Mostly LGBT youth of color
Cops attack anti-brutality activists
By Imani Henry
New York
By all eyewitness accounts, what happened in a
Brooklyn neighborhood in the early morning hours of Sunday,
Nov. 16, was a scene out of the newsreels of the 1950s. Young
Black women, running from police, were knocked to the pavement
and clubbed. Pepper gas was sprayed indiscriminately into a
crowd on the sidewalk. You could hear a person's head being
bang ed repeatedly on the hood of a police cruiser.
It was supposed to be a festive night. Up to 100 people
attended a fundraiser at the office of Critical Resistance, a
national grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of
the prison-industrial complex. This private fundraiser was
attended by young adults from the social justice movements in
New York. They were overwhelmingly people of color, and also
mostly from the lesbian, gay, bi and trans movement.
At 2:00 a.m., three white plain-clothes police entered the
office and began harassing partygoers. Without identifying
themselves, they confiscated several people's IDs and tried to
take a guest list near the front door. The partygoers, the
majority themselves activists against police brutality,
remained calm but asserted their rights against unlawful search
and seizures.
Within minutes, over 25 police vehicles arrived at 968
Atlantic Ave. and the police unleashed a wave of violence. In
the end, eight activists were arrested, dozens more injured.
According to a press release from Critical Resistance, "Over 20
people were experiencing effects of the pepper spray that was
erratically sprayed into the air by the officers. One
individual was treated for a hematoma on his frontal skull,
another for lower back spasms." Other injuries included
lacerations and contusions, bruised ribs and a spinal
injury.
All eight of the arrestees were people of color and included
lesbian, gay, bi and trans people. They were taken to the 77th
precinct. Those left behind, despite their injuries, sprang
into action.
Lawyers sent to the jail pressured the police to provide
medical treatment to the eight. Emails and phone lists were
activated, alerting the progressive movement. Media and jail
solidarity committees were formed in the wee hours of the
morning. Of great concern to those on the outside was the
situation of a trans activist who was held in isolation and
taunted with anti-trans epithets for hours by police.
By midnight on Sunday, all eight were released and
immediately seen by emergency medical service workers. Prelim
inary allegations against the eight include disorderly conduct,
resisting arrest and inciting a riot, all of which are
classified as misdemeanors.
At 11 a.m. on Monday, outside City Hall, close to 100
activists came to a press conference to show their solidarity
and outrage. Speakers included two of the arres tees as well as
Kai Barrows from Critical Resistance, Councilperson Char les
Barron, and a representative from the LGBT youth-of-color
group, FIERCE. All called for an end to racist, sexist,
anti-LGBT police brutality. They demonstrated that unity across
all forms of oppression is needed to win social justice.
Reprinted from the Nov. 27, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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