Stop Mass Incarceration Network — STOP Stop + Frisk
V-DAY RALLY and COURT SOLIDARITY Events This Week
Tuesday, Feb. 14 AT THE BRONX “Hall of Justice”
for Christina Gonzalez
Thursday, Feb. 16 AT MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT
for the 30 Freedom Fighters arrested during a civil disobedience protest
against Stop & Frisk at the 28th Precinct
PACK THE COURTROOM!
Join members of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign, along with other organizers and community members, at a V-DAY Rally and Day of Court Solidarity this Tuesday, February 14th at 9 a.m. to support Christina Gonzalez, a.k.a. Go Stina, who has been a relentless activist, raising her voice against the criminalization of kids and NYPD terror! Stop Stop & Frisk mobilizes again this Thursday, February 16th when the 30 people arrested during a non-violent civil disobedience protest at the 28th Precinct in October face a preliminary hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court. Stop Stop & Frisk will hold a rally and press conference beginning at 8:45 a.m. outside the court at 100 Centre St.
On February 1st, Christina Gonzalez went to the Bronx “Hall of Justice” to support Jatiek Reed, who was brutally beaten by the NYPD just days earlier. Upon entry into the courthouse, Christina and two other STOP Stop & Frisk activists were targeted because of the “STOP Stop and Frisk” buttons they were wearing. Christina was aggressively arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and will be seen by the judge on Tuesday, February 14th. In honor of V-Day, we will show our love by packing the courthouse to support Christina in the fight against the traumatic criminalization of young people. The Bronx Hall of Justice is located at 265 E. 161st St. Take the 4 train to 161 St-Yankee Stadium.
On October 21, thirty-six people were arrested outside the 28th Precinct in Manhattan in the first of a series of civil disobedience protests against the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy. In launching a civil disobedience campaign to STOP stop and frisk, Princeton Professor Dr. Cornel West and Carl Dix, revolutionary communist leader, issued a call to action: “If you are sick and tired of being harassed and jacked up by the cops, JOIN US. And if you are shocked to hear that this kind of thing happens in this so-called homeland of freedom and democracy—it does happen, all the damned time—you need to JOIN US too.”
The protest drew more than 200 protesters, who stood in solidarity with West and Dix; Rev. Steven Phelps of Riverside Church; Rev. Earl Kooperkamp of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church; Dr. Jim Vrettos of John Jay College, dozens of Wall Street Occupiers, and NYC residents who have been stopped and frisked by the NYPD were among those arrested.
Carl Dix, one of the defendants, is scheduled to speak at Riverside Church February 18 on Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide. Dix says, “We declared on Oct 21 that Stop & Frisk, which serves as a pipeline to mass incarceration has to be stopped, and that we were acting to stop it. We remain determined to stop these outrages, and we will display that determination in the streets in the courtrooms they drag us into.”
The NYPD faced intense protest from the community and just advocates over police actions in the Bronx last week, including the killing of 19 year old Rahmarley Graham, unarmed, and in his own apartment with family, by officers of the 47th Precinct. Earlier, officers from the 42nd Precinct beat 19 year old Jatiek Reed. Superintendent Raymond Kelly has not yet answered demands for his resignation by Muslims and other New Yorkers over Kelly’s participation in a discredited film which portrayed the Islamic religion as linked with terrorism.
Defendants in related acts of non-violent civil disobedience at NYPD precincts in Brooklyn & Queens are also in court this week and in the coming weeks. Twenty-eight people arrested in a non-violent civil disobedience protest at the 73rd Precinct face hearings on February 17th, February 24th, and March 9th at Brooklyn Criminal Court; 20 people arrested in a non-violent civil disobedience at the 103rd Precinct face hearings in Queens on February 24th. The STOP Stop & Frisk Campaign is calling for a show of solidarity from supporters with rallies and a strong presence in the courtroom at these hearings.
Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign
c/o P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station
New York City, New York 10002-0900
Twitter: @ENDstopandfrisk @StopMassIncNet
