Quantcast

Photos: Protesters Chant "NYPD KKK" At Anti Stop-And-Frisk March In Lower Manhattan

A day after Cornel West and 31 others were arrested in Harlem at a civil disobedience rally, around 500 protesters gathered in lower Manhattan to march against the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Many Occupy Wall Street activists joined in on the nationwide Annual Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality. According to photographer Katie Sokoler, "We walked past the area where [former Office Kenneth] Moreno went into that drunk girl's apartment. The chant then turned into 'Hey hey NYPD, why do rapist cops go free?'"

In addition, people were holding signs with names of NYers who were killed by cops. One man was encouraging everyone to chant "NYPD KKK," while other chanted "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, These Racists Got To, Got To Go" and "Fuck The Police." The NYPD stopped-and-frisked a record 601,055 people last year (the vast majority of whom were Black or Latino), and are on pace to exceed that number this year. This week, several elected officials called for a federal probe into the policy, but Mayor Bloomberg vigorously defended the policy, saying that we'd be left with “a society you can’t live in,” without it.

One participant told the News they were disappointed with the turnout for Saturday's march: "We need bigger numbers -- five or 10 million -- and then they'd listen. This is not enough," said David. Click through to see more photos from the march.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • 2BklynNative2

    Seriously lets be logical.....let's look at the demographics in the neighborhood with high crime and tease out the descriptions of who is committing the crimes.  Do we come up with Female/Asians in their 40"s?  If so that is who I would expect the police to stop.......

  • randomtransplant

    How many of the protesters were chanting this, for how long during the march?

  • When in doubt pull the race card. And of course it's white people who saying it who feel guilty because people with their skin color were assholes to blacks before they were born. These people defending blacks is the most racist thing there is because they are pretty much saying they know what's best for the blacks even though they probably don't know any personally.

  • When an 11 year old girl gets caught in the crossfire, or teenage gangbangers kill one another, or parents beat their 2 year old children near death, or a 60 year old woman gets raped in broad daylight, why does nobody protest?  Someone that matches the description of a perp gets stopped and frisked, and sent on their way, and people go apeshit.  Makes no sense to me.

  • cr17

    Because the legal system does little to protect the victims, nor to avenge the victim (Yes, there's probably a better way of putting that I realize, but can't think of it now.) Mainly, the system protects the guilty.

  • Raymond Yeung

    Most cops who police the city lives in and grew up in staten island, a place that is vastly different than the rest of the boro, isolated an lack diversity, might as well be jersey and should be. 

  • randomtransplant

    Very little of Jersey is anything like Staten Island. Its a big, diverse place. 

    I'm sure you'll just see and say what you want to see and say, but Staten Island is a product of New York.

  • shocktheday

    If I lived in a neighborhood where babies were being shot in the eye and old ladies shot in front of their homes, I would not mind the stop and frisk policy.

  • Guest

    Easy to say when you have never been stopped and harassed by the supposed 'finest' just so they could make their quota of UF-250's.

  • ed_Ex2

    Funny thing, if all the police disappeared from protecting OWS, these same people would be screaming that the police don't do enough. It's a catch-22. I agree that some police behavior at OWS has been over-the-top, I have seen it myself, but it's a very low percentage (.000001%)

    Stick to the facts, the police and the Mayor aren't to blame for the criminal activity on Wall Street. Go after Congress and the banks who f*cked this all up to begin with by overturning, in 1999, the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 with the "new and improved" Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act—this bank mess is ALL because of that.

  • fixilator

    "Funny thing, if all the police disappeared from protecting OWS, these same people would be screaming that the police don't do enough."

    Wrong.

  • Roger_the_Shrubber

    Protesting the the cops when they do something wrong is one thing: calling them pigs is quite another and just exposes people for the leftist stuck-in-the-60's nutjobs they are.

  • cr17

    What's the "criminalization of hip-hop" all about? Googled that, but couldn't find a clear definition. Anyone?

  • nomadnewyork

    I heard about this. I had actually planned to go to this demonstration because I do not approve of stop&frisk but calling the NYPD KKK is completely unacceptable. I'm glad that I didn't go because I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut.

  • Guest

    Calling NYPD the KKK is unacceptable. They are more like the Gestapo or the SS.

  • I've been following & documenting NYPD violence for a while and I completely understand the upset and frustration over police violence. It's a real and serious issue. My dad grew up in Jim Crow south so I know all about KKK. I'm also a bit of a WWII buff and. I sincerely doubt that people who really did live through Nazi Germany would believe that the NYPD is like the Gestapo or the SS. That doesn't make the violence by the NYPD ok, but the comparison is incorrect.

  • Guest

    In 1990, there were 2,605 murders in New York City. 2,605 human beings. Now, to be sure most of these people weren't from Tottenville or Breezy Point - they were from the neighborhoods that benefitted most profoundly from smarter enforcement, of which stop, question and frisk is a tool. To be sure, there were other factors involved in the crime drop that started in the 90s but smarter enforcement had much to do with it. My point is, I wonder how many people at the protest were there because of tactics like stop, question and frisk?

  • DoctorMemory

    POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC.

    Congratulations, you're an idiot.

  • Guest

    Ad hominem attacks are logical fallacies. If you had a point, you would have made it.

  • kevd

    I don't think that identifying your logical fallacy is an ad hominem attack.

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com