On May 18, hundreds of people gathered in the Bay Ridge community of Brooklyn to mark 76 years since the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”)—the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people at the time of the founding of the state of Israel—and to denounce the U.S.-backed Israeli war of genocide now going on in Gaza. The action was organized by the group Within Our Lifetime Palestine. Bay Ridge is known as Little Palestine because it is home to many Palestinians and other immigrants from Arab countries. The determined but peaceful protest came under vicious assault from NYPD pigs. 

The protesters were in the great majority Palestinian and other Arab people, many from the neighborhood, with young Arab people a large percentage of the crowd. Entire families with children came, as well as older people in wheelchairs. People defiantly waved Palestinian flags, chanted in Arabic and English, and expressed their anger against the genocide in Gaza, refusing to be intimidated by the large presence of hundreds of NYPD riot cops. The Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity, NYC joined with the people there with our banner, “From Palestine to the USA, Real Revolution Is The Way.” We distributed hundreds of flyers sharing Bob Avakian’s social media dispatches (@BobAvakianOfficial) focused on key questions related to Palestine and Israel and inviting people to come listen and discuss with us in the coming days. 

The protesters responded to the NYPD mobilization with chants of, “Why are you in riot gear. There is no riot here.” The rally speakers said that the community was being occupied by the police. From the beginning, the NYPD pigs lined up in force in the area of the rally and beyond, aggressively pushing and shoving people. 

After the rally, protesters took off on a winding march through the neighborhood, with a large NYPD mob following them while other cops ahead would try to block the march route. At times, most of the march would be running in the street. It was a march full of vibrancy, energy and defiance. And people persisted in the face of repeatedly being brutalized by the police, with 34 people reportedly being arrested through the course of the day. Videos show the pigs, including commanders, punching and kicking protesters that they had already subdued on the ground. There were reports of cops attacking one protester who was trying to video the police. One of the protesters could be seen with blood on his face as he was led away in handcuffs. 

The violent NYPD attack on a march of people righteously demanding an end to the genocidal U.S.-Israel war in Gaza is a complete OUTRAGE! And—like the assaults and clampdowns on pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University and other campuses across the country—the attack on the Bay Ridge march bared the ugly face of bourgeois (capitalist) dictatorship that actually lies behind the mask of bourgeois “democracy” in the USA.