October 22^nd Coalition Holds
7^th National Day of Protest

n October 22^nd, over 1,000 people of diverse ages, backgrounds and cultures gathered in New York City's Union Square Park to observe the 7^th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. The speakers were to the point and vivid; the mood of the crowd, spirited. Much care had been put into the excellent signs and banners displayed at the demonstration.

This National Day of Protest was initiated by a diverse coalition of organizations and individuals who came together in the belief that the people's resistance to police brutality needed to be taken to a higher level nationwide. In holding this Day of Protest each year, the October 22^nd Coalition brings forward those who are most directly under the attack of police brutality and also reaches out to other people of conscience who want to stand against it with them.

Now, more than ever, this is tremendously important because post-911, people’s desire to feel safe has been exploited by the press and media to promote the illusion that everyone who wears a blue uniform is automatically a hero - forget the execution of Amadou Diallo; never mind the fact that Abner Louima was raped and sodomized and most of the criminal cops who participated, actively or passively, were allowed to cover it up and go on walking the streets. The simplistic portrayal of the heroic police officer is in stark contrast to the reality of escalated levels of police violence, brutality and misconduct which continue to be visited upon Black and Latino communities, and is now being extended into communities of Muslim, Arabs and South Asians.

Since September 11^th, 2001, just in the New York and New Jersey area alone, the police have killed THIRTY-SIX people. In some of these killings, the victims were emotionally disturbed and/or were killed in front of horrified family members. Around the country, 146 people have been killed by law enforcement in the past year. However, this epidemic of brutality has been mainly ignored by the media.

This National Day of Protest provided parents and others a chance to shatter the silence in this climate of fear and repression and speak out about how the lives of their loved ones were taken by the police. Among the speakers were Margarita Rosario whose son, Anthony Baez, was shot in the back as he lay face down on the floor; Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson who was shot point blank in the temple, and Nicholas Heyward, Sr., whose son Nicholas Heyward, Jr. was a 13 year old honor student when he was shot and killed in 1994 while playing with a toy gun.

Also speaking were family members of the 23 year-old Haitian immigrant, Georgy Louisgene, who was killed by the police earlier this year. Though the officers claim that he was coming toward them brandishing a knife and a stick, those who witnessed it tell a very different story.

Following the many moving speakers at the rally, there was a march to City Hall Park. All the way down Broadway the chants of the protestors rang out, reverberating off the buildings: "Two thousand Stolen Lives/We refuse to close our eyes," "Killer cops in every town/We won't forget; we won't back down," and "Immigrants are under attack/What're we gonna do?/Stand up, fight back!" and many more.

There was also a stop on the way at 26 Federal Plaza (the INS Building) where they read out the names of some of the hundreds of detainees who still languish in correctional facilities across this nation without access to family, friends or legal representation, and suffer inhumane conditions and even beatings by corrections officers.

On October 22^nd, other protests were held in cities across the nation - in New Haven, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Honolulu to name just a few.

To contact the October 22^nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, call (212) 673-6008, email oct22@yahoo.com, or visit www.geocities.com/oct22ny.

Donna Lamb can be reached at dlamb@gis.net.