SARA STEERS CLEAR An ugly incident between a family and 72nd Precinct police in Sunset Park on July 4, 2003 has put Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez in an uncomfortable position. So she's decided to take no position. The Independence Day clash between cops and the Acosta family began when, according to the family, an officer pulled up to their building at about 10 p.m. and, saying nothing, yanked the power cord from the boom box of 14-year-old Orlando Acosta.

The boy's mother Elena Acosta confronted the officer, who then ordered another cop to arrest her. When she walked up the stoop, an officer grabbed the back of her shirt. She fell over the railing and broke her elbow, according to a Village Voice article. It escalated into a melee involving a bevy of 72nd Precinct cops and Acosta family members. Police say the officer who unplugged the radio was "verbally abused," the Voice reported.

Four family members are facing criminal charges. Seven family members are preparing to sue the city. And the NYPD's Internal Affairs is investigating. Gonzalez has been unwilling to take the Acostas' side, perhaps because she doesn't want to offend local cops, according to a friend of the family.

"She was dodging the meetings and not showing up," said Dennis Flores, adding that the councilwoman tried to discourage the family from organizing a protest rally. That's bogus, Gonzalez told us. She said she wasn't even invited to the rally, which was ultimately held last September and led in part by Councilman Charles Barron of East New York.

According to Flores, Gonzalez seemed to feel she was being harassed by the family, who in turn wondered if the councilwoman was allied with the police, given that the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association had donated $1,500 to her campaign. But Gonzalez said she's simply not prepared to make a judgment on an incident she didn't witness. "I was not there. How could I step in and decide who's right or wrong?" she said. "I don't think that's something a councilmember should do."

Of course, Barron wasn't there either. Perhaps he's seen the medical records showing police exaggerated their injuries to shift blame to the Acostas. We asked Gonzalez if she resented her colleague traipsing into her district from the far side of the borough to slam 72nd Precinct cops. "Not at all," she said. "That's Charles Barron…He has to do what he has to do. I have no problem with that." The councilwoman said she's been working with the family to provide constituent services, such as helping one who lost her job to find new employment. But Gonzalez said she would take no position on the legal matter.

FELDER KNOCKS PEACENIKS City Councilman Simcha Felder recently told us he respects those who hold strong opinions even if he doesn't agree with them. But last week he accused those who object to the war in Iraq of wanting American soldiers to be killed. "What a terrible, despicable thing to have a rally against the war," the Democrat said during a Bay Ridge press event, as quoted by Courier-Life reporter Helen Klein. "In my mind, free speech is wonderful, but in essence, you are telling people who are fighting for this country, 'We are not with you, go to hell, drop dead, we don't want you there.' Don't tell me it means 'Bring them home.'"

In other words, Felder feels Americans shouldn't criticize any military actions ordered by their government, regardless of how unwise or unjust they may be. And those who do are rooting for U.S. soldiers to be blown to bits. So if the president ordered U.S. soldiers to invade and occupy Israel, we could expect to hear not a peep out of Councilman Felder. Right.

UGLINESS IN EYE OF BEHOLDER The Brooklyn Museum of Art is nearly finished constructing its new glass entrance, but don't expect universal applause. We're aware of some longtime Brooklynites who've seen the rendering and consider it hideous. They even had a notion to show up at the grand unveiling with signs that say, simply, "UGLY." We'd have to agree. Why obstruct classic columns with a ghastly new pavilion-and spend $63 million to boot? On the bright side, the museum is reverting to its previous name, the Brooklyn Museum, after having added "of Art" in 1997. The museum's new emphasis on exhibits that attract more and younger patrons is preferable to the old philosophy, which was to draw stuffy rich folks from Manhattan. They never came anyway.

RATNER TANGLES WITH WEB MASTER Clinton Hill resident Vernon Jones has been using his Web site, nycbasketball.com, to bash Bruce Ratner's arena/office/residential proposal for the land beside the Atlantic Avenue train station. "Think it has anything to do with the fact that he is upset because he didn't get the $500,000 he wanted for a pro-Nets Web site?" one arena supporter asked.

Jones, as you might guess, told us a different story. Ratner's people came to him and asked if he could put together a Web site and an office for them, and he gave them a proposal. But Jones said he began to get a bad taste in his mouth when he asked the kids at a pro-arena February 8 press event at City Hall why they were there, and they couldn't say. He began to think they were being used as props.

Then he asked the high schoolers who write for his Web site about the Ratner deal. "They said, 'Vernon, you can't take his money. It's tainted.' So I pulled the proposal off the table." He added, "I could have made money. I could have lined my pocket."

Not so, said Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco. "He sent in a proposal to provide a Web page for hundreds of thousands of dollars, which we thought was kind of absurd. And then he decided to bash the proposal." DePlasco added, "There's a word for when people ask you for a lot of money and then respond critically when you refuse to pay up. I'm sure people can guess what it is."

Ratner ultimately put his site up at www.bball.net. DePlasco, incidentally, said Ratner did not arrange the City Hall press event. The Ratner spokesman also debunked the argument Jones makes on his site, which is that $67 million earmarked to build the Sportsplex in Coney Island is being sought by Ratner to build a practice facility for the Nets which the team would share with amateur athletes. "We've never, ever suggested that we're using that (Sportsplex) money," DePlasco said. It's not yet known where the Nets would practice either, he said. (We doubt it would be in Brooklyn, since NBA players tend to live in the 'burbs.) Asked how Ratner's proposal affects plans for the Sportsplex, DePlasco said, "It doesn't."

MARTY'S BCAT SPAT Borough President Marty Markowitz initially declined to respond publicly to Ronin Amano's petition alleging he's hogging up BCAT's airtime, but reversed course last week. In a letter to The Brooklyn Paper the beep claimed he's "a target for what appears to be a frustrated producer and his attorney who simply are misguided and incorrect in their characterization of my efforts to (improve) BCAT." The beep's letter also said he had just one hour-long show per week on BCAT, repeated once. But Amano noted that before his petition, the show was repeated seven times.

"For him to claim his 2 hours (3 more time slots than most BCAT producers, who only get 30 minutes) is not hogging, when both your paper and The Brooklyn Paper wrote that when the petition was filed he had 8 hours for that one show (plus another 3 for his Neighboorhood Beat shows) is simply dishonest. It's like a bank robber seeing the police, throwing $6,000 back to the teller and trying to claim that the $2,000 he's holding was with him when he came. This is dishonesty with a capital D." We sent that to Marty, but his reply was PR'd to death: "I make no apology for the goal of making BCAT a sense [he meant source] of pride for Brooklyn and its neighborhoods, organizations and people that make up the rich tapestry of Brooklyn life."

CLARKE SLAMS SLUMLORDS The Flatbush Development Corporation took Councilwoman Yvette Clarke on a tour of four run-down apartment buildings in her district. Clarke was outraged at what she saw-broken mailboxes, stoves, and windows, leaking ceilings, cracked walls, sink-less kitchens and non-flushing toilets-and vowed to expose the "slumlords" (as she called them) and have the city force them to make improvements. She called her tour "an eye-opening experience and heart-breaking," adding, "I'll be damned if I sit by quietly while this happens in the 40th Council District."

All well and good. But hasn't Clarke been in office for more than two years? Her detractors could well accuse her of "sitting by quietly" all that time. Also, she was preceded in office by her mother, Una Clarke. How long did she sit by quietly? To be fair, we could point out that politicians can't know of every problem in their districts. But then, politics isn't always fair.

OWENS HOPES TO NET CASH Rep. Major Owens has always been a big promoter of technology, if not a practitioner of it. But now he's adopting Howard Dean's Internet-based fundraising strategy as he tries to raise $500,000 for his campaign against Councilwomen Yvette Clarke and Tracy Boyland, both fellow Democrats.

Incidentally, the fundraising letter Owens mailed last week lists Asquith Reid as his treasurer. Reid is the right-hand man of Councilman Kendall Stewart.

ARENA NEWS Opponents of Bruce Ratner's arena/office/housing project have again reduced their estimate of how many people would be displaced by the development. Last year they said 1,000, in January they said 864, and on March 26 they told the New York Post the number would be 569. Of those, 334 are residents and 234 work at the site, between Atlantic and Vanderbilt avenues. Ratner says all would be fairly compensated, but he might reconfigure the project to save more buildings.

Meanwhile, a leading opponent of the project, Patti Hagan, questioned why most or all of the kids at a Ratner-sponsored basketball clinic in Fort Greene were black. Uh, let's see. The kids were chosen by their schools, all of which were near the clinic site. White children in these schools are rarer than pork chops in Borough Park. P.S. 56 and P.S. 307, for example, are both 0.9 percent white… Speaking of the arena plan, our favorite feature of Frank Gehry's rendering is the ice-skating/running track on the roof. No fence or barrier is shown between the skaters and a six-story drop to the sidewalk below. Remind us not to walk on that block of Atlantic Avenue…

RABBI ON GAY MARRIAGE In accepting an award from the reform club Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Rabbi Ellen Lippman wondered why the clergy is doing government work. "I do think marriage in general in this country raises profound questions about the separation of church and state. What are clergy doing invested with the power of the state of New York, and why is it clearly illegal for me to officiate at a wedding between a woman and a man without a license?

"My wish is that we sever what we might call civil unions for all from religious weddings. Every couple, straight or gay, could go to the City Clerk's office, get a license, have it signed by an official vested with the power of the state, and then if they wanted to could have a wedding officiated by a clergy person of their choice. It would be simpler, cleaner, and completely equitable.

"Then the only fights about gay marriage would be in religious denominations, and I can only do something about that in my own, which supports both civil and Jewish marriage for gay men and lesbians. Religion, or any one religion, would be unable to counter the state's issuance of licenses to couples, gay or straight."

TIDBITS The last time we ate with Council Speaker Gifford Miller at his usual meeting spot, the Park Plaza diner in Brooklyn Heights, we asked what he'd do if he were running for mayor and the Brooklyn Democratic organization told him its endorsement would require he fork over campaign money. "I don't purchase endorsements," Miller replied…

Some insiders believe the departure from New York of Chris Browne, a close political adviser of Hakeem Jeffries, makes it more likely Jeffries won't run a third time for a major seat. But Brown, who took a job in New Mexico, said of Jeffries, "He remains very interested in public service and he's waiting for the right opportunity to arrive." Browne said he keeps in touch with his Brooklyn friends and added, "I am still a regular reader of Brooklyn Politics." He moved to New Mexico and still reads this column? We hope his new benefits package covers mental illness…

Councilman David Yassky and his Queens colleague Eric Gioia were described as "enterprising young city councilmen" by The New Yorker in an article describing the effort to get Exxon-Mobil to clean up Newton Creek. The two legislators have joined a lawsuit against the oil giant to accelerate cleanup of a 17-million-gallon oil spill more than 50 years ago.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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