http://www.salon.com/2016/08/05/black-lives-matter-activists-launch-abolition-square-encampment-demanding-reparations-end-to-broken-windows-policing/Black Lives Matter activists launch Abolition Square encampment, demanding reparations, end to Broken Windows policing Revolution is in the air again in New York City.
Five years after the launch of Occupy Wall Street, activists have begun a new occupation. This is not Occupy 2.0, however. This protest, stationed at a park across from City Hall in lower Manhattan, was organized by the Movement for Black Lives.
On Aug. 1, activists built an encampment at City Hall Park, using the name #ShutDownCityHallNYC. They have dubbed the reclaimed space Abolition Square.
“Our goal is to accelerate a split in the Movement for Black Lives between reform and abolition, and to make that split public,†explained Joel Northam, a member of Millions March NYC who co-wrote the Shut Down City Hall NYC orientation guide.
“We are abolitionists, not reformists,†Northam emphasized to Salon. “And we will continue the occupation until they meet our demands.â€
The activists have three primary demands.
First is an end to “Broken Windows†policing. This is a strategy that was spearheaded by former departing NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. It targets low-level crimes and minor infractions in an ostensible effort to stop larger crimes. In practice, it has very disproportionately targeted communities of color and poor people, effectively criminalizing their lives.
The protest orientation guide noted that Broken Windows is reminiscent of a strategy described by Frederick Douglass in 1845, who said a slaveowner’s “plan was to whip for the smallest offenses, to prevent the commission of large ones.â€
Second on the list of demands is reparations for victims of police brutality. The protesters also stipulated that the money for reparations should come from NYPD funding, and should not be taken away from other social services.
There is a precedent for this demand. In 2015, after years of campaigning by activists, the city of Chicago agreed to pay $5.5 million in reparations to survivors of police brutality.
Third of the demands is the defunding of the NYPD’s $5.5 billion annual budget and the reinvestment of tax dollars in Black, Brown and working-class communities.
The protesters say the NYPD is an undemocratic and racist institution. They say they want community-based forms of policing in its place that are accountable to residents.
translated they want
1) no enforcement of minor crimes. OK to jail whites, but not blacks
2) Professional Black Criminals will get cash if they are arrested.
3) No more po-lice. Sure the murder rate will skyrocket, but that's OK. we cool with it.
anyways click the link, in some pics there are far more whites than blacks.
