FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2011 Rally & Civil Disobedience in Brownsville
Demands: STOP NYPD’s “Stop & Frisk”
When: Tuesday, November 1, 4:00 PM
Where: Rally at: Tilden Houses in Brownsville (corner of Livonia & Rockaway Avenues)
March to: 73 Precinct, 1470 East New York Avenue
New York, NY, October 31, 2011: Under its controversial ‘stop and frisk’ program, the NYPD detains 2,000 people every day. Communities throughout New York City are standing up through non-violent civil disobedience to demand accountability for abusive practices targeting groups the police assume to be politically powerless.
On Nov. 1, residents of Brooklyn, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, activists from Occupy Wall Street and others, are taking the fight to the 73rd Police Precinct in Brownsville, which claims the highest rate of stops-and-frisks in New York City. A similar Oct. 21 demonstration drew more than 200 protesters, who stood in solidarity with Cornel West, Carl Dix, Debra Sweet, Jim Vrettos and others who were arrested for blocking the entrance to the 28th precinct in Harlem.
The growing public attention around the controversial policy comes at a time of tremendous turmoil within the NYPD. In addition to contention in the upper ranks of the police force around ‘stop and frisk,’ a raft of scandals have wracked the department with allegations ranging from planting drug evidence on innocent residents, to ticket fixing, gun-running and general lawlessness. Violent confrontations with protesters at Occupy Wall Street have brought the illegal practices of the NYPD further into the national spotlight, drawing attention to long-standing and under-reported systemic oppression here in New York.
Carl Dix, who organized the protests with Cornel West and others, says, “Stop and Frisk is a major pipeline to ‘racially-targeted mass incarceration,’ and many have compared it as the ‘new Jim Crow,’ where Black and Latino young people are targeted and permanently criminalized, and reduced to second class citizenship by society.”
The November 1st civil obedience action will begin with a 4 PM rally at Brownsville’s Tilden Houses at the corner of Livonia & Rockaway Avenues. From there people will march to the 73rd NYPD Precinct at 1470 East New York Ave, Brooklyn, New York, and carry out non-violent civil disobedience.
Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign
c/o P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station
New York City, New York 10002-0900
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.stopmassincarceration.org
Twitter: @StopMassIncNet
The "Stop Mass Incarceration: We're Better Than That!" Network is a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a 501c3 tax-exempt organization. Tax-deductible contributions accepted, and checks should be made payable to the "Alliance for Global Justice, with "Mass Incarceration Network" in the memo line. Other forms of contributions also accepted.