On Sept. 11, the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, hundreds of activists took to the streets of Manhattan against the omnipresent terror of the New York Police Department, which targets people of color on a daily basis, especially if they are Black and Latin@.
The Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement called the “Day of Outrage” protest to highlight police brutality in general and in particular the case of a 23-year-old Black man, Sean Bell, who was shot multiple times and killed by the NYPD last November on the eve of his wedding.
The other important cases highlighted at the demonstration involve Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren, both Black lawyers. They were both physically assaulted and then arrested for verbally coming to the defense of a Latino youth being brutalized by the NYPD in Brooklyn this past summer.
Protesters demanded that the charges be dropped against the Warrens along with justice for Sean Bell, the Jena Six in Louisiana and other victims of police frame-up and abuse.
Before the march, the group held a rally near Madison Square Garden. D12 leader Viola Plummer chaired and introduced Fred Hampton Jr., son of martyred Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton; Black City Councilperson Charles Barron; and Larry Holmes from the International Action Center, among other speakers.
The marchers took to the streets, stopping traffic during afternoon rush hour. They then proceeded to busy Herald Square, rallied in front of the Empire State Building and finished up at Macy’s. During the march, protesters chanted, “Whose streets? Our streets,” “Black power,” “Self-determination, self-defense” and “Power to the people.”
—Report and photo by Monica Moorehead
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