New York City: Massive Protests Met with Police Brutality
Revolutionary Worker #1189, February 2, 2003, posted at rwor.org
In the face of attempts by city and federal officials to stop a massive
anti-war protest in New York City on February 15, more than 500,000 people took
the streets.
Feeder marches from different parts of the city mushroomed, as news spread of
the city's attempts to stop people from taking the streets. More than 60 feeder
marches from around the city defied the authorities--as the enthusiastic crowds,
determined to express their opposition to the U.S. plan for war on Iraq, flooded
the avenues heading toward the United Nations. Groups of hundreds and thousands
marched through barricades, through attacking horses and cops, to get to the
rally site at 1st Avenue and 51st Street. Thousands maneuvered their way through
posh department stores--in one door and out another--to outwit police blockades
and avoid being corralled in pens designed to limit the movement of
demonstrators.
Leading up to the protest, the permit to march was denied by city courts and
also a panel of three Federal judges. They claimed there were not enough cops to
handle any more than 10,000 people and claimed that the march posed a "security
risk." An amicus brief filed by John Ashcroft's Justice Department supported the
NY police in a gross denial of political rights in New York City--a clear
attempt to prevent a massive show of opposition to the war.
Calling the police performance "disgraceful," New York Newsday
columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote: "Looking down Third Avenue and Second Avenue,
as the crowds came up to try to get to the rear of the great crowd on First
Avenue, and then peering as far down First Avenue as you could see, the size of
throngs caused you to tell yourself, 'maybe a million.' Whatever it was, out on
the street it felt like a million, and it was glorious. A news photographer I
know came along. 'I've been every place. I have to say a million.' Because of
the Police Department's reprehensible pens, the crowd was separated so that
there was not one clear picture of an enormous group that would cause
politicians here to faint..."
With all that the authorities tried to do to sabotage the protest, hundreds
of thousands marched in the city of Ground Zero of September 11th and they were
met by many forms of police brutality. It was reported that a cop caught up with
a man walking, hit him with a nightstick, causing the man to fall on the
sidewalk. When other people came to the man's aid, they were hit with pepper
spray. It was reported that people were corralled and penned in behind metal
barricades, punched by the police, thrown to the ground and some were trampled
by police horses. Police chained up arrested protesters outside in the freezing
weather while they waited to process them. Police video cameras photographed the
crowds. As of Tuesday, February 18, there were 30 complaints of police brutality
and at least 311 reported arrests. An unknown number of protesters were
hospitalized.
The Evidence
An RW correspondent attended a news conference in New York City called
by Leslie Cagan of United for Peace & Justice and coordinator of February
15th rally. A video showed the brutality of the police. It showed protesters
being thrown to the ground, horses trampling people, tear gas sprayed into
protesters' faces, and police forcing people back with metal barricades.
At the news conference, Rebekah Wolf of the People's Law collective described
accounts of horses being backed into tight crowds of people, horses being used
to crush crowds against walls of buildings, horses riding over protesters
sitting on the street and people being knocked down by horses and then trampled
under foot. She reported police beatings and arrests of single protesters by as
many as five cops. Debbie Hrbek of the National Lawyers Guild said legal
observers saw protesters being held handcuffed, chain gang style in the cold for
hours. People were held in buses and vans for as long as eight hours without
food, bathroom facilities, access to prescription medicine, and medical
attention for the injured. One person who had suffered lacerations, rubbed blood
on the window of the police bus to let people standing outside know he needed
help. There were serious injuries. One person has a serious spinal injury from a
horse falling and rolling on them.
According to the lawyers at the news conference, protesters were denied
access to attorneys. Legal workers were given no information about the condition
and whereabouts of their clients for as much as eight hours after the arrests.
Attorneys were themselves forced to wait outside Central Booking in pens in
freezing temperatures for hours. They were waiting to see clients who had called
them. When they protested this, they were told that the police were short
staffed and overwhelmed by the huge numbers. The legal standard in NYC for the
time between arrest and arraignment is 24 hours. In these arrests, it took as
much as 48 hours for the protesters to get arraigned. While people were being
held, they were interrogated by the police without legal representation.
Protesters were asked about their political affiliations, i.e. "What group are
you with?", "What is your group's connection to other groups?"
An activist in the Blue Triangle network who was arrested told the RW
, "The marchers poured into the streets, it was an empowering feeling to
take the streets. Of course, the police were not happy with that and came in on
horseback and pushed protesters aside with the horses. As a few people stayed in
the streets, I felt it important to join them and stay in the streets.... I
followed the lead of one protester who called for calm. I stood in a line that
was blocking traffic in the street. I remained standing in the street until they
handcuffed and apprehended me. I talked to men who were bruised, had torn
clothes. I sat with them in a paddy wagon. One man from Ecuador was hit on two
sides of his head and right above the eyes and I saw that. Another 18-year-old
man had his clothes ripped in many places. We were held for eight hours in paddy
wagons. We got boisterous because we were denied bathroom privileges. Then they
put us outside on a chain gang link [we were handcuffed together] for two hours
in 15-degree temperatures. We had to hop around to stay warm. They finally gave
us a citation at midnight. We are attempting to file charges against the NYPD
for misconduct. The reason I stayed in the streets was twofold. First, I thought
of the children dying in Iraq, which is a motivating factor for me to preserve a
better world. My second motivation was because our civil liberties are being
stripped away daily."
In the aftermath, across the city, anger at the police mixed with a kind of
joyous determination, as hundreds of thousands--buoyed by the knowledge that
people around the world had heard their voice--considered their next move
against the warmakers.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker
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