Nearly a week after
New York City police clashed with concertgoers following an album release party last Wednesday for DJ
Pete Rock and the rap group
Smif-n-Wessun, the artists joined a group of activists, fans and politicians on the steps of City Hall to protest what they called police "wilding" and abuse.
"We're saying to y'all, and y'all better listen," New York City Councilman Charles Barron said from the lectern. "It's not only going to be a long hot summer for us, it's going to be a long hot summer for everybody because were not going to take this kind of stuff."
"Don't put us to the point where we have to figure out our own way of protecting ourselves," Barron said to the crowd of a few dozen that had gathered. "Because we have a God given right to protect us from anyone who vamps on us."
Witnesses and the artists themselves said the police swarmed the crowd after last week's concert without provocation, cursing, pushing people to the ground and beating a few with fists and batons. They point to video footage shot by fans as proof of the violence they said was doled out by police.
Five people were arrested, four of whom face felony charges that include assault, inciting to riot, disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration.
The police said that the officers arrived at the scene shortly after midnight in response to a call from private security at the club, Tammany Hall on the Lower East Side, to assist with overcrowding inside. When officers got there, a large fight was in progress. As the police instructed people to leave the crowded venue, one patron refused and began to resist arrest and call for others to help him fight with the police, according to Paul Browne, a police spokesman. He said a group then turned on the officers, and the "police used appropriate force in effecting arrests of violent individuals who fought with officers."
In a statement released the day after the fracas,
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that "police officers had every right to defend themselves against individuals assaulting them, and used appropriate force in doing so. They also protected civilians who were being pelted with bottles at the outset, as they responded to the location at request of the club's own security."
But the sense of security and safety was lost on those who witnessed the melee and "police rioting" that ensued.
"Mothers were there, aunts, uncles, families," Pete Rock said after the press conference. "I'm just hoping and praying like I'm supposed to do. I hope and pray that we do get justice. We deserve justice. It was an attack not just on the culture but on human beings who were not starting trouble, who were not fighting, just enjoying a good party."
He said that he believes the police judged too quickly that the party was a gangster rap party, which he said it was not, and treated concertgoers accordingly.
"I'm just here to say this definitely has to stop, hip hop is not the problem," he said. "I just want to say for the other families and the other people out there who went through this with us on Tuesday, is to be strong and we'll get through this and one day this will stop."
Kenneth Montgomery, a lawyer for the five people arrested that night, known as the
Monumental 5 in homage to the project, Monumental, for which the party was being thrown, said that a lawsuit against the city and the police department is possible.
But right now Montgomery and others are pushing to have the charges against those
arrested dropped. One of them, Gabriel Diaz, stood on the steps behind the podium with visible bruises and scrapes on his face and his neck in a brace. Louis Pena, also charged and roughed up by the police was there too, as was Pete Rock's daughter, Jade, 24, (pictured below) who said she was knocked to the ground while protecting her mother from police blows.
"I think about all of the who can't stand up here to speak, all of the people that passed away or were killed as a result of police brutality, I just hope everyone watching stands up and does something about it," said Everett, who also was arrested that night.
Charles Barron, the city councilman and a former
Black Panther, called on young black and Hispanic men to stand up for themselves and their community against police brutality and injustice.
"We're sick and tired of appealing to the justice system, that we call the injustice system," Barron said. "I want to say this for black men and Latino brothers, we ain't going to take but so much of you putting your hands on our women... were not going to take that but so many times. You can't keep roughing up our mothers and daughters and murdering our grandmothers, like
Eleanor Bumpurs."
"Drop the charges and charge the police," Barron urged, to cheers. "Not a single victim who was there committed a crime, not one. Not a single victim of this police riot had a weapon on them. Not a single one. I saw the tape and I can tell what happened when they put on those gloves and told you to disperse. They were ready to riot."
As the crowd thinned and the politicians, cameras and microphones slowly disappeared, Everett talked about the toll the incident has taken on her and the trust she once had in the police.
"It leaves you really confused," she said. "You know what cops are supposed to do, protect and serve. Now, I'd be lying if I said every time I see a police officer or a police car I don't get the jitters or get nervous," she said. "You don't really understand it fully until you experience it yourself or witness it up close and personal."
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