Bronx News Roundup, July 9

The MTA is using the model of  the Fordham Road Select Bus Service to reform bus service along First and Second avenues in Manhattan, and similarly trafficked routes in Brooklyn and Staten Island. According to the MTA, the service along Fordham Road in 2008 Buses have made the 5.5 mile trip across the Bronx 20% faster. [You may need a subscription to access this story on the Wall Street Journal.] For more on the Fordham Rd Select Bus Service, check out these articles: Select Bus Raises Ire, Fare Evasion a Select Bus Problem, Fare Beaters Get Free Pass, Bx12 Fare Beaters Rip Off MTA

The NYPD shooting range in the Bronx welcomed 15 legislators yesterday who learned about the experiences of police officers and the split-second decision making they employ. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly invited the legislators after a bill requiring cops to shoot to wound, not kill, was introduced in Albany in light of Sean Bell's death.

After a Bronx man left a dog in a 140-degree car on Monday, officials have advised pet-owners to ensure plentiful water and proper shelter for their pets. Animal advocates also announced that pets should never be left in cars, even with open windows.

The Times reports that nine stores in Manhattan and the Bronx have received $200 finds after leaving their doors open while air-conditioning blasted. Read the full story here.

Con Ed is responding to approx. 500 outages that were reported this morning in Morris Park.

Speaking of power outages, Mott Haven families were forced to evacuate last night after a fire scorched a building's electrical system under a ground-level apartment. Twelve buildings are currently without power.

The Roundball Classic Live game, which features high school basketball All Stars, hit the Bronx on Thursday at the Gauchos Gym.

Sean Bell Protestors To March to City Hall Today

With a little more than one month having passed since the acquittal of Marc Cooper, Gescard F. Isnora, and Michael Oliver--the three officers charged in Sean Bell's death--no action beyond the filing of internal NYPD (non-criminal) charges has been taken against the officers.

This afternoon in lower Manhattan, demonstrators will gather in an effort to ensure that the momentum of protest in the immediate wake of the verdict is carried forward.

Demonstrators will gather at Union Square at 4pm, and leave shortly thereafter for a march to City Hall, where a rally will be held at 6pm.

Protest organizers put out a call to wear black in solidarity with Bell.

Eyewitness Account: Sean Bell Demos

More than 1000 people demonstrated—and more than 200 were arrested—at six locations throughout New York City yesterday, in coordinated acts of protest and civil disobedience to denounce the acquittal of the three officers who killed Sean Bell. Traffic was stopped at the Brooklyn Bridge; the Manhattan Bridge; the Triborough Bridge; the Queensboro Bridge; the Holland Tunnel; and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

I spent much of yesterday afternoon in Midtown East. Beginning around 3pm, demonstrators marched in front of Bloomingdale’s at East 60th Street and 3rd Avenue, holding signs that proclaimed: “We Are All Sean Bell/This Whole Damn System Is Guilty.” (Those signs, in fact, were ubiquitous at a larger rally at 1 Police Plaza, as well).

Chants included “Justice for Sean Bell!” “I am Sean Bell!” and “They Say Get Back/ We Say Fight Back!”

The size of the march mushroomed between 3 and 3:45pm; there were perhaps 30 protestors in front of Bloomingdale’s at the beginning of that time window and close to 100 by the end. And the crowd may have been even bigger than that; as the New York Times’ coverage of yesterday’s actions correctly pointed out, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish protestors from bystanders.

The crowd was a diverse one—perhaps 2/5 of the demonstrators in front of Bloomingdale’s were white, while the rest were predominantly African-American—and included a youth carrying a skateboard, men who looked to be in their twenties wearing jeans or khakis, activists sporting “We Will Not Be Silent” tee-shirts, and middle-aged folks dressed in business attire.

Shortly before 4pm, the crowd marched to the nearby Queensboro Bridge, where more than 30 demonstrators knelt at the entrance, joined hands, and blocked traffic coming off the bridge for more than twenty minutes before being peacefully arrested. Those engaging in this civil disobedience counted from 1 to 50 to represent the number of bullets fired at Bell, and chanted, “I’ll go to jail for Sean Bell!” They also shouted, “50 shots equals murder!”

On a sidewalk adjacent to the bridge, and behind a police barricade across 2nd Avenue, protestors who did not wish to get arrested expressed support for – and chanted along with -- those who did.

Protest organizers then called on demonstrators to head down to 1 Police Plaza, near the Brooklyn Bridge, in support of those who were busted in Wednesday’s demonstration. According to the New York Times, about 60 people, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and Bell’s widow, Nicole Paultre-Bell, were arrested as they stopped traffic near that bridge.

I arrived near the Brooklyn Bridge around 5pm. There was still a sizeable crowd gathered, angrily counting from 1 to 50 and chanting “Guilty!” and “Murderers” as police officers watched on the other side of the barricade.

Adjacent to the demonstration, a bus marked “NYC Police” -- a vehicle that appeared to be the size of a school bus – was filled with recently- arrested protestors. As the crowd chanted, the faces of some arrestees could be seen gazing outside the bus windows and smiling appreciatively.

Protestors soon marched back to 1 Police Plaza, where the rally continued. Chants of “Licensed murderers” --in reference to the NYPD—filled the air.

As I left 1 Police Plaza, I heard an African-American police officer talking on his cell phone as he headed towards the crowd.

“I’m out here with a whole bunch of protestors,” the officer said.

Local Protestors: "We Are All Sean Bell"

Roughly 75 protestors gathered last night at East 170th Street and Jerome Avenue to speak out against the acquittal of three officers who killed Sean Bell.

Chanting “We are all Sean Bell/ We are all Anthony Baez/We are all Amadou Diallo”—referring to victims of infamous police killings in the Bronx— Black, Latino, and white demonstrators joined together to protest last week’s verdict, and to demand changes in NYPD policies and conduct towards communities of color.

Protestors blocked traffic for a few minutes as Rev. Raymond Rivera, CEO of the Latino Pastoral Action Center—one of the main groups organizing Wednesday’s action—led the crowd in a prayer. A heavy police presence from the nearby 44th Precinct looked on, but officers from the 44 had met with event organizers Tuesday night and approved the action, so there were no arrests.

Following the blocking of traffic, the crowd gathered for a rally that lasted about 30 minutes. Speakers said that Bell’s killing was part of a larger pattern of police violence and harassment against African-Americans and Latinos.

Joel Rivera, director of the Greater Heights youth program at LPAC, listed the names of other persons of color killed by the NYPD, including Baez—a 29-year-old asthmatic Puerto Rican man who died in 1994 after being choked by police— and Patrick Dorismond—a 26-year-old Haitian-American man who was shot and killed near Madison Square Garden in 2000.

“I’ve never heard of somebody on Wall Street being accidentally shot reaching for their phone,” Rivera said. He added that one difference between the Bell shooting and many other cases of unarmed men of color killed by law enforcement is that two of the three officers charged in Bell’s death were themselves Black.

“It’s not about Black and white,” Rivera said. “It’s blue.”

Hector Soto, a civil-rights attorney, told the crowd it was necessary to speak out not only against police murders, but also against the daily harassment he said people of color experienced at the hands of police. He cited pervasive stop-and-frisks by the NYPD—a phenomenon which studies have shown overwhelmingly impacts African-Americans and Latinos—as an example of the “little disrespects” suffered by people of color, in addition to “big disrespects” such as the Bell shooting.

"Everybody has a story," Soto said, referring to experiences of people of color with law enforcement.

Youth comprised a large portion of Wednesday afternoon’s turnout; a good percentage of those in attendance appeared to be under the age of 25. Many wore black tee-shirts with red letters that read: “I am Sean bell/Amadou Diallo/Abner Louema/Your name here.”

Many of the younger protestors expressed feeling emboldened and inspired by the rally to
speak out against police brutality, and to raise their voice more generally on issues that concern them. “I definitely want to see changes out here,” said community resident Lucas Santa, 22. “It’s hard for the young ones.” Santa said police use of excessive force against unarmed men of color, as well as the flood of illegal weapons on the streets of his neighborhoods, were trends that needed to be halted.

Later, he said he felt he could play an active role in this process. “I believe if I speak out,” Santa said, “we could make changes.”

The theme of simultaneously fighting police abuse and violence within the Highbridge community was echoed by several speakers, including Rev. Rivera, who called on residents to stop the flow of weapons on neighborhood streets. “We say to the officers, ‘No more’” Rivera said. “We say to ourselves, ‘no more.’”

Twenty-year-old Nigel Patrick, a Morrisania resident who works at LPAC, said he learned of the acquittal of officers Cooper, Isnora, and Oliver through a friend’s text message; the friend told him to forward the news to everybody he knew. Patrick gave a long list of reasons he said police had cited in arresting him recently, including: “looking suspicious,” smoking cigarettes, and walking outside after 3am.

Asked by this reporter if he felt a particularly strong connection to Sean Bell’s death because he, like Bell, is a Black male in his twenties, Patrick replied: “I feel that everybody is connected to Sean Bell.”

Ethan Zatko, a 24-year-old Washington Heights resident, was one of several white protestors at East 170th and Jerome. " I was disturbed but not that surprised," Zatko said of the verdict. "I think it's another instance in a long line of unfortunate manifestations of systematic racism."

Zatko said it was crucial for demonstrators to carry forward the momentum of Wednesday's demonstration in the form of community organizing. In particular, he said that white activists had a responsibility to educate other white Americans about systematic racism and oppression carried out against people of color.

During the rally, onlookers lined East 170th Street, and a few could also be seen watching the proceedings from the elevated “4” subway station at 170th and Jerome. Some people discovered the rally as they walked by it, and were inspired to join on the spot.

Twenty-two-year-old Nikey Fowler, a University Avenue resident, said that witnessing demonstrators holding signs about Bell caught her attention. So Fowler brought herself, and her four-year-old son, into the rally. “I just felt like they got away with murder,” Fowler said of Officers Cooper, Isnora, and Oliver. “That’s exactly what I thought.”

She added that she had been so outraged by the acquittal of the officers that she began crying when she heard the verdict.

After the demonstration, Joel Rivera said he was pleased that a diverse group of protestors— including members of community organizations such as LPAC and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, as well as local residents—had united to speak out against the acquittal.

Speaking to the Horizon on Monday and Tuesday, Rivera confided that organizers were consciously limiting how broadly they spread the word about Wednesday’s demonstration in order to reduce the element of unpredictability involved in the action.

“I could have made this something really big with thousands of people,” Rivera said, “but my concern is when you have those type of events, that it’s hard to have control of them.”

Rivera said he hoped Wednesday’s protest could serve as a springboard to “organize and mobilize Highbridge,” not only around issues of police-community relations, but also housing, education, health care, and employment.

Verdict Protest in BX Planned For Wednesday

A coalition of community organizations has called a demonstration in Highbridge Wednesday afternoon, to protest the acquittal of the three officers charged in the killing of Sean Bell.

On Wednesday, from 5:01 to 5:05 pm, protestors will block traffic at the intersection of Jerome Avenue and 170th Street, only a few short blocks away from the 44th Precinct. Among the groups involved in planning the demonstration thus far are the Bronx-based Latino Pastoral Action Center (LPAC) and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice.

A rally will follow the traffic-blocking action.

"5:01 is because Sean Bell was shot 51 times," explained Joel Rivera, director of LPAC's Greater Heights Youth Program (no relation to Councilmember Joel Rivera).

Rivera said that his organization had a good relationship with the 44th Precinct, and had actually been in contact with them about keeping Wednesday's event peaceful. "It is civil disobedience," Rivera said. "But because of the relationship we have now with the local precinct, I’m not anticipating arrests."

Rivera said that while LPAC had a very good relationship with the 44, the same was not true for the community more broadly -- especially youth. He said his organization had already been planning a demonstration to take place within the next several weeks to call attention to police conduct including the wave of NYPD stop-and- frisks of young men of color and recent infamous incidents in which NYPD officers handcuffed five-year-old school children.

But Rivera said Friday's acquittal made the timing of the demonstration more urgent. "We're showing that we're not happy with this decision that took place," Rivera said.

And he added: "My concern is: how many other Sean Bell cases are happening that we don’t know about, that are getting swept under the rug?"

Local Reaction To Bell Verdict Hardly "Muted"

In this morning’s front-page story in the New York Times, Manny Fernandez argues that Black New Yorkers are conflicted about Friday’s acquittal of the police officers who killed Sean Bell. “In the aftermath of the verdict in the Bell case,” Fernandez writes, “many black New Yorkers reacted not with outrage but with a muted reserve…”

If Fernandez spends five or ten minutes on the streets of Highbridge, he will quickly be greeted with a very different picture. Interviews with more than 30 Highbridge residents since the verdict was announced—the majority of them Black-- reveal a pervasive feeling of disgust and infuriation within the community. Outside a church, inside a barber shop, and on street corners, Highbridge residents have widely interpreted the acquittal of the three officers charged in Bell’s death as evidence that this country’s legal system does not value the lives of African-Americans, and that police have free reign under the law to shoot and kill Black men.

In speaking to this reporter, community residents have frequently been animated, and those listening or watching nearby have often found themselves drawn very quickly into the conversation. This is precisely what happened this afternoon in front of the Rite Aid at the corner of Ogden Avenue and W. 165th Street. Local resident Tiffany Simone Diallo expressed her displeasure with the verdict, and also said the lack of sustained protest after the acquittal of the officers who killed Amadou Diallo in 2000 was partly to blame for the acquittal of the officers who killed Bell.

“People have to understand that you don’t stop marching,” Diallo said. “You don’t stop protesting. People went to sleep.”

Diallo noted that her phone had been ringing constantly during the past couple of days thanks to people who wanted to voice their anger about the verdict. She mentioned one local resident, Kevin, who had been especially angry. Almost on cue, Kevin, 44,--who preferred not to give his last name – walked up to Diallo and this reporter and joined the conversation.

“Our lives ain’t worth nothing,” Kevin said. “That’s all they saying to us.”

Kevin and Diallo agreed that one major problem was police officers did not live in the communities they patrol, and thus did not understand or respect the people who lived there. Kevin denounced the constant police stop-and-frisks that he, and several other residents interviewed over the past few days, said were commonplace in Highbridge. Diallo replied that people had to be made more aware of their rights when approached by the police, but Kevin doubted that merely knowing one’s rights would protect local residents.

“They’ll take you in,” Kevin countered. “You’ll spend the day in jail.”

Later in the conversation, Kevin blasted what he saw as the mentality police officers hold towards African-American men. “If they feel every Black person has a gun, they don’t need to be a cop,” Kevin said, often moving between back and forth along the sidewalk as he spoke.

By this time, Rodney Baldwin had joined in the impromptu discussion in front of the Rite Aid. “We gotta get organized,” Baldwin said. “We gotta get organized.”

As the dialogue wound down, he would expand on this thought. “You gotta organize. Discipline the kids and train them to be more aware of what’s going on in their community,” Baldwin said. “Once you organize, everybody gets respect – police won’t just jump out on you.”

Further down Ogden Avenue, as Sunday services concluded at Friendly Baptist Church and those in attendance streamed outside, ushers discussed the verdict while they laid out desserts for church members. “You see that justice is blind,” one of the ushers said. “This was blind justice.”

Standing nearby and overhearing the conversation, Brock Dietrich, 32, agreed. “With cops, it’s always on the minorities,” Dietrich said. “You’ll never hear a cop shooting a Caucasian guy, or something happening by accident.”

Another usher suggested that the shooting of Sean Bell would continuously haunt the officers. “They can’t bring him back,” she said. “But every time they close their eyes, they gonna see him.”

Dietrich and the ushers pointed to cases such as the sentencing of African-American actor Wesley Snipes to three years in jail for tax evasion and argued that, when compared to the lack of any sentence for the officers who fired 50 shots at Sean Bell, the racism of the American legal system is apparent.

Randall Heyward, 45, agreed. "We see that justice hs failed a lot of folks in this city -- minorities in particular ," Hewyard said. "Over and over again."

When this reporter asked Robert Franklin Sears for his thoughts on the verdict, he started by exclaiming " Oh Lord!" Sears said that, although he expected an acquittal as soon as the officers were granted a trial by judge (instead of by jury), he was nonetheless astounded by the verdict. "I don't even want to talk about that. It's terrible!" Sears said. "How can you have 50 shots at a man and say there's no reckless endangerment?"

Inside the Friendly Baptist Church, Albert Sutton Jr. -- the son of the church's pastor, Reverend Albert Sutton Sr. --spoke quietly but unmistakably about his disgust with the acquittal. "It's the same thing all the time. Nothing's changed except the year," Sutton Jr. said. "If you got this color [Sutton pointed to his skin], it's hell for you."

Rev. Albert Sutton Sr. said he had denounced the acquittal in this morning's sermon. Sutton Sr. said he had been watching the news at Friendly Baptist Daycare on Friday morning when the verdict was announced. "And we were all saying it wasn't fair," Rev. Sutton said.

"How can you respect the police?" Rev. Sutton added a few moments later, "When the police is doing the same thing the crooks is doing?"

Among the opinions that have been voiced repeatedly by Highbridge residents since the verdict was announced : That the Bell shooting is part of a long and ugly pattern of the NYPD shooting unarmed African-Americans with impunity, including the 41-shot killing of African immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999 and the fatal shooting of the 300-pound, 66-year-old mentally-disabled woman Eleanor Bumpers in 1984; that the acquittal was especially atrocious in light of the fact that 50 shots were fired at Bell and his friends; that if police had shot an unarmed white man, they would never have walked free as they did in this case; that an acquittal seemed increasingly likely as soon as the officers were granted a trial by judge, rather than by jury; that the prior arrest record of Joseph Guzman, Bell’s friend who was wounded in the police shooting, does not in any way justify Bell’s fate or the acquittal of the officers in the case; and that Judge Arthur Cooperman’s reference to Guzman's record in his verdict was absurd.

Here, by way of contrast, is Manny Fernandez’ piece in the New York Times this morning:

Please keep checking into the West Bronx Blog for ongoing coverage of reactions to the Sean Bell verdict.

Bell Acquittal: Bronx Pols React

Jose Rivera, Bronx Democratic County Chairman and State Assemblyman:

"I am truly appalled at the verdict. Our people have died at the hands of those who are here to serve and protect us. Our communities have been served with a hail of bullets and choke holds."

Helen Foster, Bronx City Council Member:

"Once again, the criminal justice system has shown that a Black man's life is worth nothing. It is clear from today's verdict that the life of a Black man does not require justice. All that is required is for the NYPD to show that they fear for their lives, even when all of the victims, the key word being 'victims', are unarmed."