New York police brutality slammed at Bronx demo

by Keith Mitchell

This article was reprinted from the July 6, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

BRONX, N.Y. - Parents, community organizers and residents demonstrated here June 1 demanding justice for victims of police murder.

Protesters, carrying a bullhorn and chanting marched more than two miles down the Grand Concourse before assembling at the Bronx Supreme Court. A police helicopter circled the building and a phalanx of more than 20 security people attempted to intimidate the 50 demonstrators.

"We're here to tell [Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani and [Gov. George] Pataki and the police department that we won't be swept under the rug and we won't forget," Carmen Morales, mother of Hilton Vega, told the World. "We want justice for our sons!" she said angrily.

Vega and Anthony Rosario were killed Jan. 22, 1995 by police officers Patrick Branson and James Crow who pumped 14 bullets into their backs while both were lying handcuffed and face down in an apartment building. Branson and Crow, who often served on the mayor's detail, were absolved of wrongdoing and Giuliani even congratulated them for a "fine job."

Marguerita Rosario burst into tears as she addressed the gathering. "My son was laying down begging for his life. He asked 'why are you shooting me,'" she said. The bloody rampage would have continued if not for intervention of neighbors. The demonstration took place on what would have been Anthony Rosario's 20th birthday.

Iris Baez, mother of 29-year-old Anthony Baez, told the World there could be no peace "unless there is justice for our sons." Young Baez died after being held in a chokehold by an arresting officer. Baez was taken into custody by the officer who was angered when a football thrown by Baez accidentally hit a patrol car. Jose Gonzalez said he was arrested for working on his car while the vehicle was stranded on the street.

"People talk about ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. But what about ethnic cleansing in the Bronx?" a relative of Rosario asked.

The cases of Baez, Vega and Rosario were among the more than 90 instances of brutality by members of the New York Police Department included in a 72-page report released June 29 by Amnesty International. In "Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department," the human rights organization said more than of 55 people - 90 percent of them African and Latino - were killed while in police custody from the mid 80s to 1996. Police officers killed 11 people in 1990 and 23 in 1994.

According to the report most of the victims of police violence had not committed crimes but were, instead bystanders or citizens attempting to stop acts of police brutality. One case concerned Ron Narr, a white artist who was beaten by undercover police officers after confronting police who were beating an African American lying on the ground. Oliver Jones, an African American, was repeatedly beaten with a heavy flashlight because police "thought" he said "police brutality" while they were making an arrest.

Only days before release of the Amnesty International report, Police Commissioner Howard Safir announced a "Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect" campaign meant to head off growing public criticism of the police and has hired a public relations firm to deflect criticism.