“Being Puerto Rican and Black, we thought this was something normal, that this is something that is supposed to happen to a Puerto Rican and Black in the neighborhood because it was happening so much,” said Jose LaSalle, an organizer of Stop Stop-and-Frisk, who says he has been a victim of stop-and-frisk his whole life. “We didn’t really understand it, but now we have a better understanding of it, and we don’t want the generation that comes behind us to feel like this is part of their culture.”
After watching his son, nephews and youth in his community be stopped-and-frisked, he decided it was time to take action. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, 53 percent of the people stopped last year were Black and 34 percent were Latino. Eighty-eight percent of those stopped were found to be innocent.
About 50 community members gathered on Garrison Avenue in the Bronx, where an open mic and speak-out event was held to hear outraged advocates express their feelings about police brutality and stop-and-frisk practices.
“The statistics show that it’s not getting rid of crime,” LaSalle said at the event. “What it has become is a crime.”
During the event, about 10 people expressed themselves through poetry, rapping, speeches and personal experiences.
Danette Chavis told the story at the speak-out about how her 16-year-old son, Gregory Chavis, fell victim to police brutality. After a confrontation with a group of guys while leaving a movie theater in 2004, Gregory and his friends were chased for 12 blocks before Gregory was shot by one of his pursuers. His friends attempted to carry him directly across the street to Lincoln Hospital, but police threatened to shoot if they didn’t put him down.
The police called for backup but not an ambulance, and Gregory died on the curb across the street from the hospital.
Danette Chavis said that according to a medical report from the hospital, her son had a chance of surviving had he gotten the medical attention needed. She went to trial with the NYPD, but her case was eventually dismissed.
The speak-out was sponsored by a nonprofit organization named Picture the Homeless, which advocates for social justice around issues like housing, police violence and the shelter-industrial complex, according to their website. Other social justice organizations that attended were Cop Watch, DecoloNYC and Change.org.
“It’s important to bring organizations into the mix because then [the youth] can channel their frustrations and channel it into organizing constructive work to change the problems that we face,” said Lamont Badru, an event organizer.
Many events and protests have been planned for the coming months around the issue of stop-and-frisk. The next big march includes high-profile civil rights, faith, labor and community groups, including the NAACP, the National Action Network, Occupy Wall Street and 1199 SEIU, who will be marching silently against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy on June 17 for Father’s Day. The event will be held at 110th Street between Fifth and Lenox avenues at 1 p.m.