Today I hit the north east corner of 33rd and 8th Avenue at the exact same moment a protest march started at the south east corner. Being a good New Yorker, I stopped and gawked. I was trying to figure out what the red black and green flag carried by the marchers was for. At first I thought it was Palestinian cause those guys are always marching around for something.
It wasn't. It was the Pan-African flag. And the marchers held signs that said "Avenge Sean Bell."
Sean Bell was the guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got killed in a hail of police bullets the night before his wedding. He was also black, as was Amadou Bailo Diallo, the other name on the "Avenge" signs.
Now, I'm for making cops answer tough questions when they use deadly force, and I'm in favor of some cops losing their jobs for making the wrong wrong choice. Cops make mistakes like everyone else, but when they do, people die, and they know that, which is why most cops I know take their job damn seriously.
Meanwhile, back at MSG, the protest march starts across 33rd Street and the invective laden, bullhorn enhanced rabble rousing starts up with the call and response "who's the enemy?" answered by "NYPD" over and over and over.
All this would be business as normal, except of course, the marchers were holding up traffic and the guys who were standing between them and the buses, trucks, cars and taxis who wanted to run them over were of course...NYPD.
And of course, today is September 11.
5 comments:
Oh, my ... We don't ever have anything exciting happen here. The range wars are all over. The sheep herders and the cowboys sip coffee at Starbucks and talk about motorcycles. We had a very nice fourth of July with only minimal protest from the anti-fireworks crowd, and they didn't have a protest march. ... We had a march for fair treatment for illegal aliens ... I think fifteen people showed up. I think most of them were there to watch and were with the TV stations or something.
In the past two years the two most controversial things in the press have been financing the county fair and paying for a new hospital when we have four close by. Oh, ya, there is the big-deal city council debate on whether Pygmie Goats can be kept as pets in town. Big controversy there. ... Guess which side I'm on.
Our neighbours about three doors down caused a heck of a hoo haw with public nudity. They have GOT to keep that two year old in the house when he pulls off his diapers and runs!
The biggest anti-police thing in the last ten years was a protest in front of the county courthouse over the police enforcing the closing hours in Volunteer Park. They guy (there was only one) slept there. Turns out he doesn't like the mission. And he only sleeps there until one a.m. because the sprinklers come on then. He got tired of marching and one of the county deputies bought him a coke.
We do have our share of drunken fishermen. Seems beer and fish go hand in hand, and not just for cooking. Oh, and here MSG is an unwanted ingredient in Chinese food.
Oh, and there was the Hindu temple controversy. No, no! No one objected to its existance. We were just all shocked they introduced themselves to the neighbours before they signed for the former church they bought.
I think our biggest ethnic difficulties are over Mexican, Chinese, Indian, or Thai ... food.
It's funny how people who generally obey the law think cops are underappreciated and underpaid. People who generally disobey the law villify the entire law enforcement profession.
Great post! Do more like this.
"Oh, and here MSG is an unwanted ingredient in Chinese food."
LOL Sha'el! Same where I live. Yesterday the biggest controversy I heard about was in my husband's school, where some teachers felt there should still be a moment of silence and others felt everyone had moved on.
Meanwhile, a different perspective from this NYPD blogger:
http://theenforcersrollcallnotebook.blogspot.com/2007/09/god-bless-we-remember-09-01-2001.html
Bravo to those cops you saw, Janet, for letting the group have its freedoms of speech and assembly without incident. What a tough thing to have had to listen to on such a day.
My father is a retired Baltimore City detective.
Police really are underpaid, as are many of our civil servants.
Thanks for this post.
Hi, Janet. Mark and I were at RCMH (Radio City) on Sat and a cop car pulled next to us. The policemen looked about 24 years old. It struck me how young they were and the immense responsibility they shoulder to keep US safe. We got tickets to BRUUUUUCE at MSG on 10/18. I'll wave to you from the sidewalk. And can you come to John Elder Robison's signing on the 25th? Union Square B&N. Should be SRO!
KIM
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