[Fwd: [Fwd: QLEFT: **]
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 20:34:31 -0700
> ________________________________________________
> A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
> http://www.ainfos.ca/
> ________________________________________________
>
> MORE FROM THE HOME OF 'ZERO TOLERANCE'
>
> From: nick <nick27@lightlink.com>
>
> GAYS ATTACKED BY NYPD OCT 19TH IN NYC
>
> THIS IS FROM MY PERSONAL ACCOUNT I WAS THERE AND WITNESSED A LOT
> OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND HOSTILITY TWORDS GAYS AND LESBIANS
>
> A political funeral and march for Matthew Shepard was held in New York
> City last night Oct 19 from 6pm till about 10:00pm. NYPD police attack=
ed,
> beat up and arrested hundreds of Gays and Lesbians with hostility and
> hate.
>
> I AM OUTRAGED AT HOW THE NYPD ACTED (maybe they need a lesson from The
> Washington DC Police)
>
> An old woman was trampled on by a NYPD horse. During the NYPD press
> conference a gay man was severly attacked BY THE NY NYPD. Hundreds of
> others were selectivly singled out and arrested for no reason.
> The New York Police Departement was OUT OF CONTROL. I saw blood on
> two or three gay men from being hit with night sticks and dragged on t=
he
> road. This was uncalled for.
>
> RUDY GUILIANNI NYCITY'S MAYOR SHOULD BE IMPEACHED
>
> The procession assembled outside the Plaza Hotel at 59th street.
> The crowd took to the streets with an immediate confrontation on 5th
> ave. from the NY Police. The crowd immediately about 6000 people
> started to march down 5th ave. The police freaked out and hundreds of
> cops started grabbing people and threw them in city busses under arres=
t.
>
> People were physically dragged, clubbed, hit and the whole world shoul=
d
> know that The NYPD acted in the same way as in the Rodney King case.
> The Marchers screamed at police shouting shame, shame, shame and let
> them go.
>
> Marchers physically pulled people away from the police with exchanges
> of brutal violence from riot police. I am posting this immediately.
> I will update this soon with a longer version.
>
> THE NY POLICE WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR IRRESPONSIBLE
> ACTIONS.
> THEY ARE JUST LIKE THE KILLERS WHO KILLED MATTHEW SHEPARD
>
> A REVOLUTIION HAS BEGUN.
>
> NICK PAPATONIS
> ITHACA, NY 607-272-9213
> NEWS MEDIA FEEL FREE TO CALL OR E MAIL ME
>
> IF YOU WERE ARRESTED OR ATTACKED BY NYPD POLICE CALL ME (OR KNOW OF
> SOMEONE WHO WAS)
>
> E Mail:
> mattz@clarityconnect.com
> nick27@lightlink.com
>
> ----
> New York Times
> October 20, 1998
>
> 96 Arrested During Rally Protesting Gay Man's Killing in Wyoming
>
> By MICHAEL COOPER
>
> What began as a rally down Fifth Avenue to mourn and protest the killi=
ng of
> a gay college student in Wyoming ended chaotically Monday night, with =
nearly
> 100 arrests and several injuries after demonstrators faced off against
> police officers in riot gear and on horseback.
>
> Several demonstrators and police officers were slightly injured during=
the
> loosely organized rally, whose planners did not have a permit to march=
in
> the street. One woman was hurt by a police horse when mounted officers=
were
> sent into the crowd to disperse the marchers.
>
> More than 4,000 people attended the march, which was billed as a "poli=
tical
> funeral" to protest the killing of Matthew Shepard, 22, who died on Oc=
t. 12
> after being beaten and lashed to a fence in Wyoming in what the author=
ities
> called a bias-related crime. Carrying a pine coffin and memorial candl=
es,
> the marchers had planned to march down Fifth Avenue from 59th Street t=
o
> Madison Square Park at 23d Street.
>
> Scuffling between the marchers and the police broke out at several poi=
nts
> along the route when officers in riot gear tried to keep the demonstra=
tors
> on the sidewalk. Several organizers and marchers accused the police of
> over-reacting, and said there would have been no problems had they bee=
n
> allowed to continued along their planned route.
>
> But police officials defended their response, saying the demonstrators
> created a safety hazard by spilling into the streets.
>
> Ruth Finklestein, a march organizer, said that she was injured by a po=
lice
> horse when mounted officers rode into the crowd on West 43d Street in =
an
> effort to disperse the marchers.
>
> "I'm taking part in a demonstration against the gay-bashing in Wyoming=
and
> here in New York City, which is supposed to be the center of gay life =
in New
> York," she said, nursing her swollen, bruised right ankle while waitin=
g for
> an ambulance. "We were doing nothing illegal, wrong or unsafe, and I w=
as
> trampled by a horse ridden by a New York City police officer."
>
> Last night police officials said that they had made at least 96 arrest=
s,
> mostly for disorderly conduct. One police lieutenant injured his finge=
r in
> the fracas and was sent to a local hospital for X-rays, the police sai=
d.
>
> First Deputy Police Commissioner Patrick E. Kelleher defended the poli=
ce
> actions.
>
> "They had a right to gather," he said of the marchers. "But once they =
left
> the sidewalk they were endangering the motorists, they were endangerin=
g the
> pedestrians. And we were forced to make arrests."
>
> But Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who rarely minces his words when it com=
es to
> civil disturbances, struck a conciliatory tone when asked about the pr=
otest.
>
> "It's a very worthy cause," he said Monday night in Nashua, N.H., wher=
e he
> was visiting. "I can understand why they are so outraged and upset."
>
> Marchers held aloft signs that said "Stop Hate Crimes," "Homophobia Ki=
lls"
> and "Where Is Your Rage?" Many marchers said they were marching not on=
ly to
> protest the killing of Shepard but also to call attention to the probl=
em of
> anti-gay bias crimes in New York City, where reports of such attacks h=
ave
> risen 78 percent so far this year over the same period last year.
>
> "As lesbian and gay people, we know that Matthew Shepard is only the t=
ip of
> the iceberg," said Sara Pursley, an organizer. "We are people who live=
every
> day knowing that this could happen to us."
>
> The size of the march appeared to surprise both the loose-knit group o=
f
> people who organized it and the police. Kelleher said that the police =
called
> in more officers from all five boroughs when the trouble began. "We
> increased the number of people significantly to put it back under cont=
rol,"
> he said Monday night.
>
> The march was the third time this year that the Police Department has =
faced
> criticism for its crowd control methods.
>
> On June 30, a rally of thousands of construction workers appeared to c=
atch
> the department by surprise, disrupting traffic in midtown for hours an=
d
> causing 21 injuries. On Sept. 5, a youth march in Harlem ended with cl=
ashes
> between the police and protesters when officers tried to turn off gene=
rators
> just minutes after the rally's scheduled end.
>
> Norman Siegel, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties =
Union,
> said he found the police response Monday night troubling. "It sounds l=
ike
> poor judgment, to turn a peaceful, nonviolent First Amendment exercise=
into
> a confrontation with the cops in which some people are arrested and ot=
hers
> injured," he said.
>
> The scuffles between the protesters and the police erupted on a night =
when
> emotions were already running high because of the killing of Matthew
> Shepard. There was pushing and shoving and some officers used their
> nightsticks. At one point, several people in the crowd threw their mem=
orial
> candles at the police.
>
> Many marchers said they were dismayed by how the march had turned out.=
"I
> expected a vigil," said one marcher, Fred Kaplan, who wept as the
> demonstration broke up. "We needed to mourn. I never expected that it =
would
> end this way."
>
> The march was organized by a group describing itself as "an ad-hoc
> coalition" of activists. Word of the rally was spread through telephon=
e
> lists of more established groups, chain letters sent on E-mail and
> old-fashioned fliers on the street. Organizers said they believed 5,00=
0
> people showed up; police officials put the number at 4,000. Both seeme=
d
> surprised by the turnout.
>
> The trouble began soon after the march began, when protesters defied p=
olice
> orders and walked off the sidewalks and into the middle of the street.=
When
> the police tried to keep them from going any farther, the demonstrator=
s
> walked west to the Avenue of the Americas and turned south, walking in=
to
> oncoming traffic and paralyzing several taxis and express buses at the
> intersection.
>
> The marchers chanted: "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Homophobia's got to go!"
>
> Several march organizers were among the first arrested, making it
> increasingly difficult for those remaining to control the crowd, said =
Tim
> Sanamour, 34, a planner who was not arrested.
>
> After returning to Fifth Avenue, the group continued to 43d Street, wh=
ere
> the mounted police rode into the crowd.
>
> Kris Franklin, an organizer, said: "They would not negotiate with us. =
They
> would just rush the crowd. When they arrested people, they were throwi=
ng
> people against the cars. It appeared to be random who they were grabbi=
ng."
>
> Eventually some marchers made it to Madison Square Park, where they se=
t up
> impromptu shrines to Shepard. Then they went home.
>
> Some marchers accused the police of being too brutal.
>
> Jennifer Roesch, 26, who is pregnant and attended the rally with her
> husband, said that she was pushed to the ground during one scuffle. "I=
was
> really shocked," she said.
>
> But Kelleher said: "The police officers used restraint and were very w=
ell
> controlled."
>
> Gil Horowitz, 62, said that he believed the rally would have gone quic=
kly
> and ended without incident if the police had not tried to stop the
> demonstrators at several points. "We could have had an orderly march d=
own
> Fifth Avenue," he said. "It would have been a peaceful flow of people.=
"
>
> Demonstrators hold candles and signs as the march is stalled
> on 43d street.
> http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-rally.html
>
> A demonstrator places candles around a picture of Matthew
> Shepard in New York's Madison Square Park Monday Oct. 19,
> 1998.
> http://graphics.nytimes.com/98/10/20/news/national/regional/ny-rally.2=
.jpg
>
> --
> |: Paul Canning canning@rainbow.net.au
> =AE http://www.rainbow.net.au/~canning
> Queers for Reconciliation http://reconciliation.queer.org.au
> =AE Queer Announce http://announce.queer.org.au
> : "The bottom line is that the Government saved money on compensation =
for
> the poor. It spent just $1.8 billion a year on compensation for social
> security recipients, while giving 50 per cent of its $13 billion in ta=
x
> cuts to the top 20 per cent of income earners." The Herald explains th=
e GST
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--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Graeme Bacque <gbacque@idirect.com>
<http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/1962>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Sanitarium, leave me be,
Sanitarium, just leave me alone'
--Metallica, from their album Master of Puppets
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