A CodePINK member holds a sign that expresses the feelings of New Yorkers (Photo: Thomas Good)
New York City – December 16, 2006. Thousands of New Yorkers filled the streets to express their outrage with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) today. “Shopping for Justice” was the tagline given the mass protest and march down Fifth Avenue. Organized by Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, the march included a number of progressive organizations, including trade unions, the NAACP, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), CodePINK and many others. The SDS contingent included members of the Pace and Pratt chapters, MDS New York and the John Brown Caucus (JBC).
The march was called in response to the police execution of groom-to-be Sean Bell, gunned down on the eve of his wedding by NYPD undercovers. Two of Bell’s close friends were critically wounded in the barrage of gunfire – some fifty rounds were fired by police. The wedding celebrants were unarmed. They were also African-American which indicates the shooting may have been a bias crime. Bell, 23, was killed as he left the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens, early in the morning of November 25. Organizers and community activists are demanding an independent investigation to prevent a whitewash.
A young marcher (Photo: Thomas Good)
The protest marchers formed up on 59th Street and then proceeded south down Fifth Avenue. Marchers counted to fifty – to mark the fifty shots fired by police, chanted “Fifty Shots Equals Murder” and sang “Down On The Freedom Line” as the procession filled Fifth Ave. The march wound through New York City’s shopping district during one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Shoppers were addressed directly by members of the John Brown Caucus (an anti-racist, anti-imperialist SDS formation) who chanted: “Stop shopping! Start marching!” The JBC has issued a statement on the shooting that reads in part:
We demand it be called what it is: state racism. The type of institutional racism that advances the idea that a young black man is a threat, worthy of suspicion, and should always be approached and treated as a threat. It’s the type of racism that suggests that the sight of three young black men in a car requires several clips of ammunition, as in this case, one officer had to literally stop shooting and re-load before he could resume firing. Even officers of color are susceptible to this kind of racism. The only two colors that really matter for this racism to persist are the black shade of the targets skin and the set of ingrained presumptions and expectations that come from wearing a uniform of blue. The statement was endorsed by SDS New York, University of Central Florida SDS (UCF SDS), Central Florida MDS, Portland SDS and Ron Jacobs, author of “The Way The Wind Blew”, a history of the Weather Underground.
Saturday’s march stretched on as far as the eye could see and the massive column was populated by a cross section of New York’s diverse communities. The event drew a good police “turnout” as well – a wall of blue uniforms flanked the procession and many of the police heard firsthand the anger of the activists. It remains to be seen if New York’s elected officials will have the moral courage to appoint an independent investigator to ensure that justice is served.
