SEE IT: Council Member Paladino’s Son Curses Out Foe’s Volunteers — And Got 16 Speeding Tix This Year

The recklessly driving son of Queens Council Member Vickie Paladino dropped a fusillade of F-bombs in a verbal assault on volunteers for challenger Ben Chou — an attack that Chou's team says was "completely unprovoked."

On Sunday, Thomas Paladino Jr., who has long been snared in various controversies such as driving an unregistered car and being linked to white supremacist causes, approached a group of Chou volunteers outside the polling site at St. Luke's Church in the Whitestone section of the district and accused them of harassing Paladino supporters, a charge the Chou volunteers denied.

"I don't give a fuck!" Paladino Jr. thundered, gesturing with an aggressively erect index finger. "If I hear that you people said a thing to any of our volunteers, there's gonna be a fucking problem. You understand? It's a yes or no question."

When the volunteer said that Chou supporters did not harass anyone, Paladino Jr. retorted, "Fuck yourself" and walked off to his Aston-Martin sports car and drove away calmly.

In that one way, at least, Paladino Jr. was altering his behavior; the very same Aston-Martin has been caught by city cameras speeding through school zones 16 times this year, and 24 times since August 2023. (Two other cars linked to Paladino Jr. have been caught 20 times for speeding through school zones since March 2020.)

Streetsblog reached out to Paladino Jr., who first defended his vituperative style of campaigning.

"Ben Chou's team of radical DSA members engaged in harassment against our volunteers and candidate, including profanity and intimidation," he said, without evidence.

He described his F-bombing as merely "a stern warning," adding that "the matter ended there."

He predicted that his mother would win by 25 points in Tuesday's election against the upstart Chou, a firefighter who has promised to support street-safety measures that Paladino opposes.

On the question of why he speeds so frequently through school zones, endangering his neighbors and their children, Paladino Jr. was more vague. He didn't deny his reckless driving, but called the city's successful speed camera program "a scam" that his mother will battle with her alleged friends in high places.

"Council Member Paladino looks forward to joining a lawsuit challenging [the cameras'] constitutionality on Fifth and Sixth amendment grounds in her next term with help from the Trump administration," he said. He did not respond to a follow-up question about why he speeds so often or why he has not paid more than $10,000 in tickets assessed to the Aston-Martin and the two other cars — far above the threshold for being towed if the car is ever left on a public street.

Lawyer Daniel Flanzig, who frequently represents people who have been struck by car drivers, openly ridiculed Paladino Jr.'s belief that the speed camera program is unconstitutional.

"These tickets are not criminal offenses, but violations," he said, dismissing a challenge under the Sixth Amendment, which "protects defendants in criminal prosecutions, not traffic infractions."

And a Fifth Amendment challenge would also fail, Flanzig said, because the ticket is issued to the owner of the car, regardless of who was driving it at the time it was clocked for speeding.

"There is no 'offender' who needs the right to 'confront' an accuser," he said. "Plus, the driver has the right to plead not guilty and request a hearing. In my opinion, and that of many states that use automated enforcement, there is no valid constitutional challenge.

"In traffic court, you do not get the same protections as in criminal courts for criminal offenses," he added. "It’s designed to be a simpler system with less evidentiary standards because there is no 'loss of liberty,' just a monetary fine. I am sure this is high on the Trump administration's list of things to do."

Fellow bike lawyer Steve Vaccaro also said the state's highest court ruled almost 100 years ago that the Fifth Amendment does not apply here.

"That decision, which was about the constitutionality of mandatory license plates, included the famous statement, 'Driving is a privilege, not a right.'"

The angry assault by Paladino Jr. is just the latest headline-making and head-scratching behavior from the Queens Council member's son, who oversees her prolific, and sometimes violent, social media accounts.

In 2023, Streetsblog caught the law-and-order pol's son's car bearing an Arizona temporary license plate that the Arizona Department of Transportation said was fake.

In 2018, the Queens Chronicle reported that Paladino used the handle @agustus on the social media site Gab to speak about gunning down African-American U.S. Representative Maxine Waters.

And it's certainly not the first time Paladino Jr. has used barnyard language in public. At a public meeting to discuss an expansion of a bike greenway in his mom's district, he started a verbal fight over pronouns on a woman's nametag, questioned attendees where they came from, and told people to "fuck off." In a video from the greenway event, he admitted to flipping off a reporter and then claimed he had the power to remove people from the meeting (though he did not).

On Monday, Chou's campaign spokesman Tom Glinkowski was still shaking his head about having his volunteers berated.

"I wish I knew why he was cursing at them," Glinkowski told Streetsblog. "It was completely unprovoked. Anyone who has been at any of the poll sites knows that our volunteers have been nothing but courteous and kind and just talking to voters about the issues. Meanwhile, he and his mother were both electioneering blatantly in front of the church."

When informed that Paladino Jr.'s car had enough speed camera violations to be subject to a pending state law that would require a speed-limiting device be installed, Glinkowski said he hoped the bill would pass.

"That is a reckless driver that is loose on the streets," he said. "A speed limiter idea sounds like a good one for people like that who have a continued matter of abuse."

Paladino Jr. accused the Chou team of lying, but Glinkowski denied that counter-allegation.

"Vickie Paladino herself was harassing one of our volunteers at another poll site, got up in her face and described her as evil and despicable for volunteering for Ben," he said. "With very few exceptions, our volunteers have had very pleasant interactions with our oppositions’ volunteers at the poll sites throughout early voting. I personally spent hours chatting with George, Carol, Kim, Maria, Yiatin, Peter, Felix, Joe, and others (apologies to anyone I’ve forgotten). It’s awe-inspiring to see so many people civically engaged, taking action peacefully. ... Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Mr. Paladino."

Glinkowski said that Chou had received one speeding ticket since the city's camera system went into effect more than a decade ago.

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