RW ONLINE: New York City: Massive Protests Met with Police Brutality\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNew York City: Massive Protests Met with Police Brutality\r\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1189, February 2, 2003<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n
In the face of attempts by city and federal officials to stop a massive \r\nanti-war protest in New York City on February 15, more than 500,000 people took \r\nthe streets.<\/p>\r\n
Feeder marches from different parts of the city mushroomed, as news spread of \r\nthe city's attempts to stop people from taking the streets. More than 60 feeder \r\nmarches from around the city defied the authorities--as the enthusiastic crowds, \r\ndetermined to express their opposition to the U.S. plan for war on Iraq, flooded \r\nthe avenues heading toward the United Nations. Groups of hundreds and thousands \r\nmarched through barricades, through attacking horses and cops, to get to the \r\nrally site at 1st Avenue and 51st Street. Thousands maneuvered their way through \r\nposh department stores--in one door and out another--to outwit police blockades \r\nand avoid being corralled in pens designed to limit the movement of \r\ndemonstrators.<\/p>\r\n
Leading up to the protest, the permit to march was denied by city courts and \r\nalso a panel of three Federal judges. They claimed there were not enough cops to \r\nhandle any more than 10,000 people and claimed that the march posed a \"security \r\nrisk.\" An amicus brief filed by John Ashcroft's Justice Department supported the \r\nNY police in a gross denial of political rights in New York City--a clear \r\nattempt to prevent a massive show of opposition to the war.<\/p>\r\n
Calling the police performance \"disgraceful,\" New York Newsday \r\n<\/i>columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote: \"Looking down Third Avenue and Second Avenue, \r\nas the crowds came up to try to get to the rear of the great crowd on First \r\nAvenue, and then peering as far down First Avenue as you could see, the size of \r\nthrongs caused you to tell yourself, 'maybe a million.' Whatever it was, out on \r\nthe street it felt like a million, and it was glorious. A news photographer I \r\nknow came along. 'I've been every place. I have to say a million.' Because of \r\nthe Police Department's reprehensible pens, the crowd was separated so that \r\nthere was not one clear picture of an enormous group that would cause \r\npoliticians here to faint...\"<\/p>\r\n
With all that the authorities tried to do to sabotage the protest, hundreds \r\nof thousands marched in the city of Ground Zero of September 11th and they were \r\nmet by many forms of police brutality. It was reported that a cop caught up with \r\na man walking, hit him with a nightstick, causing the man to fall on the \r\nsidewalk. When other people came to the man's aid, they were hit with pepper \r\nspray. It was reported that people were corralled and penned in behind metal \r\nbarricades, punched by the police, thrown to the ground and some were trampled \r\nby police horses. Police chained up arrested protesters outside in the freezing \r\nweather while they waited to process them. Police video cameras photographed the \r\ncrowds. As of Tuesday, February 18, there were 30 complaints of police brutality \r\nand at least 311 reported arrests. An unknown number of protesters were \r\nhospitalized.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
The Evidence<\/p>\r\n
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An RW <\/i>correspondent attended a news conference in New York City called \r\nby Leslie Cagan of United for Peace & Justice and coordinator of February \r\n15th rally. A video showed the brutality of the police. It showed protesters \r\nbeing thrown to the ground, horses trampling people, tear gas sprayed into \r\nprotesters' faces, and police forcing people back with metal barricades.<\/p>\r\n
At the news conference, Rebekah Wolf of the People's Law collective described \r\naccounts of horses being backed into tight crowds of people, horses being used \r\nto crush crowds against walls of buildings, horses riding over protesters \r\nsitting on the street and people being knocked down by horses and then trampled \r\nunder foot. She reported police beatings and arrests of single protesters by as \r\nmany as five cops. Debbie Hrbek <\/b>of the National Lawyers Guild said legal \r\nobservers saw protesters being held handcuffed, chain gang style in the cold for \r\nhours. People were held in buses and vans for as long as eight hours without \r\nfood, bathroom facilities, access to prescription medicine, and medical \r\nattention for the injured. One person who had suffered lacerations, rubbed blood \r\non the window of the police bus to let people standing outside know he needed \r\nhelp. There were serious injuries. One person has a serious spinal injury from a \r\nhorse falling and rolling on them.<\/p>\r\n
According to the lawyers at the news conference, protesters were denied \r\naccess to attorneys. Legal workers were given no information about the condition \r\nand whereabouts of their clients for as much as eight hours after the arrests. \r\nAttorneys were themselves forced to wait outside Central Booking in pens in \r\nfreezing temperatures for hours. They were waiting to see clients who had called \r\nthem. When they protested this, they were told that the police were short \r\nstaffed and overwhelmed by the huge numbers. The legal standard in NYC for the \r\ntime between arrest and arraignment is 24 hours. In these arrests, it took as \r\nmuch as 48 hours for the protesters to get arraigned. While people were being \r\nheld, they were interrogated by the police without legal representation. \r\nProtesters were asked about their political affiliations, i.e. \"What group are \r\nyou with?\", \"What is your group's connection to other groups?\" <\/p>\r\n
An activist in the Blue Triangle network who was arrested told the RW \r\n<\/i>, \"The marchers poured into the streets, it was an empowering feeling to \r\ntake the streets. Of course, the police were not happy with that and came in on \r\nhorseback and pushed protesters aside with the horses. As a few people stayed in \r\nthe streets, I felt it important to join them and stay in the streets.... I \r\nfollowed the lead of one protester who called for calm. I stood in a line that \r\nwas blocking traffic in the street. I remained standing in the street until they \r\nhandcuffed and apprehended me. I talked to men who were bruised, had torn \r\nclothes. I sat with them in a paddy wagon. One man from Ecuador was hit on two \r\nsides of his head and right above the eyes and I saw that. Another 18-year-old \r\nman had his clothes ripped in many places. We were held for eight hours in paddy \r\nwagons. We got boisterous because we were denied bathroom privileges. Then they \r\nput us outside on a chain gang link [we were handcuffed together] for two hours \r\nin 15-degree temperatures. We had to hop around to stay warm. They finally gave \r\nus a citation at midnight. We are attempting to file charges against the NYPD \r\nfor misconduct. The reason I stayed in the streets was twofold. First, I thought \r\nof the children dying in Iraq, which is a motivating factor for me to preserve a \r\nbetter world. My second motivation was because our civil liberties are being \r\nstripped away daily.\"<\/p>\r\n
In the aftermath, across the city, anger at the police mixed with a kind of \r\njoyous determination, as hundreds of thousands--buoyed by the knowledge that \r\npeople around the world had heard their voice--considered their next move \r\nagainst the warmakers.<\/p>\r\n
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
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