NYC—24-Hour Action at Grand Central Station:
Police Brutality Is Deadly
January 5, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
All photos are at Grand Central Station NYC, January 5, 2015.
Photos: Enbion Micah Aan, used with permission
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From a revcom.us/Revolution correspondent:
We Will Not Be Silent, an artists/activsts collective, issued a call for a 24-hour action, starting 5 p.m. Monday, January 5 at Grand Central Station in New York City to read the names and stories of over 150 killed or brutalized by police with impunity.
As of 7 p.m., there were at least 150 people at the action. The protest drew great strength and inspiration from the presence of many family members who had lost loved ones: among them, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., whose father, Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old retired Marine, was shot in his own home in White Plains, NY, in 2011 after his MedAlert bracelet accidentally went off; Margarita Rosario, whose son Anthony, and nephew Hilton Vega were executed by NYPD, shot in the back in a hail of 28 bullets as they lay face down on the floor of an apartment in 1995; Iris Baez, whose son Anthony Baez was choked to death by a NY cop 1994; Hertenceia Peterson, aunt of Akai Gurley, 28-years-old, gunned down by police in Brooklyn for walking into a stairwell; and Carol Gray, whose 16-year-old son Kimani was killed by the NYPD in 2013.
Whenever the story of someone whose family member was present was being told, that person would come into the center of the circle, holding a portrait, or a sign with their name up high—it was both painful and inspiring to see these courageous people standing up to demand justice not only for their own loved ones, but for all the victims. At times the family members would lead marches through the huge station; at other times the circle of protesters was led to pull in close around them, to share their strength, love and anger. And then the readings of names and stories would continue, a living testimony to what the people have lost to the enforcers of a brutal system, and why we fight.
Also present were other heroic fighters against oppression like 75-year-old radical attorney Lynne Stewart—seriously ill with cancer and only released from federal prison a year ago—who came in a wheelchair, holding a sign that said "Not One More," and spoke briefly to the crowd.
This 24-hour event is continuing non-stop until 5 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, January 6).
If you are in the NYC area, YOU need to be there too!! Revcom.us will have more on this—but join this now.
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