Cornel West and more than a dozen other Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested today in Harlem during a civil disobedience protest against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy. The protest took place outside the 28th Precinct at West 123rd Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, as a substantial group of protesters led by West chanted, “Stop & frisk don’t stop the crime. Stop & frisk IS the crime.”

Continue Reading at the Gothamist

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Why I Am Getting Arrested Today

by Carl Dix, Writer, Speaker and Founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Like most Black people in this country, I will never forget my first encounter with the police. Like most Black people in this country, it was not a pleasant experience. Before I take you down that memory lane with me, let me say up front that today I am joining arms with Cornel West and others to voluntarily land myself in the custody of the police. We are conducting non-violent civil disobedience at the 28th Police Precinct in Harlem, New York to put a Stop to the NYPD policy of “Stop & Frisk.”

Continue Reading at Huffington Post

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 21.2011

Contact: Elaine Brower 917 520 0767; Steve Yip 917-868-6007 Joan Hirsch 917-520-9693

stopmassincarceration@ymail.com

Civil Disobedience in Harlem Demands: STOP NYPD’S STOP & FRISK

Who: Cornel West, Professor, Author, Public Intellectual
Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party
Rev. Stephen Phelps, Interim Senior Minister of Riverside Church
Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
Debra Sweet, Director of World Can’t Wait
Rev. Omar Wilks, Unison Pentecostal Church
Prof. Jim Vrettos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Elaine Brower, Military Mom and World Can’t Wait

Joined by “OCCUPY WALL STREET” & others

When: Friday, October 21

1:00 PM Rally at Harlem State Office Building, 125^th St. & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.

         1:30 PM Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at the NYPD 28^TH Precinct,

West 123^rd Street & Frederick Douglass Blvd.

New York, N.Y., October 21, 2011 

The NYPD notorious program of STOP & FRISK will be the target of a new movement of non violent civil disobedience tomorrow as professor and author Cornel West and Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party are joined by the Reverend Stephen Phelps (interim senior minister of Riverside Church) and several other clergy, professors, teachers in front of the 28^th NYPD precinct in Harlem to stop what has been documented to be a “racist, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional policy.” 

Last night the General Assembly of OCCUPY WALL STREET voted to endorse this action and participants will be gathering @ 11AM at Zuccotti Park to travel to Harlem, pledging: “This Friday we will join Cornel West, Carl Dix and others to go from up against the wall to up in their faces with Stop and Frisk.  We are answering the call … We are stopping all this, and we need your help doing that!”

A New Uncompromising Movement Against Stop and Frisk Begins Today

Initiating this action Cornel West & Carl Dix wrote: “… that if you are shocked to hear that this kind of thing happens in this so-called land of freedom and democracy – it does happen all the damned time – you need to JOIN US too – you can’t stand aside and let this injustice be done in your name.” Today’s action is just the beginning … this will continue and spread until stop and frisk is stopped!

STOP & FRISK – The Reality

 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.

On August 3, 2011 a Federal Judge rejected an effort by the City of New York to thwart a lawsuit filed by The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) that challenges the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy and practices. In a statement issued earlier this year CCR said that “for many children being stopped by the police on their way home from school has become a normal after school activity and that is a tragedy.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Senator Eric Adams called for a federal probe of the policy, saying that it is “emblematic of a police culture that disregarded the civil rights of young black and Hispanic men.”

A Matter of Conscience

A young teacher participating in the civil disobedience tomorrow has written: “ I am doing this for mothers, like my own, who have to raise their sons to be docile and complacent with police injustice, knowing that speaking up only means more trouble… I do this for the youth, like the ones I teach, who are offered no options under this system, treated as criminals the moment they mature, and who have come to see themselves that way. No parent should have to raise their child this way; no child should have to grow up this way.” 

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.

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Endorsed by: Charles J. Alexander, Ph.D, UCLA Division of Undergraduate Education; Afrika Bambaata and the Zulu Nation; Rev. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Herb Boyd, journalist, author, Harlem NY; Eve Ensler, playwright, creator of V-day; Brian Figueroux, Esq.; Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist; Nicholas Heyward, Father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. who was killed by police; Sikivu Hutchinson, author; IGNITE (Hunter College); Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church; Cynthia McKinney, former Congressperson; Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center, Greenville, SC; October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression & the Criminalization of a Generation (NY Ctm); Allene Person, mother of Timur Person who was killed by NYPD; Michael Ratner, President Emeritus Center for Constitutional Rights; Bill Quigley, Loyola Law New Orleans; Mark Lewis Taylor, Princeton UniversityTheological Seminary; Sunsara Taylor, writer Revolution Newspaper and World Can’t Wait Advisory Board; Mary Watkins, Ph.D., psychology professor and author, Santa Barbara CA; Clyde Young, revolutionary communist and former prisoner; Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson who was killed by NYPD

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From “Up Against the Wall” to

Up In Their Faces

STOP, STOP & FRISK!

On October 21^st at 1 pm be at the State Office Building in Harlem as:

Cornel West, Professor, Author, Public Intellectual

Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party

Rev. Stephen Phelps, Interim Senior Minister of Riverside Church

Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Debra Sweet, National Director of World Can’t Wait

Rev. Omar Wilks, Union Pentecostal Church

Prof. Jim Vrettos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Elaine Brower, Military Mom and World Can’t Wait

Commit Non-Violent Civil Disobedience to STOP “Stop & Frisk”

The New York Police Department is on pace to “Stop & Frisk” over 700,000 people in 2011! That’s more than 1,900 people each day. More than 85% of those stopped are Black or Latino, many are as young as 11 or 12, and more than 90% of them were doing nothing wrong when the police stopped, humiliated, brutalized them or worse.

Everyone knows it is wrong. It is illegal, racist, unconstitutional and intolerable! But THIS FRIDAY people are putting themselves on the line to STOP IT. This is the beginning; this is serious; we won’t stop until Stop & Frisk is ended.

Join the non-violent civil disobedience – OR – BE THERE TO BEAR WITNESS & SUPPORT!

WEAR BLACK

Friday, October 21

1pm Rally at Harlem State Office Building

1:30 March to NYPD 28^th Precinct at West 123^rd and Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Endorsed by:

Charles J. Alexander, Ph.D, UCLA Division of Undergraduate Education

Afrika Bambaata and the Zulu Nation

Rev. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Herb Boyd, journalist, author, Harlem NY

Eve Ensler, Tony Award winning Playwrite, Creator of VDday

Brian Figueroux, Esq.

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist

Nicholas Heyward, Father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. who was killed by police

Sikivu Hutchinson, author

IGNITE (Hunter College)

Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church

Cynthia McKinney, former Congressperson

Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center, Greenville, SC

October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression & the Criminalization of a Generation (NY Ctm)

Allene Person, mother of Timur Person who was killed by NYPD

Bill Quigley, Loyola Law New Orleans

Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of Center for Constitutional Rights

Mark Lewis Taylor, Princeton University

Sunsara Taylor, writer Revolution Newspaper and World Can’t Wait Advisory Board

Mary Watkins, Ph.D., psychology professor and author, Santa Barbara CA

Clyde Young, revolutionary communist and former prisoner

Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson who was killed by NYPD

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network: PO Box 941, New York, NY 10002

stopmassincarceration@ymail.com * 973.756.7666 * stopmassincarceration.tumblr.com

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Last night hundreds of fliers went out at General Assembly and a call from the Stop, “Stop & Frisk” Working Group, a multinational group of occupiers, who came together to build for October 21^st and 22^nd at OWS, was read which said in part:

“We, occupiers of Wall Street, wholly challenge the New York Police Department’s unconstitutional, racist, and inhumane ‘Stop & Frisk’ policing practice, and we will voice our opposition and challenge this policing practice gathering at 11:30 in Liberty Square to join the Stop ‘Stop & Frisk’ rally on October 21, 2011 In Harlem. On Saturday for the 16^th National Day of Protest against Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation we will WEAR BLACK. We will march in solidarity on October 22^nd at 12pm from Liberty Square to join in this day of protest.”

Early this morning I awoke after barely falling asleep to the sound of rain clamoring on the tarp over my sleeping bag… I start to talk… A young man chimes in that he’s personally experienced this many times and he agrees, it’s time to stand up… One young person, 25 years old, Black, has been in the military but is no longer with that and has been coming every day to the park, sometimes staying over, he decides to open up and tell these stories…

We were coming from the gym in East New York, me, my cousin, my father, he drives a hummer, they stopped all of us, maybe five of us, pulled us over randomly for no reason, he didn’t pass a stop sign didn’t do any illegal traffic moves, two cops came up to the car, I was in the passenger side, one of them was looking in the car, looking in the back, my father said, what are we being stopped for? “We’ll tell you in a minute,” they say. My father works for the Department of Sanitation they got his work card. They came back and said, “You can go.”

Another time with my friend Chris in my neighborhood, my neighborhood’s quiet, a nice neighborhood. They pulled us over got out of the car, put us in hand cuffs told us to sit in the sidewalk while they searched the car and one of the cops came up to us, they said, “The only way we’ll let you go is if you dance for us.” They said, “You heard of the dance ‘chicken noodles soup?’” “No we haven’t,” we said. “The only way we’ll let you go is if you do chicken noodle soup for us.” They let us go when when we said we didn’t know. They were jokin’ around but to me, it’s no joke, they’re trying to degrade us.

I’ve been stopped many times, they just pull up on the side walk. They went through my phone one time, that was a violation of my rights. One time I was waiting for my friend by myself they pull up on the sidewalk they search me take my wallet and phone out the cop goes through the phone sees pictures of my girlfriend “Oh, you’ve got some pictures in there.” I don’t know why you’re asking me where I’m going, who I’m waiting for going through my phone.

Those are just a few, it’s happened so many times, those are just stand out ones, happens all the time. The neighborhood I live in, it’s upper middle class, barely any crime, why do they chose to search us. It’s predominantly black neighborhood and it’s a quiet neighborhood it’s peaceful, but it’s a black neighborhood. I got other neighborhood’s they don’t stop people like that. A lot of them too have no respect for the neighborhood they think they can come in and get away with it, a lot of people don’t know their rights and even if you do they’re still going to do it because it’s you’re word against theirs.

Multiply that by almost 2,000 times. Every day. That’s the reality. Now that you know, it’s up to you to act with conscience on October 21^st to stand with our brothers and sisters in this struggle.

Think about how just a few weeks ago all the anger and frustration at what this society does to people was boiling beneath the surface on the economic crisis and the criminal actions of corporations as well as this government, the lack of healthcare, no jobs, no education, mounting debt and the feeling that we don’t have a future, and now all of this has burst forth and we are impacting the political stage. It’s time for the anger around illegal unconstitutional police stop and frisk and profiling to be heard and it’s time to put a stop to this.

We at Occupy Wall Street have right on our side. We have created something beautiful and important and just- and we aren’t going anywhere!!! If we aren’t standing with people in Harlem on Friday at 1pm, can people really continue to call out that “We are the 99%”?

•  •  7 notes

From “Up Against the Wall” to

Up In Their Faces

STOP, STOP & FRISK!

On October 21^st at 1 pm be at the State Office Building in Harlem as:

Cornel West, Professor, Author, Public Intellectual

Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party

Rev. Stephen Phelps, Interim Senior Minister of Riverside Church

Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Debra Sweet, National Director of World Can’t Wait

Rev. Omar Wilks, Union Pentecostal Church

Prof. Jim Vrettos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Elaine Brower, Military Mom and World Can’t Wait

Commit Non-Violent Civil Disobedience to STOP “Stop & Frisk”

The New York Police Department is on pace to “Stop & Frisk” over 700,000 people in 2011! That’s more than 1,900 people each day. More than 85% of those stopped are Black or Latino, many are as young as 11 or 12, and more than 90% of them were doing nothing wrong when the police stopped, humiliated, brutalized them or worse.

Everyone knows it is wrong. It is illegal, racist, unconstitutional and intolerable! But THIS FRIDAY people are putting themselves on the line to STOP IT. This is the beginning; this is serious; we won’t stop until Stop & Frisk is ended.

Join the non-violent civil disobedience – OR – BE THERE TO BEAR WITNESS & SUPPORT!

WEAR BLACK

Friday, October 21

1pm Rally at Harlem State Office Building

1:30 March to NYPD 28^th Precinct at West 123^rd and Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Endorsed by: Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist; Herb Boyd, journalist, author, Harlem NY; Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center, Greenville, SC; Nicholas Heyward, Father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. who was killed by police; Rev. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church; Brian Figueroux, Esq.

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network: PO Box 941, New York, NY 10002

stopmassincarceration@ymail.com * 973.756.7666 * stopmassincarceration.tumblr.com

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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has endorsed Friday’s non-violent civil disobedience to STOP “Stop & Frisk”!  He says he will announce it at a talk he is giving publicly on Thursday evening at Union Theological Seminary.

Will YOU spread the word?  Will YOU be there?

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We are launching a campaign to take the movement to stop it to a higher level on Friday, October 21st, and YOU NEED TO JOIN US!
Come to the MASS MEETING: October 17, 2011 Monday 7:00 PMSt. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 521 West 126th Street at Amsterdam Avenue
STOP ‘STOP & FRISK’ DAY: October 21st FRIDAY1:00 PM. Rally at the Harlem State Office Building1:30 PM. March to the NYPD 28th Precinct at West 123rd and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. At the precinct, we will deliver a message that we aim to stop police from violating people’s rights through `Stop & Frisk.’

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By Meredith Hoffman and Rob Harris

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

With a chorus of plastic drumbeats, solidarity chants and fluttering flags, more than 400 protesters made a pilgrimage across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Park in Manhattan.

One marcher held a giant paper hand with this inscription: “N.Y.P.D. Keep Your Hands Off Me.”

The marchers, organized by Make the Road New York, an advocacy group for immigrants and low-income people, and joined by several City Council members, were demanding changes in the police’s stop-and-frisk policy, which critics say singles out black and Latino young people, most of whom are never charged.

“We’re not antipolice,” Make the Road community organizer Jesus Gonzales said at the rally at City Hall Park. “We just don’t want them to take part in a process that doesn’t work.”

Justin Rosado, a 16-year-old youth leader with Make the Road, spoke about the first time he was stopped and frisked, at age 13, while playing basketball on the roof of his own building. He recalled being searched by an officer, who then issued him a ticket for trespassing, which was later dropped. 

“I am a kid who follows the rules,” Mr. Rosado said, “but none of that matters because I am young and Latino.”

Other speakers included Kimberly Dukenso, a transgender woman who said she was recently arrested because the police mistook her for a prostitute, and City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, who was detained at last month’s West Indian Day Parade in what he has called a racially motivated arrest.

“I was told N.Y.P.D. doesn’t racially profile,” said Mr. Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat who represents Flatbush. “Do you believe that?”

“No!” the crowd yelled.

Several other City Council members, including Melissa Mark-Viverito andGale A. Brewer of Manhattan and Daniel Dromm of Queens, said they planned to propose legislation to end the practice of stopping and frisking. The new bill, Mr. Williams said, would allow people to sue when frisked, would define “racial profiling” and would make the police more accountable.

“You’re not criminals” he told the crowd. “You’re beautiful children of God.”

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