Riot Times as a Wound Re Emerges #FreeThemAll!

This has been  going on for far too long. 

37 years ago Michael was killed by police.

Michael killed by cops 37-years ago. 

Seth T says, We remember. 

Mary Margaret Anderson

Scenes from the Larry Kramer memorial as the riots were beginning downtown.

Photos by Jackie Rudin

Let's get rid of the police, rehire a quarter the number, take the guns away. And get them to work with communities, instead of as outside colonizing armies. — at Brooklyn, New York.

Sunday

You are ordered to leave the roadways....nothing Orwellian about that. — at Brooklyn, New York.

 nypd-officers-kneel-with-protesters.

It was a strange week.

Monday and Tuesday with news about the horror in Minnesota.

Another cop.

Another murder.

Frustration.

We can never get it right.

Tears again and again.

Old tears.

Rodney King tears.

Patrick Dorismond tears.

Amadou Diallo dispair.

The emotions pour through me.

I don’t know anyone who wasn’t disgusted with that they saw from the policeman placing his knee on George Floyd’s neck.

I check in with my family in St Paul.

Everyone is reeling, they say.

Everyone is reeling.

Another horrible loss.

Fires burning down the streets from their house.

Just like LA 1992.

Or Newark 1967.

An avalanche of loss.

Here we are in America,

100,000 dead from Covid,

The old inequalities in the casualties,

black and brown communities suffering disproportionately.

Devastating.

Mass unemployment.

Racist police and riots.

The president tweeting while Rome burns.

An NYPD car drives into protesters.

Action reaction all weekend.

History in front of our eyes,

moving faster than the police baton they were swinging in front of me on Atlantic Ave last night around midnight.

Across the country,

Throughout the city.

Marches, simultaneous actions, raging.

Trying to contain or express.

So many emotions.

“The energy…” writes Charles Baudelaire,

 “creates a kind of unrest and which positive pain.  My nerves, now excessively, tense, transmit only wailing and sorrowful vibrations.”

Vibrations across the city.

Saturday, a reporter at the NY Times writes:

“Though much of the afternoon until well after dark, crowds of protesters holding signs and chanting slogans make their way through Harlem, the East Village, Times Square, Columbus Circle, Jackson Heights in Queens, the Flatbush section of Bronx and Staten Island, sometimes seeming to move indecently, but at other moment appears to break apart, come together and re splinter in a way that tested the ability of the police to maintain control.”

Helicopters overhead.

Police in the street.

The first wave of action happened before Larry Kramer’s funeral last week.

Bike caravans and marches all week.

Wednesday, the homeless can’t shelter in place action.

Thursday, the first spontaneous action about George Floyd in New York.

And then the funeral.

There Jackie Rudin notes

“As Peter Staley said: ‘Larry’s timing couldn’t be worse. The community he loved can’t come together — as only we can — in a jam-packed room, to remember him. We can’t cry as one and hear our community’s most soaring words, with arms draped on shoulders in loving support." But we did our best.

This impromptu gathering for Larry Kramer at The NYC AIDS Memorial was filled with many emotions. Seeing so many loved ones after months of isolation made social distancing a challenge as we gathered to share our grief. Grief at losing Larry, who we assumed would live forever. Grief and anger for those we lost to AIDS and are now losing to this pandemic which could have been largely avoided but for our corrupt incompetent self centered fascist president.

Rise and Resist expressed our feelings with our TRUMP LIES PEOPLE DIE banner. I believe a protest within a memorial was the best way to honor Larry.”

Friday, actions all day.

A year ago, we were visiting New Orleans, these days we are exploring lost skate parks, decaying piers, secrets sides of Sunset Park, among parts unknown here in Brooklyn.

Foley Square.

Then Sunset Park.

And back to Barclay’s center.

Stay cool, I say to the cops.

Stay cool.

Let me walk all night.

Everyone all over the city hitting the streets.

Speaking up.

Trying to say not here.

Not this time.

Its not OK.

Get ‘em out of jail.

#FreeThemAllFridays says

“Last Friday, we stood in front of an immigration court and detention facility and read the names of those who have died in ICE detention, including those who passed away from COVID-19.  It is not just COVID-19 that killed them. ICE killed them. Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo refuses to take any action to free ICE detainees or incarcerated people in New York… we are not going anywhere until he takes action to release ICE detainees and incarcerated people, cancels rent, and provides emergency relief to the undocumented community in New York. This Friday…Join us by car or bike Friday May 29 @3PM at Cuomo's NYC office (633 Third Ave, New York, NY 10017). Then we will travel to Sunset Park for a protest at 5PM.    Decorate your cars and bikes with posters and all kinds of art. **¡BASTA!! We're safely taking to the streets to demand New York take emergency action to #FreeThemAll! **en español por debao**
We're meeting in front of the federal jail where the Trump administration is endangering hundreds of people in cages on the Brooklyn waterfront. This facility has the second-highest number of coronavirus infected jail staffers in the entire country and hundreds of medically vulnerable are in federal court right now fighting for their freedom.

We'll safely and spaciously gather six feet apart to march and say ¡BASTA!! and demand we safely start to free them all now.”

Exhausted from the night before, we converge outside the detention center in Sunset Park.

Banging pots and pans outside the jail.

The people inside bang back.

At Barclays Center, it feels like the whole city is arriving.

Wave after wave off the Subway.

Screaming.

Its about to pop.

“Black Lives Matter!” we scream

Why do we have to even remind anyone?

No one wants to see this again (or again and again and again).

Its never going to change, says a young woman.

Each night it escalates.

Joe and Rebecca pass out water bottles.

Someone throws one.

Skirmishes all night,

I can hear sirens all night long.

Police vans burning.

The next day, the horrors of the epidemic,

Back to Cuomo’s:

With

NY DOCS COLLECTIVE:

HEAL THCARE WO RKERS DE M AND CU O M O , LET THE M G O ! J O I N U S F O R A S O C I A L L Y D I S T A N C E D A C T I O N 1 -2 PM, SATURDAY MAY 30TH CUOMO'S OFFICE: 633 3RD AVE, NYC W E A R S C R U B S / W H I T E C O A T

NY DOCS COLLECTIVE + RELEASE AGING PEOPLE IN PRISON + VOCAL-NY DEMAND GOVERNOR CUOMO GRANT IMMEDIATE CLEMENCY

ARE OVER THE AGE OF 55 HAVE UNDERLYING MEDICAL CONDITIONS ARE WITHIN 1 YEAR OF THEIR RELEASE DATE ARE INCARCERATED ON PAROLE VIOLATIONS.”

Pictures of the dead, those who died in detention.

On the signposts.

Back up first Ave to 41^st.

And then downtown.

More demos at Union Square,

Harlem,

Revolting Lesbians and anarchists,

Squatters and Rise and Resisters are there.

Seth Tobocman is carrying a sign that says we remember Michael Stewart.

Who was Michael Stewart?

I ask,

He was a graffiti artists killed for painting - scrawling “RQS” -

on the First Avenue L station,

Everyone was making graffiti.

He was killed for it says Seth.

By the police.

That was decades ago.

The beat goes on.

Provocateurs in the crowd scream.

The crowd reacts,

Action reaction.

Back to Brooklyn.

Sitting in the park.

Everyone is disgusted.

Everyone.

But we love each other.

We love our neighbors.

Black Lives Matters signs line my block.

This is a movement about love between people.

It’s a feeling that we can look out for each other.
“95% of us are doing the right thing,” says a man on St James place during a protest turned dance party. “Stay cool.”

Peaceful protests haven’t  changed anything.

Still killer cops.

Stay cool, I implore the cops at Barclays.

Let them march,
Let us walk all night.

Saturday, Barbara wasn’t going to go to Brooklyn,

Two protests were enough she says at Union Square.

But the crowd brings her, across the Brooklyn Bridge, to our house, back to more demos till 3 AM on the way home.

Helicopters zooming over head.

Police vans everywhere.

Protests coming from all directions.

We can’t see more of this.

It has to change.

Fire the police.

Hire 25% of the police.

Take away their guns.

Everyone is suffering, even the cops.

For once, the NYPD didn’t start it.

But they jump end.

And many despair.

“Off-duty NYPD cop dies by suicide inside Bronx Apartment - New York Daily News

She was found by her girlfriend who is an officer in the same East Harlem 23rd precinct. She had shot herself in the head.”

Sunday is even more.

Police carry batons at Barclays center.

“Penetrate!” they scream, waving them down, rushing the crowd on Atlantic Ave.

I can’t keep up with all the actions.

Sirens overhead.

No one can make sense of all the loss.

Corinne Carey posts:

“Last night my mind was racing and I couldn't put my finger on my feelings or any clear thoughts. I don't have one coherent thought, but I have 10 of them right now (noon Sunday, May 31; updated 1:15 pm). Advance apology, this is a long post, but subdivided for easy skimming.

1. My first priority is to do whatever I can do to let my Black friends and colleagues know that my heart is with them, and all I can think about are their kids. My friends' Black kids' names and faces run through my mind all day and night. The picture accompanying this post is pretty much the lodestar.

2. I am listening and I will continue to listen, and I'm particularly listening to hear what Black women say and what they are asking me to do in this moment. There are so many of their voices to listen to in this moment, from local activists and colleagues, long-time friends and colleagues, local leaders in every city dealing with unrest, and emerging national leaders like Val Demings. And this brilliant woman, Tamika Mallory: https://jezebel.com/america-has-looted-black-people-says-ac…

3. The best chant I heard one group was saying last night was: "We don't see no riot here so why are you in riot gear?" What a GREAT chant. I wish we'd had that one for the Matthew Shepard political funeral in 1998. I was a legal observer, and I had never seen such mass police violence in my life. It also struck me how ill-prepared the cops were to handle a very large political gathering. More on that later. You can read about the 1998 political funeral here: https://actupny.org/reports/Shepard.html

4. A word on property damage. For those who are lamenting or pissed off about damage to businesses during protests over the past few nights, take a seat. Set aside your instinctive worship of capitalism and private property and listen to the voices of some of the business owners. NPR did a moving story with a Somali family whose restaurant burned. They back the protests and say they understand. https://www.npr.org/…/minneapolis-family-hopes-for-justice-… Same with this Bangladeshi family & restaurant featured in the NYTimes. https://www.nytimes.com/…/minnesota-restaurant-fire-protest… Any wonder that these are immigrant voices? As one of these wise voices said: "Property can be restored, replaced, repaired; nothing will bring George Floyd back."

5. Who is engaging in all this property damage anyway? Well, there's a lot here too.

A. First of all, did you see "umbrella man" video? You should. https://www.forbes.com/…/who-is-umbrella-man-mystery-vand…/….

B. From first hand accounts from friends on the ground all over the country, yes, there's definitely infiltration going on and white supremacist provocateurs, but there were also a lot of young white people out there smashing windows and setting fires. You should read this: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/…/protesters-violence-george-f…

C. But also....one of the disturbing things I heard last night was that after being confronted by one of the Black protesters asking him to be an ally and stop smashing windows, the young white protester said something like: "Fuck that. You want to improve the status quo, I want a revolution. I'm not your ally." Decidedly not okay.

D. I'm also hearing this discussion a lot: In the words of Sting from his beautiful song Fragile: "Nothing comes from violence, and nothing every could." But I think what we're reckoning with right now is that peaceful protests have not seemed to make a single damn bit of difference as the body count of young Black men and Black women and Black trans folks continues to grow.

E. The most impactful voice I heard last night was from a young Black man, maybe in his early 20s, I believe he was in Philadelphia, and he was asked by a CNN reporter if he agreed with the folks who were smashing in the glass doors and windows of a building in center city. I wish I could find the clip. He shook his head, glancing back and forth at the building, and said something like: "I'm tired. I'm sad. I'm afraid. I don't agree with that, but I also understand. Sometimes it's just too much, and there's no way to stop this [the property damage] when the feelings spill over."

F. Bottom line though: I really wish the young white people who want revolution and demonstrate it by initiating the property damage would just stand back and listen to George Floyd's family and the families of others who have been murdered by the police. Smash windows on your own time, please. This is not your time. This is not what's needed right now.

6. How can anyone this morning ignore the glaring disparities? When white protesters fed up with the stay at home orders showed up angry and armed to the teeth and shut down the capitol in Lansing, Michigan and prompted the legislature to cancel it's session....were the folks who are wringing their hands this morning extorting people to stay peaceful condemning the white Lansing protesters? If four Black man murdered a white man by kneeling on his neck while he was pinned under the wheel of their car, on tape for all the world to see, would the police wait to see what the evidence showed after an extensive investigation and an autopsy report before making an arrest? Everyone knows the answer to that question. These are just two examples. All you have to do is pick up the morning paper -- every. damn. morning. -- to see others.

7. In a country that values freedom of speech so much, why is there not more outrage over reporters who have been arrested (https://www.forbes.com/…/was-a-cnn-reporter-arrested-by-m…/…) and shot (https://www.nytimes.com/…/us/minneapolis-protests-press.html)?

8. Last night, all I could think about was how there was a need for a mediator on the front lines. I saw a few faith leaders of color out there trying to stand between the police and demonstrators at tensions rose, but how is it that in 2020, police do not know how to handle demonstrations? From everything I heard about last night so far, the tensions ignited when police wanted protesters to disperse, in cities that had imposed a curfew (eg, Minneapolis) and in cities that had not (Albany). But the protesters didn't want to disperse. They couldn't disperse. The pain was just too great. They needed to be out in the streets, in front of the police station. They are the Unheard. And they continue to be Unheard. Why haven't the police developed techniques for dealing with this? This was the problem in NYC in 1998. When cops show up in riot gear (see #3 above), they provoke a riot.

....and also, fuck Bill De Blasio. What a joke. (sorry) https://www.cbsnews.com/…/video-shows-nypd-vehicles-drivin…/

....maybe a lesson here? https://www.tmz.com/…/police-in-flint-join-protesters-geor…/

...best advice? Don't speculate about what happened or consult just one news source. The best thing to do is to listen to those who were there. I really appreciated a friend's post about what they saw at last night's protests in Albany that I can't seem to figure out how to link here. Want to see it? DM me.

They eloquently end with this:

"To compare the behavior of the two groups is an absurdity. The police are a well-organized, well-trained, well-funded government agency responsible to the people and avowedly in existence to promote peace and order. The protesters were a disorganized, unprepared, unaffiliated, poor assembly of the public attempting to communicate with the government. The police and the city government are the only ones to blame for the resulting disaster. The fact that no attempt at communication was made at any point by any public agent is a tragedy.

And I think we’ll all soon learn that when public grief is met with force it doesn’t go away, it only becomes more incendiary. The police and the government have a responsibility to meet human emotion with human compassion, and to meet public need and disorder with well-organized care. Until then we’ll see a lot more fire, and I don’t know how to just be sorry about that."
(Thank you, Joan Kelsey).

9. Yesterday, leaders at the afternoon demonstration in Albany exhorted the crowd to vote. That was awesome. So much to say about Joe Biden here but I'll limit it to this: He better not pick Amy Klobuchar. I hope he has smart people giving him advice. https://www.politico.com/…/joe-biden-vice-president-george-…

10. Let's not forget who George Floyd was. It's important to read about what kind of man we lost. https://www.cnn.com/20…/…/27/us/george-floyd-trnd/index.html

In this time when we can't gather in groups, this is what I miss the most. Our apartment in Brooklyn used to be a hub where everyone would come to mourn and hash this stuff out. And now we're all over the place and alone in our homes. I have so much more swirling in my mind. I welcome anyone's thoughts, comments, critique....”