Sabado, 7 de Enero, 2012. Brooklyn, NYC – Consejales, Senadores, organizaciones comunitarias y miembros de la comunidad realizarón una protesta y conferencia de prensa en Grand ARMY Plaza para pedir al alcalde Michael Bloomberg y al comisionado de policía Raymond Kally, que paren el acoso a la gente de color, especialmente a miembros de la comunidad negra, Latinos y Musulmanes.
“Necesitamos hacerlo por nuestros hijos, nietos y futuras generaciones” comentaron. No quieren que los jovenes y la comunidad en general sean acosados solo por su color de piel, religión o grupo al que pertenecen.
De acuerdo a los propios reportes de la policía de Nueva York, entre el 2004 y 2011, 4 millones de personas fueron paradas e interrogadas. La gran mayoría fueron de la raza negra y Latinos. 9 de 10 fueron totalmente inocentes.
Los Latinos en estados como Arizona, Alabama son detenidos por su apariencia física y por la idea que son indocumentados. En la ciudad de Nueva York, mucha gente de la raza negra y Latinos tienen temor de caminar por las calles por temor a ser parados por la policía, sin nunguna razón, solo por su color de piel.
En el caso de la comunidad Musulmana, se descubrió que el departamento de policía envió agentes encubiertos a las escuelas, tiendas, restaurantes y otros lugares que esta comunidad frecuenta y con la información, crearon una base de datos. Se piensa, que lo mismo pueden hacer con otras comunidades.
Más recientemente, la policía ha arrestado a fotografos, reporteros, videografos independientes y observadores legales que cubren eventos del Movimiento Ocupa Wall Street. Hay varios casos de brutalidad policiaca. En Youtube se pueden ver videos donde la policía ataca con batones, gases lacrimogenos o abientan al suelo a manifestantes pacificos. Abajo esta una foto que lo muestra.
Today, elected officials, community organizations and members of the community had a press conference and a rally at Grand ARMY Plaza. Brooklyn, NYC. They said, “Let’s make a New Year’s Resolution rededicating our efforts to promote police accountability in New York City.”
The protest included Jumaane Williams, a City Council member who was handcuffed last September while walking on the sidewalk during the West Indian Day Parade. The rally also included Council Member Letitia “Tish” James, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, members of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, National Lawyers Guild, Make the road New York, New York Civil Liberties Union and others.
They urged New yorkers to tell Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly that they must recognize the discrimination against communities of color and takes steps to change it!
“We need to do it for our children, grand children and future generations”, they said.
An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that more than 4 million innocent New Yorkers were subjected to police stops and street interrogations from 2004 through 2011, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports.
According to The Hunffinton Post, “The AP investigation revealed that the NYPD built databases of everyday life in Muslim neighborhoods, cataloging where people bought their groceries, ate dinner and prayed. Plainclothes officers known as “rakers” were dispatched into ethnic communities, where they eavesdropped on conversations and wrote daily reports on what they heard, often without any allegation of criminal wrongdoing.”
Police Accountability and Criminal Justice Reform Campaigns
“Throughout New York the rights of those involved in the criminal justice system are often compromised or ignored. Whether through stop and frisk practices that harass hundreds of thousands of law abiding New York City residents or draconian Rockefeller Drug Law sentencing that deposits whole populations upstate for years at a time, the excesses of the system impact us all. Low-income communities and communities of color remain particularly vulnerable to these inequities. The NYCLU works to promote accountability over our police forces and reform the criminal justice system to ensure fair treatment for all.”
