 |
| Scenes from Times Square. |
During
organizing class today, a few of the students started talking about the chilling protest song "Strange
Fruit" by Billie Holiday. We’d seen her performing the song during
a film about music and civil rights movement. The words are still eerie and resonant.
Southern
trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
 |
| Billie singing the blues. |
 |
| Billie_Holiday-Strange_Fruit-postcard_image |
But
today, instead of hanging, they lay in the street and their murdurers are let off, my student explained. We’d just heard about the news that the police
officer who killed Eric Garner was not indicted after illegally choking Garner to death. Black men killed by
cops or killed by a lynch mob never to be convicted. It doesn’t feel that different, she explained. Lynching is lynching.
The hate is the
same. My friend LA Kauffman posted a
note about earlier in the day on facebook.
The amount of
racist hate coming out of white America right now is off the charts. I worked
with Rev. Sekou at UFPJ; a longstanding organizer and theorist as well as a
minister, he's been doing crucial work in Ferguson since the August shooting of
Mike Brown. He got this message on his Facebook page today. Osagyefo Sekou Chris McKee sent me this
Facebook message (Vinta, OK) : "Show up in the south we'll find a oak tree
for your ass"
The hate is the same.
Yet, there we were in class. Two
more student groups had to present on their organizing projects so we stayed n
class as they presented on hunger, inequality and the assaults on the supplemental nutrition
program and the other group presented on police brutality. And recall Garner was selling cigarettes to make some extra money. The police seemed to be punishing him for his income status and struggle to make an extra buck to feed his kids. The police seemed to b punishing him for being poor, punishing poverty. None of the bankers who cheated the system, crashing pensions and igniting the fiscal meltdown of 2008 were treated this way.
Its heartbreaking to see these students face a world where they are treated as targets to be profiled, stopped, frisked, and subject to harassment because of their skin color. Over two decades ago when I was getting out of school, we thought a jury would convict the police who beat Rodney King. Riots erupted across the West Coast and a movement was born.
 |
|
www.a-revolt.org : digital anarchy
|
Its heartbreaking to see these students face a world where they are treated as targets to be profiled, stopped, frisked, and subject to harassment because of their skin color. Over two decades ago when I was getting out of school, we thought a jury would convict the police who beat Rodney King. Riots erupted across the West Coast and a movement was born.
in "From Los Angeles to
Seattle: World City Politics and the New Global Resistance"
Roger
Keil wrote:
Riot Politics
In the afternoon of the 29th of April 1992, in Simi Valley, in the North of Los Angeles, a jury consisting entirely of whites, with the exception of one Asian man, acquitted four white policemen, who on the night of March 3, 1991, had beaten African American Rodney King so brutally he almost died. The beating had been caught on tape by an amateur videographer and would soon be broadcast to millions of people around the world. On the afternoon of the verdict, Los Angeles erupted into the gravest civil unrest the city saw in the 20th century.
For
Keil, the protests were emblematic of something much, much larger.
At this turn of the century, the world is characterized by a political divide and a type of social conflict which runs like a fault line through both the globe in its entirety and through every nation, region, and city of the world. As the first decade of a willfully stated New World Order comes to a close, as we look back on the first ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet system, a new breed of activism and politics has entered the world stage. And in contrast to earlier such events, which tended to spread from one place outward – think of the Paris Commune, for example – the current round of global anti-capitalist activism and anti-globalization politics comes from many points at once. While symbolically enlarged in cases such as the anti-WTO protests of Seattle in late 1999, these conflicts are really ubiquitous, decentralized, and unpredictable... It is my contention that some of the activism we see presently around the world is, in fact, the extension of protest politics which have existed in some form or other in large globalizing cities for some time. Based mostly on the experience of Los Angeles, I will argue that ‘Seattle’ at least to some extent was the consequence rather than the beginning of an urban based movement which has challenged globalization through local action for the past two decades (for an elaboration on the Los Angeles experience, please see Keil, 1998…).
At this turn of the century, the world is characterized by a political divide and a type of social conflict which runs like a fault line through both the globe in its entirety and through every nation, region, and city of the world. As the first decade of a willfully stated New World Order comes to a close, as we look back on the first ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet system, a new breed of activism and politics has entered the world stage. And in contrast to earlier such events, which tended to spread from one place outward – think of the Paris Commune, for example – the current round of global anti-capitalist activism and anti-globalization politics comes from many points at once. While symbolically enlarged in cases such as the anti-WTO protests of Seattle in late 1999, these conflicts are really ubiquitous, decentralized, and unpredictable... It is my contention that some of the activism we see presently around the world is, in fact, the extension of protest politics which have existed in some form or other in large globalizing cities for some time. Based mostly on the experience of Los Angeles, I will argue that ‘Seattle’ at least to some extent was the consequence rather than the beginning of an urban based movement which has challenged globalization through local action for the past two decades (for an elaboration on the Los Angeles experience, please see Keil, 1998…).
Two decades
later, we are seeing a global resistance, streching from South Central to tonight in Times Square. These rots and disruptions are part
of a bigger picture and over expanding story of movements extending from Los
Angeles to Seattle to Wall Street to Ferguson.
After
class, I looked at email to see
what was happening. A play about Rodney King was at BRiC.
Several posts listed actions.
Several posts listed actions.
ACTIONS IN NYC TONIGHT WEDNESDAY
TIMES SQUARE at 5:00
UNION SQUARE @ 6:00
(marching to Rockefeller Center to shut down the
tree lighting ceremony!)
TOMORROW: FOLEY SQUARE @ 5:30
The bike bloc was going to be meeting at Foley
Square. Others would be meeting at Union
and Times Square. So I jumped on my bike
to ride to the actions, as
we had last week.
A hundred people
or so were at Union Square. So, I rode further up to Times Square where the police
lead me to the actions. The police were cordoning
off the public space with barricades, and one entrance, where they stood, filtering
people in. After Ferguson, we
all have to ask, who owns the streets?
There are other ways to organize urban spaces, which invite interaction
and sharing, engagement and conversation, de escalation and other approaches to
seeing the world and its people as folks to get to know rather than view as others. Times Square used to be a place where stores
started, where we shared cross class contact.
But it didn’t feel like it was going to be such an occasion tonight.
“Theres another
stupid Ferguson protest,” screamed one Caucasian man, walking through the crowd.
The animosity
between the bewinlderred shoppers and those outraged about the verdict was jarring. As my friend Merve May Parlar noted of the
scene.
 |
| Photo of Times Square by Merve May Parlar |
Parlar wrote: A Tale of Two Cities in NYC tonight; one that is boiling
with rage and chanting #ICantBreath in its streets, the other gathered
around bunch of celebrities and cheerfully waiting for a stupid tree to light
up.
We made our way
up to the steps at 48th street and the police were cordoning the
spaces off.
And slowly. we made
our way to Rockefeller Center where more and more police lined the streets, cordoned off, blocking access to the Rockefeller Center. Few knew how
to get there.
Inquirer reporter to Ezra: "How long do you think the protesters will be here [disrupting the xmas tree lighting] tonight?" Ezra: "MONTHS!" Radical surrealism for the win!
Some marched
West to Columbus Circle and others to the West Side Highway. Looking at everyone’s faces, there was more
despair than I’ve not seen in a long time,
weariness and despair. But people are still
out pushing against it.
Something big is
happening in the streets. In NYC tonight, multiple marches disrupted traffic
all over town, chanting "I can't breathe" and "Black lives
matter." People are grieving and fed up and feeling bold.
 |
| Top...Minister Erik
The whole damn system is guilty as hell #Justice4EricGarner #ShutItDown #ThisStopsToday #NoJusticeNoPeace #NYC
bottomMinister Erik@Bike_at_W4 columbus circle st down |
Earlier Eric Sawyer posted a note on the act up facebook
page.
Eric Garners NYPD murders cleared in the Grand Jury
indictment - here comes the shit storm - we should propose everyone black arm
bands and I CAN"T BREATH STICKERS!! Are we going to march?
 |
| "A protest in Grand Central Terminal after the grand jury’s decision in the Eric Garner case. Follow live updates on the reaction to the decision:http://nyti.ms/1BeQddH" |
And he joined the die-in which took place at 5:15.
 |
| eric sawyer at the grand central die in |
 |
| urban cusp at grand central |
People Take Brooklyn Bridge #NYC with chants of #HandsUpDontShoot Live: http://GlobalRevolution.tv via @Uneditedcamera
As
I write this, word on the street is that the Lincoln Tunnel and Grand Central
are shut down. Others are s
 |
| LINCOLN TUNNEL & GRAND CENTRAL SHUT DOWN#NoJusticeNoPeace #EricGarner #IndictAmerica Photo by @TheAnonMessage |
 |
Still, others are on the way to 1 Am jail support for those arrested along the way.
The city is shut down. And we’ll be out tomorrow for more, at 5 PM Foley Square in solidarity and rage. As my friend Monica wrote, Amerca, we have to, we must do better.
The city is shut down. And we’ll be out tomorrow for more, at 5 PM Foley Square in solidarity and rage. As my friend Monica wrote, Amerca, we have to, we must do better.
|
|
|
Statements
by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, the Council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus
and the Council Progressive Caucus
Re: Grand Jury Decision on Eric
Garner Death
Speaker Mark-Viverito:
"This was a terribly disappointing outcome and is not
reflective of the events that led to Eric Garner's death. What makes this
even more infuriating is the frequent lack of accountability, which is why I
urge the U.S. Department of Justice to launch its own investigation.
The use of excessive and lethal police force against people
of color is a persistent problem nationwide and we must recommit ourselves to
building a more just city and society where all people, regardless of color,
are treated equally by law enforcement. Locally, Commissioner Bratton
must expedite the retraining of NYPD officers ... so we can ensure that incidents like
the one that led to Eric Garner's death never occur again.
During this painful time, it is imperative that New Yorkers
come together rather than allow frustration and anger to boil over and divide
us. The Garner family has asked that any demonstrations be peaceful and
everyone should respect that call. My thoughts and prayers are with the
family and friends of Eric Garner. My fellow Council Members and I remain
committed to fostering healing in our communities."
New York City Council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus:
"The New York City Council's Black, Latino and Asian
Caucus stands united today to denounce the Grand Jury's failure to hold New
York police officer Daniel Pantaleo accountable for the death of Eric Garner.
The death of Eric Garner by an illegal chokehold is only
one example of unwarranted practices and the use of excessive force exercised
by some NYPD officers.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Garner family who
now join the ranks of the families of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, and Mike
Brown who have not only tragically lost a son, husband and father, but have now
been denied justice.
We are outraged that the Grand Jury failed to indict Daniel
Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner. The failure to recognize that black
and brown lives matter is evident throughout all five boroughs, as New York's
communities of color suffer the brutality of hyper-aggressive policing and are too
often denied meaningful accountability of officers who to choose to use
excessive and deadly force.
We demand accountability for officers who use excessive and
deadly force in communities of color throughout our city."
New York City Council Progressive Caucus:
"Members of the Progressive Caucus of the New York
City Council are extremely disheartened by the outcome in the case of Eric
Garner. The grand jury decision to no indict the officer responsible for
his death is a disappointing one. Members feel that a major injustice has
been committed and that the challenges regarding police and community relations
is one in dire need of solutions. Council Members agree that the result
in the case of Eric Garner's death is another racial injustice stemming from
systemic problems including institutionalized discrimination, hostile relations
with public safety agents and failed police accountability."
No comments:
Post a Comment