In police riot at #RiseUpOctober, NYPD arrests peaceful protester carrying his 2-year-old child, for standing on a statue to address the crowd.
Protesters also block entrance to Rikers Island, take dozens of arrests
TeleSUR says protesters demanding direct action to stop police terror
Detroiters Mertilla Jones, Kimberly Griffin, Kevin Kellom, Yvette Johnson participate in historic actions
(Report compiled by VOD from PINAC, IBT, TeleSUR coverage)
NYPD Arrests Peaceful Protester Carrying 2-Year-Old Child and 10 Others at #RiseUpOctober March Against Police Terror
Photography is Not a Crime (PINAC)
October 25, 2015
Activism, Bad Cop, No Donut, Cell Phone Cam, Censorship, Citizens vs. Government, New York, NYPD, PINAC News, PINAC News Top 10, PINAC News Top 3, Police Abuse, Police Brutality, Police Militarization, Viral Videos, #Beatbackthebullies, #Blacklivesmatter, #BlacklivesmatterDetroit, #StopPoliceBrutality, #PoliceState, #policeviolence, #PrisonNation, #StopPoliceKillings, #SaveOurChildren, #Standupnow
The NYPD violently arrested a peaceful protester holding his two-year-old child on his shoulders Saturday, Oct. 24, allegedly for standing on a park bench as well as 10 other peaceful protesters at a demonstration against police violence.
Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Jones, 7, killed by Detroit police May 16, 2010, speaks at #RiseUpOctober “Say Their Names” rally.
The rally and march, organized by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network was permitted for a rally in Washington Square North, a march up 6th Avenue in one lane of traffic, and another rally on 6th Avenue along Bryant Park. Despite the fact that organizers of the protest jumped through the arduous hoops of obtaining a parade permit, New York City police showed up for the event as if they were prepared for a riot, and deployed numerous questionable tactics, trampling on the demonstrators Constitutional rights to free speech and to peaceably gather.
Staffed almost exclusively by their new protest-specific unit, which has civil libertarians concerned, the NYPD carried and used military-grade sound cannons, which can cause permanent hearing damage, filmed peaceful protesters, which is a violation of a federal decree, and over-reacted to minor and even non-existent offenses, arresting nearly a dozen protests, some brutally (videos below).
First arrest by NYPD, Twitter photo by Keegan Stephan
The rally in Washington Square went unmolested by the police, but as soon as it left the square, the NYPD began shoving metal barricades into protesters as they turned onto 6th Avenue.
As the march proceeded up 6th Avenue, anytime a protester so much as stepped over the line of the far right lane, the NYPD mobilized their fleet of scooters, threatened arrests, and even blared dispersal orders over their ear-shattering sound cannon.
When the march reached Bryant Park, a contingent turned right on 42nd Street toward 5th Avenue, apparently unsure of the final destination. Some protesters crossed 5th Avenue, but others realized they had passed the destination and turned down 5th to circle the block back to the second rallying point.
Protesters in march/Photo by Yvette Johnson, stepmother of Terrance Kellom, killed by Detroit police.
The NYPD, which had been holding back traffic until this point, suddenly instructed traffic to cross 42nd Street and drive behind the protest, creating a dangerous situation for everyone involved and, with barricades along both sidewalks, seeming trapping the protesters in an arrestable position. Indeed, they then immediately began arresting protesters for “obstructing vehicular traffic.”
Journalist Russell Johnson waited for an ambulance for 40 minutes after police arrested him.
The NYPD arrested five protesters on 5th Avenue and shoved the rest onto the sidewalk, injuring at least one person – a member of the press named Russell Johnson, who told PINAC News that the NYPD shoved him over their metal barricades, hurting his back to the point he feared standing up without an ambulance.
While the NYPD was able to maneuver multiple vehicles down the block to arrest the protesters, an ambulance did not arrive for Johnson for more than 40 minutes.
Things remained calm through the rest of the second rally, after which a smaller group took the sidewalks toward Times Square. Many police followed.
When the splinter march reached Times Square, several protesters, including one man with his two-year-old child on his shoulders, stood on the benches around the statue of George M. Cohen in the pedestrian plaza to read the facts of police brutality to the crowd in Times Square.
Police mob protester as arrest is made. Photo: George Joseph
The NYPD vastly over-reacted to this minor infraction (if it even is one) and violently arrested all of the protesters on the statue’s structure, six in total. I was present for the arrest and heard no dispersal order, just saw the police suddenly grabbing the demonstrators, throwing them to the ground, cuffing them, and dragging them away to police vehicles.
Below is video of the NYPD arresting the man who had his child on his shoulders, throwing him to the ground and stomping on him.
The NYPD took all of the protesters arrested at Rise Up October to the 7th Precinct, just south of Delancey Street, some 60 blocks south of where they were arrested, past at least five other precincts. While they did not transfer the protesters again, as they have done without alerting jail support at recent protests, they did take them to a precinct distant enough to prohibit many people from joining jail support who wanted to.
At the time of the writing of this piece, of the 11 people arrested at #RiseUpOctober, seven had been released from the precinct with minor charges. The other four had been taken to Central Booking where the NYPD said they would be held overnight and arraigned in the morning on charges of “resisting arrest” in addition to other charges.
First four protesters to be released/Photo Keegan Stephan
As readers of this site are well aware, charges of “resisting arrest” are generally cover for the cops roughing you up while they arrest you. Last night was not exception. Video of the one person who was arrested on Broadway and charged with “resisting” can be seen below. The NYPD’s protest-specific Strategic Response Group seems particularly well trained at the age old tactic of yelling “stop resisting” for the cameras, when no one is actually resisting.
Rise Up October NYC Police Brutality Protest Results In Multiple Arrests: Report
International Business Times
By on October 24 2015 4:58 PM EDT
Activists and concerned citizens marched the streets of Manhattan in New York City Saturday as part of “Rise Up October,” a mass demonstration to protest police brutality in the United States. A number of protesters were reportedly arrested, but it wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were.
Police with dogs confronted Rise Up protesters. Photo: James from the Internet.
According to a tweet, a police officer allegedly smacked the cell phone out of the hand of the first woman arrested. It was not immediately clear how many protesters marched the streets, which were filled with chants of “justice now” and signs saying “Stop police terror!” and “Which side are you on.”
Demonstrators gathered in Washington Square Park Saturday morning and marched to a closing rally at Bryant Park near Times Square, according to the group’s website. Activists predicted in August that Saturday’s Rise Up October event could attract about 100,000 people.
Lead banner shows some of 960 people killed by law enforcement in 2015 alone.
“What I see it accomplishing is radically transforming the way people look at this question [which side are you on] getting them to go from sympathy with people who are suffering this to actively siding with them and acting together with them, and then getting other sections of people to go from, ‘This doesn’t have any effect on me. It’s not my problem,’ to seeing that it is all of our problem,” Carl Dix, a Rise Up October co-founder, said in a radio interview in August.
Saturday’s event came one day after demonstrators gathered in Queens to protest Rikers Island, saying it should be shut down, according to a Bronx news station. About a dozen protesters were arrested outside the jail’s entrance Friday.
Among those in the crowd Saturday were prominent civil rights activist and scholar Cornel West, who along with Dix founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, a national protest group. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was also marching.
Tears glistened in the eyes of some protesters and others gave voice to the dissatisfaction many have felt in the past two years over police tactics and use of force, according to the TeleSUR news network. Deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police across the country have led many to call into question how the police do their job.
#RISEUPOCTOBER DEMANDS DIRECT ACTION TO COMBAT POLICE VIOLENCE
TeleSUR
October 24, 2015
Protester at #RiseUpOctober: “I will shoot back.” This photo was used to decry rally in mainstream media, in wake of a cop being shot. What other choice is there?
Centering the narratives of family members of the victims of police violence, protesters are calling for a radical change in U.S. policing and are creating a diverse coalition.
Celebrities, university students, religious congregations, activists, and community housing projects commenced the final day of the Rise Up October campaign against police brutality marching to the heart of Manhattan on Saturday morning, defiantly condemning “police terror” against U.S. citizens just a day after protesters were arrested for trying to shut down New York’s notorious Rikers prison.
#RiseUpOctober march in NYC.
Local and international media followed protesters as they chanted slogans like “Justice Now!” and “The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell!.” While, quiet tears and sometimes painful screams could be heard among the crowd as mothers who lost their children lamented the lack of justice in the United States when it comes to police brutality.
Tensions and emotions of pain and anger were clearly high as the protests unfolded. One young Black woman activist on a megaphone condemned the Black police officers on patrol at the protest, calling one officer a “House Negro.” The emotions reflect how many communities of color in the United States are “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Cornel West marches with families of police terror victims.
The march is the culmination of a three-day action in New York that sought to keep the focus on police harassment and brutality that activists say targets the most vulnerable in United States, especially economically marginalized communities of color, leading to a culture of impunity for police violence.
“Millions of people all across the country and around the world will hear our powerful cry – WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Millions more are gonna say, okay, I gotta choose sides and many of them will decide they have to be with the ones trying to STOP this,” read a statement by organizers of the protest on The Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Facebook page.
RELATED: #RiseUpOctober: The Movement Against US ‘Police Terror’
Speaking out against police murders; national movement began in Ferguson after the police murder of Michael Brown.
The group also said the action would be supported in various cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, New Orleans and Mississippi. On Friday, at least 10 people were arrested in protests calling for the closure New York prison facility Rikers, sources told teleSUR, as part of a three-day demonstration across the United States against police brutality.
Under the #RiseUpOctober banner, around 200 protesters gathered in Queens to disrupt the detention center by lying on the ground outside. Critics say detainees are systematically abused at the center. Eyewitnesses said that demonstrators were then zip-tied and dragged away to a prison bus by waiting police.
“They went for the front gate to the prison and police deployed officers wearing gas masks with dogs,” independent video journalist James Woods told teleSUR.
