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Police Handling of Bronx March Should Be Model for City By JORDAN MOSS
By 10:45, there were 100 people in a little cul de sac nestled into a Hostos Community College building. Kids and adults bundled up to the nose marched cheerfully in a big circle to keep warm as they waved banners and signs and tried out some chants. At 11 a.m. with police escort, we took off for the 145th Street Bridge. Police cooperation with this Bronx "feeder march," to the Feb. 15 protest in midtown Manhattan, organized by Bronx Action for Justice and Peace, a group I'm a member of (more on that later), should have been a model for how the demonstration should have been handled downtown. When police officials heard BAJP was interested in acquiring a sound permit for the gathering on 149th, they contacted one of our members and requested a meeting. There were negotiations over which bridge to cross, etc., but mainly the cops just wanted things to run smoothly. They pledged their cooperation and asked for ours. As we set off to cross the 145th Street Bridge, police stopped traffic for us and formed a buffer between passing traffic and the protesters. They were courteous and not a cross word was exchanged between marcher and cop best as I could tell. At the 125th Street subway station, where the police left us, we thanked and applauded the officers for their cooperation and a couple of people even chanted, "Money for cops, not for war!" It's a critical role that police play in a democratic society -- protecting and enabling the right to peaceful protest, and the Bronx officers that day were a shining example of that. The mayor and police commissioner obviously don't think much of that responsibility. It's hard not to assume that their intention was to purposefully quash dissent, particularly because permitting only a stationary rally, rather than a march, turned out to be less safe for protesters and police, not more. Though we basically enjoyed ourselves shivering in our pen on First Avenue at 62nd Street, near a Jumbotron screen that allowed us to actually hear and see all the speakers, many others weren't so lucky. Reports quickly came in that evening and the next day that people who arrived later on and in different areas were kept from First Avenue by the police, that police horses reared into groups of people, and that officers provoked confrontations with bystanders. A City Council hearing will explore these allegations further. As the police and elected officials investigate this further, they should know that rank-and-file officers and top brass in the Bronx truly embodied their motto on Feb. 15 --Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect. As the Bronx goes, so should the city. On a related note, one of the hard things about being a community journalist is balancing being a part of the community while maintaining enough distance to report on local affairs fairly. When participating in local events, which I generally try to limit, I assign any related news articles to other reporters and indicate my affiliation in an editor's note. In this case, I've written about a demonstration I was a part of on the opinion page rather than in a news article. It can be tricky sometimes, but I hope the Norwood News has earned a reputation for being responsible and fair and that readers will continue to hold us accountable for fairness and accuracy. Jordan Moss is editor of the Norwood News.
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The
sour mood I was in Thursday night when a friend described how the
Bloomberg administration was going to pen in peaceful anti-war
protesters like a herd of goats on blocks bordered by metal stanchions,
dissipated quickly when I emerged from the 149th Street D-train station
on Saturday morning.