Address:
55th St. and Church Ave.
Brooklyn New York 11203
United States
People in New York: Support Kimani Gray's community and all communities of color besieged by police violence, by coming out for a MASS MARCH SUNDAY THE 24TH. 3 pm, from the site of Kiki's vigil at 55th and Church, marching to the 67th precinct.
WEDNESDAY the 20th, there is a Stop and Frisk Town Hall Meeting (Co-Sponsored by Council Member Williams) 5:30 PM-7:30 PM, 833 Marcy Ave (Concord Baptist Church)
Jose Lasalle of Stop Stop and Frisk has asked people to make this Town Hall about police brutality, not violence amongst kids. There may be a speak-out and planning meeting for the Sunday march as well (for location, check: goo.gl/XjveK).
You have also been invited to come every day at 7 pm to show your support for East Flatbush in its fight against police brutality (55th and Church). Check the WE WANT JUSTICE FOR KIMANI GRAY Facebook page for updates.
Keep in mind that people from outside the neighborhood should come as supporters and take a back seat.
Here are some tips on how to show respect when you arrive (these are tips from OWS, not asked of us by community members):
Do not mic check at these demonstrations. That's for East Flatbush residents and march Organizers to take the lead on. If you do so, and you are not a resident or long-time Organizer in the area, we will know you are not with Occupy Wall Street.
When asked whether people from outside the neighborhood should be coming by, a longtime Organizer had this advice to give: "Come, yes. But don't come if you are not internally organized. Come. Come if you can take a back seat. Come if you plan to develop real relationships and maintain them over the long-haul."
In Oakland there will be a solidarity rally, March 21st at 5pm #OaklandProtest in #solidarity w/ #BrooklynProtest
16-year-old Kimani Gray was shot seven times – four times in the front of his body, and three times in the back – last Saturday. And for a third straight day demonstrators gathered in his neighborhood, East Flatbush, to protest New York Police Department brutality. After 100 people attended a candlelight vigil near Brooklyn's 67th Precinct, as many as 50 people were arrested as a demonstration spread throughout the neighborhood. Thereafter, according to a range of bloggers and social media activists, East Flatbush became a "frozen area," with media barred.
RT reports, "Brooklynites were heard shouting "murderers!" at the massive police presence Wednesday as officers prohibited people from even stepping onto the street in one of New York's poorer neighborhoods while police helicopters circled overhead." Ray Kelly himself, the Police Commissioner, did not characterize the demonstration as a riot, as some local newspapers did, but he did describe the assembly as disorderly.
Police mistrust runs deep in a neighborhood disproportionately targeted by the NYPD's deeply unpopular Stop and Frisk policy, widely regarded as a racist practice.
Franclot Graham told AP: "I'm not going to tell people don't be angry because we're all angry...It's OK to vent but you have to respect the family's wishes and be peaceful." Graham's teenage son, Ramarley Graham, was shot and killed after police chased him into his Bronx home last year. A New York police officer has since been charged with manslaughter in the death.
Gray's family maintains he wasn't armed. According to AP, a cousin of Kiki, Ray Charles, was still having trouble accepting the NYPD's official version of events: "My cousin was scared of guns...I honestly just want justice. They didn't need to shoot him like that...The real issue in Brooklyn is cops have been harassing us for a long time," he said. "It needs to stop."
ON-THE-SCENE REPORTING FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET
One Occupy activist on the scene, Austin Guest, observed:
At the invitation of a comrade from Flatbush, I went down for the second straight night tonight to the protests surrounding Kimani Gray's murder at 55th & Church. Out of a sea of over three hundred people, I was one of maybe a dozen white faces, most of them journalists. For the the first time in over a year spent organizing non-stop demonstrations on Wall Street, I was at a protest, but I was just along for the ride – firmly and gladly ensconced in the back seat. From that back-seat position, I witnessed one the most mind-blowing protests I have ever been to. I felt humbled and at times scared – in the presence of a deep, intense force surging up, demanding to be heard.
A few moments that stick in my head:
A crowd of protesters being pushed aggressively out of the street in front of the 67th precinct by riot cops, turning on a dime, sprinting in the opposite direction, finding and surrounding a cop car, shoving it and hitting its windows, dispersed only by a barrage of pepper spray to their faces from the terrified cop inside the car
A teenage girl staring down a line of riot cops and yelling "MURDERERS!" fearlessly at the top of her lungs into their stone cold faces
The look of panic on the driver of a police van's face after the rear window of his van was smashed, seemingly from nowhere
A crowd being pushed down a side street by scooter cops, followed minutes later by a shower of glass bottles flying from apartment buildings onto the heads of the scooter cops
A car by Kimani's memorial blasting Bob Marley's "War" and a mass of quiet, somber people pulsing and bobbing their heads in slowly growing rage."
Tensions were high, but according to Yoni Brombacher Miller, "I wasn't worried about getting arrested myself; it was clear they (the NYPD) weren't interested in the non-people of color, or adults. They were clearly going after the youth."
Brombacher Miller added, "How can we best amplify and strengthen their militant struggle for justice? Some, like Councilman Jumaane Williams argued that the 'youth should be controlled', and while he argues that they're right to be angry, he is also stifling their rage instead of agitating with them. The NYPD cannot and will not be part of the restorative process. The only steps that must be taken, are a demilitarized, reduced NYPD with expansion of social programs and services, which currently the NYPD is actively a part in preventing.
"I was roughly thrown over barricade by cops, but I'll be back tomorrow, and the night after and after, because this is truly historical, and Brooklyn's moment. The youth today were brave, and many more shall be inspired to join up."
To show solidarity with those arrested, call 311 and demand that everyone arrested at the Kimani Gray vigil be released from the NYPD 71st + 69th precincts in Brooklyn. Or call the precinct directly: 71st precinct (718) 735-0511, 69th precinct (718) 257-6211
[Editor's Note: Sources tell NY1 that two officers involved in the shooting of Brooklyn teen Kimani Gray last weekend were also involved in five separate cases for alleged civil rights violations, including stop-and-frisks, that were settled out of court. ]
Some updated information on the shooting death of Kilmani Gray, the 16-year-old who was killed in Brooklyn on Saturday night by two plainclothes police officers, was shot seven times: four in the front, three in the back.
The report from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not specify which of the seven bullets caused the death of the teenager, Kimani Gray; that determination awaits further investigation.
One bullet entered his left shoulder in the rear, exiting in the front; two other bullets struck the back of his thighs, one in the left thigh and one in the right. Two bullets struck from the front, hitting his right thigh; one bullet entered his left side, striking his lower rib cage; and the last bullet hit his left lower forearm.
The police said that two plainclothes officers fired at Mr. Gray after he pulled a .38-caliber revolver and pointed it at them; the officers then fired 11 shots, killing him. Mr. Gray’s revolver had four bullets in its chambers, the police said.
The autopsy did not establish the order in which the bullets struck Mr. Gray, or determine the path of the bullets, which might make it clearer if Mr. Gray had his back to the officers when he was shot, or if he had twisted away after being struck from the front. But the findings alone that several of the bullets entered his back appeared certain to fan the flames of a community already distrustful of the police and increasingly incensed about the shooting of the teenager.
Kimani Gray's death led to protests in his East Flatbush neighborhood, and a witness now claims she "had a “bird’s-eye view” of the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Kimani (Kiki) Gray says the youth did not have a gun in his hand," according to the Daily News.
The NYPD cops who fired 11 shots at Kimani said that he was armed, and a loaded .38 caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.
Brooklyn teens held a protest Monday night -- that some reports say broke into a riot -- in response to the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray by NYPD officers, reports the Daily Mail.
The 16-year-old boy was hanging out with friends Saturday night when they were approached by undercover officers who allegedly asked him to show his hands. Authorities claim that it was only after Gray suspiciously reached for his waistband that an officer fired 11 rounds.
According to The Gothamist, “Gray was shot multiple times in the leg and stomach when he pointed a .357 revolver at the cops in East Flatbush just before 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. ‘The cops, they just jumped out of the car so fast, witness Devonte Brown said. ‘They started shooting him and he went down, he was bleeding, holding his side, screaming, ‘stop, stop,’ Brown said of Gray.”
"After the anti-crime sergeant and police officer told the suspect to show his hands, which was heard by witnesses, Gray produced a revolver and pointed it at the officers, who fired a total of 11 rounds, striking Gray several times," Paul J. Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman, told the New York Times.
But as Think Progress notes, eyewitness accounts differ from the official police reports. One witness, Camille Johnson, told Pix 11 that Gray was "running for his life, telling the cops 'Stop.'" She went on, telling the news station,"They really are, seriously shooting little kids."
According to the Times, another witness told Gray's sister, Mahnefeh, that Gray was fixing his belt, not reaching for a gun, when he was shot. Mahnefeh, as well as Gray's mother, insisted that Gray didn't own a gun and that, even if he did, he would not have pointed it at police, telling the Wall Street Journal, "He has common sense...They killed my little brother for no reason."
Another witness, who lives across the street from where the shooting took place, told the Times that Gray pleaded with the officers, telling them, "Please don't let me die." The police reportedly responded by telling the wounded 16-year-old, "Stay down or we'll shoot you again."
According to NBC New York, there were roughly 70 protesters who marched to the 67th Precinct station in East Flatbush and threw garbage and empty bottles at the windows. No police were injured, and there were no damages to the building during the protest.
"Some angry kids were protesting the death of a friend," said witness Martin Williams. "They were marching through the street, yelling and protesting."
The protesters continued to march from Snyder Avenue and ended up at Church and East 57th Street where the protest continued. There were police in riot gear along the block with barricades, but there were no reports of arrests.
The two NYPD officers who shot Kimani Gray have been placed on administrative duty.
Early Sunday morning, firefighters rushed to put out a two-alarm blaze at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, located on the border between Prospect Heights and Fort Greene. Investigators believe that someone poured gasoline around the building's front doors — two canisters were found nearby — and lit the fire at around 3:30 in the morning. Three Occupy Sandy volunteers were asleep inside at the time (the church has served as one of the movement's headquarters since the hurricane), but no injuries were reported.
"The Rev. Christopher Ballard, the church’s curate, said the flames had caused “significant damage,” burning the wooden doors of two entrances and charring the foyer. The sanctuary, he said, remained largely unscathed. No one was injured.
Though the police said the cause remained under investigation, Father Ballard said the fire had been fueled by a pair of gasoline containers donated to Occupy Sandy volunteers, who had used the church as a staging area for hurricane relief efforts. The gasoline was intended to be used in a generator for a Christmas party in the Rockaways on Sunday night. Father Ballard said the containers had been put outside when the church was cleared of most donated materials to make way for Christmas services.
“Somebody decided to take those canisters, dump them on the doors of the church and set the gas on fire,” he said. “We don’t know why someone would do this, what darkness is in someone’s heart.”
Father Ballard noted that the church had been rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1914. Councilwoman Letitia James, who represents the area, expressed outrage at what she called a hateful arson. “We will find the sick individual who committed this crime,” she said, standing outside the church."
Members of the congregation were worried for what the church contained: supplies and Christmas gifts for New Yorkers affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Since the storm struck on October 29, thousands of volunteers, included members of the Occupy Sandy movement, have come to the church to be part of relief efforts.
On Saturday, a group of volunteers wrapped holiday gifts for children affected by Sandy at the church.
"We had about 100 volunteers in the church yesterday, wrapping gifts for children who were displaced by the storm," said Michael Sniffen, the church's rector.
"We've been sending people out to affected areas. We're sending out hot food and clothes, blankets, cleaning supplies, baby supplies, baby food, baby toys," said LJ Marquez, an Occupy Sandy volunteer.
Church members and volunteers said the fire will not hinder their efforts. On Sunday, volunteers were sent to another site, St. John's Episcopal Church in Fort Hamilton.
The Sandy volunteers have pledged to work 7 days a week during the holidays to continue to bring hot meals to Sandy victims in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Volunteers who want to help Occupy Sandy can go to one of the group's bases, with no need to call beforehand. For more information, visit interoccupy.net/occupysandy.
The Church of St. Luke And St. Matthew will reopen for Christmas Eve services at 10 PM and Christmas Day services at 10 AM on December 25th.
Occupy Sandy will not be taking donations until after December 27th, as was previously scheduled.
In support of homeowners facing foreclosure and eviction in NYC, members of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and other community groups will conduct vibrant singing protests and raise the people’s voices at foreclosure auctions in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx next week, with the aim to: disrupt the sale of people’s homes and the eviction of their occupants; call for a moratorium on all foreclosures; demand justice for all New Yorkers struggling for affordable housing; confront Wall Street’s unchecked power to put profits over people’s right to housing.
MONDAY, April 16th, 2pm
Bronx Supreme Court, Rm 600. 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx
Who: Organizing for Occupation (O4O), OWS
THURSDAY, April 19th, 3pm
Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams St, Brooklyn
Who: Occupy Faith, Catholic Worker, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)
FRIDAY, April 20th, 11am
Queens Supreme Court, 8811 Sutphin Boulevard, Queens
Who: Occupy Queens, Columbia Univ students, Occupy the New School
Everyone has the right to live freely, securely, peacefully and with dignity in his or her home. In the US there are over three times as many “people-less” homes as home-less people. Financial institutions have stripped individuals and communities of their savings and property while receiving $7.7 Trillion in taxpayer bail-outs.
“At the same time that banks are getting bailed out, rental assistance programs are being reduced–even completely eliminated,” says housing rights activist and organizer Blair Ellis. “Empty buildings fill New York City boroughs, while those in need of housing are forgotten by our economic and political system. Those lucky enough to remain in their homes are increasingly burdened with the escalating cost of rent and mortgage loans. This American Dream is becoming a nightmare for millions of the middle class and poor people.”
There are over 100,000 homes in foreclosure in New York State due to subprime and predatory loans; now New Yorkers with “fair” (or “prime”) loans are also missing payments and falling into foreclosure because of unemployment, under-employment and mounting healthcare costs among other issues.
“We can create meaningful, community based solutions to keep people in their homes and return land in our communities back to the people who live in them,” says Heath Madom, a local housing rights advocate. “We look forward to the day when all bank-owned property—occupied and vacant—is returned to community control and made permanently affordable.”
Where the system has failed the people and upheld the bank’s rights to profit:
The big banks were bailed out first under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and again in the recent settlement brokered by NY Attorney General Schneiderman. TARP gave the big banks the money they needed to stay afloat and, in return, left to the banks’ discretion whether to foreclose on families’ homes or sell the homes at auction. Schneiderman’s settlement is a slap on the wrist that gives the banks blanket immunity for widespread fraud in exchange for providing some, but not all, ailing homeowners no more than $2,000 in assistance.
New York’s “Settlement Conferences” are a massive failure because banks won’t agree to affordable loan modifications and the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) gives the same banks we bailed out with our tax dollars the discretion to modify loans or auction off homes. They would rather auction them off.
Watch the October 13th rendition of “Listen Auctioneer” at the Brooklyn foreclosure auction blockade below. This one is heartbreaking. The protesters of the foreclosure sing "Listen, Auctioneer, all the people here (right here, right now), Are asking you to hold off the sales right now. We're going to survive but we don't know how. Listen Auctioneer, all the people here are asking you to hold off the sales right now. We're going to survive but we don't know how..."
Then they are all handcuffed, arrested, and escorted out by police.
Video of the rally, and performance at House of the Lord church
Sunday night in Brooklyn, New York hosted by Kevin Powell, Akila Worksongs,
MoveOn.org & ColorofChange.org.
"A Song for Trayvon" written and performed by Jasiri X.
(Based on "No Church in the Wild" by Jay-Z & Kanye West)
Recently I reported on the Manhattan District Attorney who subpoenaed the Twitter account of @destructuremal (aka 23-year-old Brooklyn writer Malcolm Harris) because of his participation in Occupy Wall Street.
As it turns out, Harris is the twit person who tricked thousand of New Yorkers into showing up at Occupy Wall Street for a Radiohead concert that was never going to happen. He was chosen as one of Gawker's Most Loathsome Gawker Characters of 2011 for the prank.
If thousands of disappointed New Yorkers wasn't enough, now Harris has dragged Gawker's Adrian Chen into the prosecutorial Twitter morass.
Harris may not commit crimes on Twitter, but he did use the site's direct message function to trick me, on September 30th, into believing Radiohead was performing an impromptu show for Occupy Wall Street protesters down in Zuccotti Park. Harris, who writes for the New Inquiry magazine, was at the time a blogger for the radical journal Jacobin. He told me he'd heard the story about Radiohead, but his editor wouldn't allow him to print it.
Here are the two twitter messages Harris sent me the morning September 30th, which would likely be released to the DA under the subpoena.
Art+Culture committee will announce at Noon that Radiohead is the 4pm musical guest, my [editor] won't let me run it cuz band doesn't want media
Whereas I don't give a f-ck about what Radiohead wants. You didn't hear it from me, though.
"As more of our everyday communications take place on third-parties like Twitter, it's crucial to resist overly-broad intrusions by law enforcement, which is certainly what the DA's move appears to be," adds Chen, "It's not just Harris' privacy at stake, but that of anyone who communicated with him—no matter how full of sh-t he was."
It's still difficult to imagine what the Manhattan DA's office might want with such tweets, unless he waited patiently for hours at Zuccotti Park for Radiohead to show up and is still unhappy about that.
I do think it's no doubt a safe guess that Harris has a spot reserved on Gawker's "Most Loathsome Gawker Characters of 2012" list.
For the past two years, New York Communities for Change members have seen firsthand the damage that the foreclosure crisis has caused in our communities. Together we’ve watched vacant, boarded-up houses pop up on block after block in Southeast Queens and parts of Brooklyn. We’ve stood with homeowners as they told their stories about sending document after document to their banks in hopes of getting a mortgage modification, only to have the bank lose those documents time and time again. We’ve shared their frustration and despair as foreclosures in the community drag down the value of their homes -- making the mortgage they are struggling to pay much higher than what their home is worth.
We at NYCC have seen the real face of the foreclosure crisis; they live in the neighborhoods we organize in; they are our members and they are the family of our members. The homeowners we organize are living proof that in America, if you get sick, or hurt, or laid off through no fault of your own, you will be punished. But the big banks that caused the economic crisis will be left to collect record-breaking bonuses paid for with a bailout that was funded by our tax dollars.
That’s why, for the past 12 months, NYCC has been engaged in a fight to get JP Morgan Chase to reform its mortgage modification policies, and it’s why we’re excited to be joining Occupy Wall Street and community groups from around the country to defend brave families who are taking back homes for the community.
While shelters are overfull and thousands more rely on friends and family to house them, too many homes sit vacant at the hands of the banks. But starting tomorrow, the 99 percent is banding together to say enough is enough. I am proud that NYCC will be among the many taking part in tomorrow’s national day of actions.
Tomorrow we will gather in East New York, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that has been profoundly impacted by foreclosures, and the economic crisis at large, to welcome one brave family to the neighborhood. This family, that has struggled to keep a roof over their heads since the onset of the financial crisis, is sending a message to the big banks: You created the economic disaster that we find ourselves in, you need to fix it. And that starts by keeping families in their homes.
I hope I’ll see many friendly faces in East New York tomorrow joining NYCC, OWS and community groups from across NYC as we stand up for the 99 percent. Check out the Facebook Event Page for More Details.
[Editors Note: Readers, if any of you participate in the Occupy Homes action today, I hope you'll take a moment to share your experience either by sending us an email, or posting in the comments section. Thank-you!]
Shut down Wall Street for breakfast, occupy the subways for lunch, take Foley Square for
dinner, or join other actions across the U.S. and the world.
Just days after the violent raid on the Occupy movement's home base in Zuccotti Square, a huge day of action is planned to take the movement to a new level.
Today, Thursday November 17th, marks two months since the start of Occupy Wall Street as well as International Students Day. To commemorate this two month anniversary, Occupy Wall Street will take to the streets in celebration and in solidarity with people around the world participating in a massive global day of action in hundreds of cities.
Facebook Event | Twitter #N17 | Direct Action Resources
On Thursday November 17th, the two month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, we call upon the 99% to participate in a national day of direct action and celebration!
New York City
BREAKFAST: Shut Down Wall Street - 7:00 a.m.
Enough of this economy that exploits and divides us. It's time we put an end to Wall Street's reign of terror and begin building an economy that works for all. We will gather in Liberty Square at 7:00 a.m., before the ring of the Trading Floor Bell, to prepare to confront Wall Street with the stories of people on the frontlines of economic injustice. There, before the Stock Exchange, we will exchange stories rather than stocks.
LUNCH: Occupy The Subways – 3:00 p.m.
We will start by Occupying Our Blocks! Then throughout the five boroughs, we will gather at 16 central subway hubs and take our own stories to the trains, using the “People’s Mic”.
BRONX
Fordham Rd
3rd Ave, 138th Street
163rd and Southern Blvd
161st and River - Yankee Stadium
BROOKLYN
Broadway Junction
Borough Hall
301 Grove Street
St Jose Patron Church,185 Suydam St, Bushwick
QUEENS
Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave.
Jamaica Center/Parsons/Archer
92-10 Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson Heights
Manhattan
125th St. A,B,C,D
Union Sq. (Mass student strike)
23rd St and 8th Ave
STATEN ISLAND
St. George, Staten Island Ferry Terminal
479 Port Richmond Avenue, Port Richmond
DINNER: Take The Square - 5:00 p.m.
At 5 pm, tens of thousands of people will gather at Foley Square (just across from City Hall) in solidarity with laborers demanding jobs to rebuild this country’s infrastructure and economy. A gospel choir and a marching band will also be performing.
Afterwards we will march to our bridges. Let’s make it as musical a march as possible – bring your songs, your voice, your spirit! Our "Musical" on the bridge will culminate in a festival of light as we mark the two-month anniversary of the #occupy movement, and our commitment to shining light into our broken economic and political system.
Resist austerity. Rebuild the economy. Reclaim our democracy.
I'll have videos and reports coming in through the day to share with you, so be sure to check back in on the fun. If you're attending any of the events today - either in New York, or wherever you are - I hope you'll share your experiences in the comments thread.
