Civil Disobedience to Stop NYPD “Stop and Frisk”

Ministers, Others to Engage in Civil Disobedience to Stop NYPD “Stop and Frisk”

What: Rally & Non-violent civil disobedience
When: Friday, October 21, 1:00 pm at Harlem State Office Building, 125th St. & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.
1:30 PM 28TH Precinct, NYPD West 123rd & Fred Douglass Blvd.

New York, N.Y., October 19, 2011 – The NYPD’s policy of “stop and frisk” will face another challenge Friday, this time as religious leaders and others plan civil disobedience to stop what they call a “racist, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional policy.”

According to a New York Civil Liberties Union study, the NYPD is on pace to stop and frisk over 700,000 people in 2011, or more than 1,900 people each day. More than 85%of those stopped and frisked are Black or Latino, and more than 90% of them were doing nothing wrong when the police stopped them.

As part of a coalition effort, high school and college students have been called to leave school and attend a 1:00pm rally at the Harlem State Office Building demanding an end to the “Stop and Frisk” policy.

Friday’s 1:30 pm march to the 28th Precinct of the NYPD will be led by Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party and Dr. Cornel West, popular and outspoken academic and author, who issued the call to stop “Stop and Frisk.” http://stopmassincarceration.tumblr.com/sfcall; Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church; Rev. Stephen Phelps, interim senior minister at Riverside Church, Rev. Omar Wilks of the Union Pentecostal Church of Brooklyn; Professor Jim Vrettos from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Debra Sweet, Director of World Can’t Wait, and Elaine Brower, anti-war leader, will participate. Other supporters include Rev. Luis Barrios of John Jay College, Rev. Lawrence Lucas of Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church, and Brian Figeroux,Esq., prominent attorney in the Caribbean community.

Organizers say, “At the NYPD 28th Precinct, a strong determined message will be sent that there is a movement aimed to stop police from violating people’s rights through ‘stop and frisk.’” According to Dix, “mass resistance” is needed because the NYPD is “harassing and humiliating a lot of innocent people. And then we’ve also seen cases where these stops escalate to beat downs, arrests, and even people being killed….it is a burning injustice and we want to tap into what we feel is a supportive mood around resisting it, and to link in with people who are trying to deal with it on other levels, whether that’s through the courts, political, the electoral arena.”

Along with the NYCLU’s criticism of the racially discriminatory policy, several New York City Council members are calling for an end to the Stop and Frisk policy. A march on City Halllast month brought students who have experienced the policy across the Brooklyn Bridge to demand its end. This week, a NYPD officer is facing federal civil rights violations because he allegedly “used a racial slur while bragging that he had falsely charged a black man with resisting arrest after stopping and frisking him on Staten Island last spring.”

Participants will also attend Saturday’s 2:00 pm rally at Union Square, part of a National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation.

ENDS

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