NEW YORK
Victims' family defies pro-cop terror
By
Sarah Sloan
New York
"Anthony Rosario--killed by cops."
These words, attached by adhesive tape to the back of
Margarita Rosario's car, turned the vehicle into a mobile
informational picket against police brutality. It also made
Rosario a target for pro-cop violence here this January.
Rosario is the mother of Anthony Rosario and the aunt of
Hilton Vega, two Puerto Rican youths killed by New York police
officers on Jan. 12, 1995. Since that day four years ago, she
has been a leading activist against police brutality as the
co-founder of New York-based Parents Against Police
Brutality.
On Jan. 7, Margarita Rosario and Tony Rosario described
their son's and nephew's case on Pacifica's WBAI, a progressive
New York radio station with a wide audience. They described how
Officers Patrick Brosnan and James Crowe ordered the youths to
lie face down on the floor of a Bronx apartment, pumping eight
bullets into Rosario and 14 into Vega.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called Brosnan and Crowe after the
1995 shootings to congratulate them for "a job well done."
Brosnan had also participated in a 1993 attack by white police
on a Black and a Latino police officer, although he had never
been charged.
On the Jan. 7 radio broadcast, the Rosarios called on the
community to join in a rally and vigil at City Hall on the
fourth anniversary of the killings.
Car torched
Hours after the broadcast, a neighbor knocked on the door to
alert the Rosarios that their car had been torched in their
driveway. A Christmas tree had been placed under the gas tank
and ignited.
When firefighters arrived, Margarita Rosario approached one
to alert him to the possible political nature of the attack. He
replied by telling Rosario that "she probably deserved it," and
that his brother was a cop.
"I refuse to be scared," Rosario said in an interview with
Workers World. "I will continue to fight."
She compared the attack with the frame-up of death-row
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. "What they've done to Mumia
is the same thing," she charged. "They tried to silence him by
putting him in jail." She called for building support for
Abu-Jamal, saying that "if it's happening to him, it can happen
to anyone."
After her car is fixed, Rosario plans to
reattach the inscription: "Anthony Rosario-- killed by
cops."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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