Police Brutality Protest to be Held in NYC

On Wednesday, December 6^th, a 15-year-old human rights organization called The December 12^th Movement will lead a protest rally to "Resist Fascism and the Rise of the American Police State." The rally will take place at 4:30 PM at New York Police Department Headquarters; One Police Plaza, Downtown New York.

Even before the death of Sean Bell, the unarmed African-American killed on his wedding day at the hands of NYPD officers, New York community leaders had begun organizing a mass police protest rally after observing patterns of increased police harassment and brutality in the Black and Latino communities in the city.

Civil rights attorney, Roger Wareham stated, "This is not a celebrity driven event. The racist policy emanating from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Chief of the Organized Crime Bureau, Anthony Izzo, must be stopped. It is systemic institutionalized racism."

According to Wareham, the organizers are demanding the resignation of both men and a change in police policy.

Noted comparisons of such reckless discharge and murders by New York City Police include Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 23-year-old African immigrant; Patrick Dorismon, an unarmed 26-year-old, Haitian American; Aswan Watson, an unarmed African American and Anthony Baez who was unarmed and choked to death by New York police officer Francis Livoti.

Some of the issues that will be addressed as part of the protest include police profiling of Black youth; NYPD occupation of the Black Community; police aggression, harassment and overkill; and the erosion of civil rights.