Part of what makes the #BlackLivesMatter movement potentially devastating to the powers that be is the continual disinfectant light on both the inner workings of the police and the justice system in America. It’s potency also derives from its continued exposure of the legal apparatus which shifts mean and ugly economic suppression onto the poor, minorities and the marginalized through quota ticketing systems and Broken Windows policies. In my view, it's a coverup designed to keep in place a system in which the wealthy, corporations, and Wall St. avoid paying their fair share, while keeping the working class divided and conquered by propaganda, and embroiled with fees, penalties, low wage jobs and rising cost of living.
Still we see many whites remain dazed and in a state of denial concerning the regularity of police brutality and degradation of our justice system for people of color. The cascade of recent revelations just keep coming: the shocking reports of rampant abuse by guards at Rikers Island, police violence and coverup, and justice consistently denied - especially toward minorities. Privy to such intimacy within this world, legal aid lawyers in NYC decided it was time to voice their grievances publicly.
A rally was planned last month by a few public defender lawyers with the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) Staten Island Office, to march to the Staten Island District Attorney’s office and the 120th Precinct on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. As their press release explains, the group was motivated by the horrible non-indictment in the Eric Garner case (it’s apparently easier for Grand Juries to indict police officers for cruelty to animals), as well as the daily injustices they bear witness to.
So yesterday a bunch of us boarded the 3pm Staten Island Ferry. They expected maybe 50 people would show up. 200 came. Many were in their 20’s and 30’s and white, though not all. It was an impressive showing of young legal professionals tired of a grueling, inhumane system. At the terminal candles were handed out for a planned vigil in front of the 120th precinct, and Occupy mic checks were used to give instructions to the assembled about the day’s schedule.
And these folks came prepared, engaged, and reverent, dressed sharply and with impressive signs (though one was overheard asking, “What is the second part of the chant?” of the old standby “No Justice, No Peace”). Some of the signs were appropriately scathing of the deeply corrupt indictment process, with bull's-eyes on the crooked Staten Island D.A. Dan Donavan’s farce of a non-indictment. The fact that these lawyers took the time to make creative and colorful signs was a clear indication of their dissatisfaction with the dirty policing and corrupt justice system they have to live with, and perhaps a barometer of the level of interest and support for the larger #BlackLivesMatter movement. It was another encouraging reminder of the depth and breadth of what’s unfolding in front of our very eyes at the beginning of this new year.
When we arrived at the police house the familiar barricades were up. Lots of vigorous chants went up, including “No Justice No Peace, No Racist Police,” “Indict, Convict, Send Those Killer Cops To Jail,” “Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Shut It Down, Shut It Down,” and “I Can’t Breathe” (with a numbered count to eleven to signify the amount of pleas he made ). The Garner family came and spoke, and led the crowd in still more chants. They were visibly consoled by the mass of demonstrators which had sprung from the legal ranks. Eric Garner’s daughter Erica emotionally told the crowd that they still very much want justice and that she didn’t want her father’s death to be in vain. They asked for an 11 minute moment of silence.
-The Garner Family-
We also sang.
The gathering then proceeded to D.A. Donavan’s office for another demonstration. On a narrow side street with high buildings the lawyer-led chants were even more resonant. A short while later we were off again toward the final destination of where Eric Garner was choked to death.
There was an interesting and revealing moment for the protesters when the march stopped just before Bay St, the main thoroughfare where the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, the 120th Precinct and other municipal buildings reside. All day long, a man in a red sweatshirt and hat, who appeared to be a chaperone or adviser of sorts to the Garner family or could have been taken to be a relation, given his proximity and influence, had been sort of marshaling the march closely with the police head.
I found out later from a local activist that he was appointed by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network to supervise the event, which was planned by members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA). His over attentiveness to the police, insistent reminders that this was a peaceful protest (the majority of which were mild-mannered lawyers), and bizarre chiding that he didn’t want "outsiders" (the classic authoritarian conservative attempt to malign honest civic protest) to do anything (there were less than a handful of activists on hand) made me view all of his actions differently after I was told this.
It's fairly well-documented that there's a major rift going on between the younger activists at the heart of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the Civil Rights elders. It could be said that for many involved Sharpton is seen as an impediment and establishment conciliator. Word is that he has major sway over the Garner family.
The irony of it was that we had just come from marching in the streets and shutting traffic down for a bit, both on the way to the precinct and the DA office, and it looked like this could be the heart of the day – shutting down rush hour traffic on a main st of Staten Island. It would have been an appropriate honor on Martin Luther King’s birthday, a law-breaking master of civil disobedience.
A few of us went forward, sensing the canard. The Sharpton guy was convening closely with the police. People were wondering why we weren’t proceeding, and into the streets – wasn’t this the whole point, shutting it down? But alas, it wasn’t to be. They fairly contained everyone back onto the sidewalks and a great opportunity was averted, thanks to the coordinated efforts of our friend in red and the NYPD.
A couple of blocks before we reached the memorial two volunteers were stationed on either side of the marchers handing out white roses. When we got to the small park across the street from where Garner was killed, the crowd looked even bigger than before. A few moments later, we were each making our way somberly over to the sidewalk in front of the memorial that has remained erect since the night he was killed to place the given stemmed flowers, where Garner’s mother and daughter greeted sympathizers. Erica spoke again, this time reading from her phone, denouncing an online controversy and making an unclear statement about voting and getting people into office. She also mentioned how we have to get involved economically, which presumably meant boycotts and promoting black-owned business.
At the end of the night I was standing with Eric Garner’s step-father Ben Carr and just two others. Everyone else had left. Jet Blue hadn’t flown anybody in from around the country to attend any of the memorials for his step-son and as far as I know he hasn’t been contacted by the Yankees offering to pay for Garner’s kid’s education. He was eminently humble and warm with a softly-tinged voice from the South, with eyes tired from not sleeping and a whirlwind surrounding his family. He told me that
the New York Post came to his door, and he told them to go away. “They entered my garage and took pictures of my car,” he said. The shameless and tawdry Murdoch minions (
unwritten company policy requires “reporters” to be as sleazy as its sociopathic media emperor), even came up on him in the park, across the street from the tragic, senseless and completely preventable death. I wondered if cops' wives are hounded like this.
As I rode home on my first ever ferry trip from the historically conservative bastion of Tory sympathizers who hosted the British armada sent to crush the colonial rebellion, I realized not much has changed. Earlier in the afternoon we had been escorted by an NYPD boat. Some of the lawyers began to wave friendlily. They didn’t wave back. I looked at the Statue of Liberty and thought not of what a transcendent monument of liberty it must have been for my ancestors to come upon, but of today’s global elites running my city into the ground with help from neoliberal policies favoring Wall St. The Lou Reed song of the late 80’s “Dirty Blvd” came to mind:
“Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor, I'll piss on 'em.
That's what the Statue of Bigotry says.
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death,
and get it over with, and just dump 'em on the boulevard.”
The Staten Island District Attorney egregiously oversaw a non-indictment of what could be considered the most damning video footage of police brutality to reach the public in decades, so far-reaching that even in my personal experience, I’ve heard firsthand of it being talked about intensely from Iran to South Africa. A filthy, vicious, cold-blooded cop of no scruples named
Scarcella also lives there. He’s recently been exposed for having violently framed young black men through physical coercion.
The detective has ruined the lives of more than a few, including this man who spent 20 years in jail, more than half of his life, and
two other cases stemming from coerced confessions, which have cost the city over $21 million. Collectively, the three men have served over 70 years in jail. For nothing. Like Scarcella, the killer
Panteleo is also of a breed who believe themselves above the law, judge and jury in one, cowboy wannabe fantasy hacks. It's a pity they don't have the fortitude to hear and ponder what another Italian-American NYPD officer named Serpico, probably the most famous in the world,
has to say about justice, policing and doing right and wrong. Scarcella’s brother, also a member of the NYPD, just killed himself recently. The job isn't easy and guilt is a heavy burden to live with. I would bet Serpico comparatively has an immaculate conscience.
That lawyers showed up en masse, in such numbers and fine protest form, represents another rank of solidarity that bodes well for the #BlackLivesMatter movement going ahead this year. Next up in NYC, there are 2 marches this Monday: one downtown and one uptown.
"Eric Garner
Michael Brown
ShutItDown
#ShutItDown"