In New York

20,000 protest police brutality

By Fred Gaboury

NEW YORK - Actor and activist Ozzie Davis said he had come to the "convocation of the people" because he liked to be where the people are. Teresa Nichols was there with her 2-year old son because, she said, "Unless we get control of the police department he could be shot, too." And there were those proudly carrying "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal" placards and handbills announcing the April 23 march in Philadelphia.

All were among the crowd of thousands who shut down half of the Brooklyn Bridge and several streets as they marched from Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza to the Federal Plaza in Manhattan on April 15 to honor the memory of Amadou Diallo and to elevate his death at the hands of police into a new civil rights rallying cry.

The protest capped more than two months of demonstrations and civil disobedience in which 1,167 people were arrested as a wave of anger swept through the city following Diallo's assassination. Diallo was killed when four white members of the NYPD Street Crimes Unit fired 41 bullets, hitting him 19 times.

Although its main purpose was to show support for a 10-point program for police reform developed by the Diallo Leadership Conference, the demonstration also sent a second message - thumbs down on New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The 20,000 marchers came in all shapes and sizes: Black and white veterans of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Union members - among them teamsters, teachers, hospital workers, textile workers, city employees and construction workers - stood shoulder-to-shoulder with mothers and grandmothers pushing baby carriages and with students and with first-time demonstrators like 56-year old Monica Bergman.

"I never marched before," Bergman told the World, "But when I came out of the subway and saw this rally I decided I had to say my piece."

And say it she did, with a sign written with lipstick: "3 bullets is self-defense. 19 bullets is murder. 41 bullets is slaughter.

While the overwhelming emotion at earlier actions had been anger, the mood of the April 15 march was quiet - but resolute.

Dennis Rivera, president of the Hospital and Health Care union said the demonstration marked a new stage in the struggle for police accountability. "It is the first time we've marched under the banner of the 10-point program that was drawn up by a number of labor, religious and political leaders."

The program demands a strengthened civilian complaint review board, an end to the NYPD "48 hour rule" that allows police officers to remain silent when charged with an offense; that the state enact a residency requirement for police officers and create a special prosecutor to deal with corruption and police violence by the NYPD.

The program calls on Congress to take action to require the Justice Department to monitor and issue annual reports documenting police misconduct, for special steps to recruit and train minority police officers, discontinued use of hollow-point bullets and for adequate pay for members of the NYPD.

Rivera said his "greatest concern" was that, because of its size and composition, many would see the demonstration as the end of a "long process" rather than the beginning of a new stage of the struggle.

"Unless we get the program adopted we will have failed," he said. Then, referring to the Giuliani Administration he said, "We hope for a meaningful discussion with the mayor and hope for an open heart and an open mind."

Lee Saunders, trustee of State, County and Municipal Workers District Council 37 shared the podium with Rivera. Pointing to the many union banners and colorful T-shirts, Saunders said, "A social giant has awakened. The labor movement is and, always has been, a movement for social justice. The best way to fight crime was with jobs, education and health care."

Davis, who served as MC, compared the fight to end police brutality to the American Revolution. "The 10-point program is to our struggle what the Bill of Rights was to the Founding Fathers. And remember," he continued, "the struggle didn't start yesterday, and it won't end tomorrow,"

Former Mayor David Dinkins agreed. "This demonstration is not the culmination of a magnificent struggle. We cannot leave it (reform of the police department) just to elected officials. If there is to be true reform we need a vigilant public. We have worked too hard for too long, moving from the back of the bus, to now put our children in the back of an ambulance."

Several speakers pointed to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's earlier prediction that public outrage would soon blow over and that a few cosmetic changes, such as giving police officers wallet-sized cards outlining proper behavior, would calm the situation.

Stephani Coalder drew cheers when she described how police use their "stop and frisk" authority to harass young people. "It is not a crime to be young and a badge is not a license to kill," she said. "The cops kill the same people they are supposed to protect."

In brief remarks, Harry Belafonte said he had come to the demonstration and march because "my fellow warriors demand that I be here. I'm here to see that the seed of rebellion grows into a mighty forest."

Giuliani has been under fire since even before the Diallo execution for refusing to implement recommendations of several official bodies charged with investigating brutality and corruption within the police department.

In that regard he is probably best known for his speech at a mass rally of 10,000 cops in 1992 when, as a candidate for mayor, he opposed plans of then-mayor Dinkins to establish a Civilian Complaint Review Board.

That rally, in marked contrast to last week's controlled and disciplined demonstration, spun out of control, with officers damaging cars and storming the Brooklyn Bridge, with many of New York's finest spewing profanity and racial epithets.

When he issued the marching order to cross the bridge, the Rev. Al Sharpton, a leader of the campaign against police brutality, invited anyone who could not accept the principle of non-violent protest to "leave now."