On Staten Island, Thousands Protest Police Tactics They came by ferry from Manhattan, in caravans from Brooklyn and New Jersey or on foot from the gritty neighborhood in northeast Staten Island where an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, died last month after an encounter with the police. Thousands converged on an overcast Saturday at the site of the encounter, the start of a protest march linking Mr. Garner’s death to lethal police actions past and present, from New York City to Ferguson, Mo., where a white officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager on Aug. 9. Signs and slogans touched on details of the deaths as well as broad policies that protesters argued encouraged bad behavior by officers. “ ‘Broken Windows’ Kills,” a sign read, a reference to the aggressive policing of minor offenses like selling untaxed cigarettes, the crime Mr. Garner had been accused of committing. Chants of “I can’t breathe” — Mr. Garner’s words as he struggled with officers — mixed with those borrowed from Ferguson: “Hands up, don’t shoot.” For days, march organizers and Mayor Bill de Blasio emphasized that the demonstration on Staten Island would not devolve into the sort of violent confrontation with police officers that had plagued the protests over the death [...] newsnyork/on-staten-island-thousands-protest-police-tactics/
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 02:30:48 +0000