Enraged Pro-Amazon Restaurateur Insists He Isn't 'Actually' Targeting Queens Councilman With Firing Squad

Queens Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer at a rally against Amazon last month

Josh Bowen, the owner of Long Island City restaurant John Brown Smokehouse, was furious with Queens Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer after Amazon announced they would no longer build their campus in the neighborhood. Earlier this week he traveled to Seattle to plead with an Amazon executive to reconsider. And on Friday, Bowen sent a series of text messages telling Van Bramer to apologize to an Amazon executive, or face repercussions.

"You will call John Schoettler and apologize," Bowen says, referring to Amazon's head of real estate. "You can be at the back of the parade or the front of the firing squad."

Van Bramer's office says the incident has been reported to the NYPD and the New York City Council security officials, and declined to comment beyond the councilman's tweets.

Bowen tells Gothamist that he meant no physical harm to Van Bramer, who represents Long Island City, but that he is "enraged by his stupidity."

"The firing squad are his constituents and his career, that's the firing squad, it's not an actual thing, I am not actually getting people together with rifles and getting a blindfold," Bowen said. "It's just Jimmy being a victim."

Bowen continued, "I was reaching out to this guy to get him on the welcome wagon when Amazon comes back, which could be a possibility from the knowledge that I have from doing his job for him."

And the threat that he will say bad things about Van Bramer on cable news tonight?

"That's a political threat yeah, and it's true. I don't have anything good to say about Jimmy Van Bramer."

Governor Andrew Cuomo told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on Friday morning that he had also been lobbying Amazon to reconsider, but that he had seen no sign that they would do so.

"Reconsidering? I can't really speak to that, but do they want to be here? Yes, yes, and yes," Bowen said of his meeting with Amazon.

We asked Bowen to respond to criticism that the owner of a restaurant named after the militant abolitionist John Brown is beseeching a trillion-dollar company to come to New York City.

"John Brown was all about economic opportunity, I think that's pretty damn obvious, and he was about economic opportunity for African Americans, like, who wanted [Amazon] more than anybody," Bowen replied. "So I don't understand why they're like, 'John Brown hated billionaires.' No he didn't."

A rep from Amazon did not respond to our request for comment.