After AZ shooting, LI lawmakers hold events

One week after the shooting that left six people dead and a member of Congress in critical condition in Arizona, two Long Island congressmen went out to meet their constituents Saturday, but this time under the watchful eye of uniformed police officers.

Reps. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) and Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) said they would not let the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others outside a Tuscon supermarket deter them from the retail basics of politics: meeting their constituents face to face.

Bishop held what he called "community office hours" - meeting constituents by appointment in a side room off the justice court in Village Hall in Patchogue. Two uniformed Suffolk County police officers sat in cars outside on Baker Street, three others stood in the hallway outside the courtroom, and a sixth stood in front of the door to the anteroom Bishop was using.

Bishop said he holds about five or six "office hours" events every year but rushed to schedule Saturday's after the Tucson shooting.

"We sort of wanted to make a statement that we were not going to change the way we do business, and I really do believe in order for us to do our jobs, we have to be doing what I'm doing, what Gabby was doing a week ago, and that's staying in touch with the people [we] represent," Bishop said.

Israel said he had already planned a community meeting prior to the shooting but afterward decided to hold the event in the Deer Park Fire Department building on Lake Avenue because it provided a more secure environment.

"I reject the premise that members of Congress now need to hide from constituents and constituents need to hide from members of Congress and we need to build this moat around the United States Congress. I reject that," he told about 25 people in attendance.

He said Americans need to find a way to disagree without "vilifying" each other's opinions, and said it was "ironic" Giffords had read the First Amendment on the floor only days before she "was shot because of her opinions."

An hour before Israel's event, a uniformed Suffolk County police officer entered a back door of the building. Another uniformed officer stood at the front door, then moved upstairs, just outside the meeting hall, after Israel arrived. Another officer sat out front in a marked police car.