” he added, reiterating the councilwoman’s earlier comments that she was “thankful that no one was seriously injured” and she “fully intends to speak out more when the legal process is concluded”.
Fellow council members, however, have begun echoing the calls for Ms DeGise to submit her notice of resignation, noting in their public statements after viewing the CCTV footage that her alleged behaviour was not “indicative of an elected official”.
“I am horrified by the video showing Councilmember DeGise’s hit and run crash,” wrote fellow council member James Solomon in a statement on 27 July. “Leaving the scene of a crash is illegal. Doing so demonstrated a callous disregard for human life … She should resign. If she fails to do so, she should be recalled.”
Frank Gilmore, another elected official who sits alongside Mr Solomon and Ms DeGise on the Jersey City council, echoed much of what the former indicated in his scathing condemnation of Ms DeGise’s alleged actions.
“After carefully reviewing the CCTV footage, considering a council member hit an individual with her SUV, and left the scene without checking on the individual [I] am calling for the resignation of Council member DeGise,” Mr Gilmore said in a statement shared on his social media platforms last week.
On Saturday, less than a week after the footage had been released to the public, a few dozen people gathered at the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Plaza to rally for Ms DeGise’s resignation to chants of: “Hey-hey, ho-ho, A-D-G has got to go!”.
The Independent reached out to Ms DeGise and the Jersey City Police for comment but did not immediately hear back from either.
This is Ms DeGise’s first term on the Jersey City council and the mayor of the city, Steve Fulop has called the incident a terrible mistake but has not called for the council member to resign.
