More than a week into the ongoing federal government shutdown, a broad coalition of elected officials and advocates banded together to rally against the Trump administration with the newly launched “Hands Off” campaign.
This comes after President Donald Trump has made repeated threats to send troops to New York City and use American cities as “training grounds” for the military, and the recent indictment of New York State Attorney General (AG) Letitia James.
The group consists of civil rights organizations like the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Make the Road NY, NAACP, Common Cause, and 1199 SEIU. Elected leaders like Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Comptroller Brad Lander are also supporting the campaign.
“The truth is [Trump] is coming back, trying to hold New York City and other cities by gunpoint, saying we must follow his evil and his bigotry. Mr. Donald Trump, you can kiss our New York City Apple backsides,” said Williams at a Hands Off press conference on October 9 at City Hall Park. “We will not succumb even to your gunpoint.”
“We know what this is. This is not about public safety,” said NAACP New York State President L. Joy Williams. “We say hands off our money, hands off New York, and we will continue to fight, to shine the light on this tyranny, to live up to the expectation of our ancestors — that we will resist and fight every attempt to bring down the people and strip them of their liberty [or] their resources. This is our state, this is our city, this is our country, and we say Hands Off New York.”
Brooklyn Party Chair and Assemblymember (AD-49) Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (second from left) with (from left) Democratic Nominee for NYC Mayor and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (AD-36), Rev. Dr. Valerie Durrah, civil rights leader Maya Wiley, and City Councilmember Crystal Hudson (District 35) in Manhattan on October 10, 2025. Credit: PHOTO CREDIT: Brooklyn County Democratic Party
Brooklyn Party Chair and Assemblymember (AD-49) Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (at podium) with Democratic Nominee for NYC Mayor and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (far left) and NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (far right) at rally for AG James on October 10. Credit: PHOTO CREDIT: Brooklyn County Democratic Party
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams speaks at City Hall rally against Trump admin on October 9.
NYC advocates convene ‘Hands Off’ press conference on Thursday, Oct. 9 at City Hall Park.
James was hit with an indictment, based on supposed mortgage fraud, late in the evening of October 9. Another target of Trump’s, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey, was criminally charged with lying to Congress in September 2025.
In response, the Hands Off coalition held another rally in Foley Square in Manhattan near the New York County Courthouse on October 10. They were joined by a host of elected officials, especially Black women, who railed against James’s indictment. Numerous leaders showed up, including Speaker Adams, Congressmember Nydia Velasquez, civil rights leader Maya Wiley, and Mamdani, among others.
“This is an attack on our city, and each one of us represents different parts of that same city, and we speak with one voice today. We speak with a voice that recognizes that we are standing in front of the same courthouse where Attorney General Tish James did her job, upholding the law and holding Donald Trump accountable,” said Mamdani in a statement.
“I’m running against a disgraced former governor who has chosen to issue a statement within which he cannot even say the name Tish James, nor the name Donald Trump,” Mamdani’s statement continued. “And we know why: because his narrow path to City Hall is paved by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump back in the White House. He is unwilling to stand up in a moment of crisis, unwilling to speak up for the very New Yorkers that have been standing on the front lines.”
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