Protesters, mostly high school students, followed a route from Union Square to Times Square, on Dec. 1, passing local high schools (including Professional Performing Arts High School at 328 W. 48th St.).
BY ZACH WILLIAMS | Organized through social media and galvanized by a shared concern for justice, high school students led a Dec. 1 protest against police brutality.
They gathered at Union Square that afternoon, before marching along a meandering path to Times Square — where they sat in silence to honor Michael Brown, an 18-year-old from Ferguson, MO fatally shot on Aug. 9 by police officer Darren Wilson. The Nov. 24 decision by a grand jury to not indict Wilson catalyzed protests across the country, including New York City.
Following the announcement, thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets that day in Midtown and Downtown Brooklyn, blocking East River bridges and traffic. Action continued throughout the week including Black Friday, when demonstrators protested inside Macy’s at Herald Square. Wilson resigned from the Ferguson Police Department on Nov. 29.
Police officers who shoot people of color face too few consequences, protesters say. Investigations continue in some cases though, including the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man killed by an NYPD officer through the use of a chokehold (the grand jury decided not to indict, Dec. 3, as Chelsea Now went to press).
“We need justice in America. It’s false advertising what we have here,” said Mia Luna, a student at New York Harbor School on Governors Island who, like many participants, said she learned of the march through social media.
Activists said that police mistreatment of minorities should coalesce into a national movement against institutionalized racism — but in order to do that, they asserted, protests must continue. A handful of local teenagers did their part by organizing through the weekend to make sure that New York City would not be left behind.
Before they could take the streets on Dec. 1, some students had to overcome the resistance of school administrators reluctant to let them participate in political action at the expense of their studies.
The problem was particularly acute at New York Harbor School because the waters stood in their way. According to 17-year-old student-organizer Shana Buckstad, 167 students at the school congregated at the island’s ferry terminal at about noon, but they were given seats on-board only after a half-hour sit-in.
Demonstrators were hard to miss, as they took to the streets of Midtown for one of many demonstrations against police brutality nationwide.
High school students led a demonstration against police brutality on Dec. 1, which began at Union Square.
“We sat there on the ground with our hands up and said: ‘Hands up! Don’t shoot!’ and then we were ready and we got on (the ferry),” said Buckstad.
Students came to the Midtown march in large numbers from four other schools, according to student-organizer 17-year-old Mojique Tyler, who attends Bard High School Early College in the East Village. Representatives of a dozen more schools were also present, he added.
Tyler had ambitions for a student-oriented march when he met Buckstad at a demonstration last week, she noted. After Tyler met with the Ferguson Action Team (a coalition of activists organizing protests in 70 cities) on Nov. 28, he created a Facebook group to organize a local event for the coalition’s nationwide #HandsUpWalkout on Dec. 1.
“The young people are leading like they were leading in the Sixties and I came out to support them and say ‘Let’s do it together,” said Geoffrey Davis whose brother, former City Councilmember James Davis, was gunned down in City Hall by a political rival in 2003.
The action team and other activist groups provided the signs, which included slogans borrowed from activists in Ferguson, MO. Tyler created a Facebook group from which word spread. Hundreds of students responded — a higher-than anticipated number, he said.
Adults would also join the march, by the time it got moving at about 1:15 p.m., comprising an estimated two-fifths of the total turnout.
Activists first circled Union Square, moving through a craft market in the process. They then headed east on E. 15th St. before turning north on Third Ave. Over the next two hours, they zigzagged their way towards Times Square while highlighting the disparity between police treatment of white people and communities of color.
Annmarie Jackson of Canarsie, Brooklyn said her teenage son is regularly harassed by police, sometimes twice per day.
“[They] treat us like we don’t matter and for what it’s worth we do matter,” she said.
Confrontation between law enforcement and activists was minimal on Dec. 1, but the former kept a tight watch over the marches, threatening arrest for those who ventured into the street from the sidewalk. At certain points along the march, activists attempted to swarm streets only to retreat as police shepherded them back onto pedestrian paths with scooters and stern warnings.
About a half-dozen protesters were arrested overall, said an attorney for the National Lawyers Guild. In at least one circumstance, a cyclist arrested at the intersection of Eighth Ave. and W. 48 St., it was not readily apparent whether the detained person was actively participating in the march.
Upon arrival in front of the NYPD station in Times Square, activists gathered for four-and-a-half minutes of silence in recognition of the hours that Brown’s body remained on-scene following the Aug. 9 shooting. But they were not done following the die-in. The group took off once again at about 3:30 p.m. heading further into Hell’s Kitchen.
They tried once more to escape the police detail, briefly taking over Eighth Ave. near its intersection with W. 45 St. Police quickly regained their position as the march turned towards the Hudson River at W. 48th St. By then, there were whispers among organizers at the front on how to shake law enforcement once again.
A half-dozen students at Professional Performing Arts High School cheered them on as they passed. After traveling south on Ninth Ave., marchers surprised police by abruptly turning East against traffic on W. 43rd St. Yet, the police once again quickly caught up.
By 4 p.m. they were back at Times Square — though their numbers had decreased by then to about 300. Some passerby paid little attention to the demonstration, but others expressed delight.
Mike Simmons, who works in the tourism industry, said fear of the NYPD discouraged him from civic action after police officers entered his home in October for what Simmons said was no reason. Police treatment of minorities requires personal experience to fully comprehend, but people need to unite against it nonetheless, according to Simmons.
“You understand it, but when it happens to you, it’s mind-boggling,” he said.
