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| John Riley & Mark Hannay ACT UP/N.Y.
 It is with great outrage that I report the following (based
solely on my own eyewitness) re: the Matthew Shepard Political Funeral
March Against Hate Crimes held here in New York City this evening (October 19):
In short, Mayor Giuliani's police state was out in full force, and totally destroyed a peaceful demo, with 136 innocent people arrested and several people injured, including by horses. At the start, several thousand people carrying candles and placards, accompanied by hundreds of cops on motorcycles, horses, and riot gear, gathered for the march which started at 59th Street & 5th Avenue just in front of the Plaza Hotel right on Central Park South. When the march stepped off into the street headed down 5th Avenue toward Madison Square Park at 23rd Street, all the lead marshals and the main organizers were promptly arrested. A legal march then moved down the sidewalk of 5th Avenue several blocks chanting "Stop the Hate! Stop the Violence!" and when the police line momentarily broke, quickly moved out into the street taking all of 5th Avenue. After marching down the Avenue a few blocks, the newly-temporary "organizers" (the side and back marshals who were not arrested) saw a phalanx of cops a block or two down and promptly turned the march onto a side street marching westward toward 6th Avenue. When they got down the street to 6th Avenue, the street was totally blocked by the police.
 After some negotiating, the crowd was allowed to move out into the
intersection at 6th Avenue., moving southward (against traffic) one block and
moved eastward back toward 5th Avenue, but the cops were stymied, not
knowing how to respond.
As the crowd was filing onto the new side street, the police summarily decided to force people out of the intersection and onto the sidewalk, and literally began to arbitrarily arrest people --just picking them off-- who were simply attempting to peacefully move onto the sidewalk; several people were injured in the process. The march then proceeded eastward back to 5th Avenue and back down 5th Avenue along the sidewalk. The march paused briefly in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral and the crowd chanted "You're the cause of violence!" The march then continued down 5th Avenue and at 43rd Street turned west again to march over into Times Square. Again, some marchers were arrested for not following police orders to stay on the sidewalk. Cops were pushing and shoving the marchers. The front of the march was again stopped at 6th Avenue and not allowed to proceed at all this time. The organizers then turned the march around and marched back toward 5th Avenue and back down 5th Avenue on the sidewalk toward Madison Square Park. A group of about 50-100 marchers at the new "end" of the march (formerly the front) were able to break away and continued over to Times Square where they held a legal picket. The rest of the group proceeded peacefully down 5th Avenue. At 34th Street, the front of the march again moved into the street and more arrests were made before people continued the march down the sidewalk. Once they reached Madison Square Park, we were greeted by hundreds of cops in riot gear and scores of paddy wagons. A rally and candlelight vigil was held in the park for about 30 minutes. As the crowd dispersed, the main subway station at the park was closed off by cops in riot gear, and other police in riot gear assembled a phalanx several cops deep not allowing people to cross 23rd Street or to proceed down Broadway. Eventually, the crowd dispersed in other directions, and the subway station was finally re-opened.
 9The police attempted to hold an impromtu press conference as the rally was
dispersing, the organizers (who were left not arrested) were observing
on the sidelines. They were immediately segregated from the press corps
and surrounded by police (in front of/including the press), the area of
the sidewalk they were occupying was declared "frozen" by the police, and
marked off with red police tape, and those inside the zone were ordered to
disperse.
When one man exerted his first amendment right to freedom of the press, he was tackled by the cops, with his head bashed into the pavement, and he was arrested and dragged into a police wagon. This is what I've been told by one of the organizers. A snippet of the incident apparently did make it onto some local television broadcasts. Those arrested were taken to several precinct houses and to "central booking" at Police Headquarters. I have no further information on them at the moment. More as soon as I know, but please be assured those of you who may have been seduced by the line that "New York is back", it is only back for those in power who don't want anyone to challenge their sole authority. We New Yorkers are literally living in a police state now where are constitutional rights of free speech and assembly are literally trampled underfoot (by horses.) If you think Mr. Giuliani is a great guy, think again (very seriously.) And all when all we wanted to do was express our grief and outrage at the death of an innocent young man just because he was gay. There will be a press conference held by the organizers and other concerned participants in last night's political funeral march for Matthew Shepard today, Tuesday, October 20th, at 1 p.m., at the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, 240 W. 35th St. (between 7th & 8th Avenues.), 2nd floor. People who were involved as organizers, marshals, or who witnessed police misbehavior are asked to arrive slightly early. In sum, earlier this morning I spoke to Richard McKewen (sp?), the attorney who's coordinating legal support, who informed me that 136 people were arrested in total; 11 were released fairly quickly on technicalities (improperly filled-out paperwork), and the rest are "being put through the system" with arraignments starting this afternoon; hopefully all arrested will be out within 24 hours of their arrest. No "desk appearance tickets" have been issued. All are being processed downtown at 100 Centre Street; supporters can gather down there outside and hold vigil as people are released, or go into the court rooms as a member of the public. There will be a "community meeting" at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center one evening later this week (I've heard rumors of either Wednesday or Thursday. evening. at 8 p.m. and am still trying to confirm) to sort out exactly what happened last night (Monday) and why and where we go from here. ACT UP! FIGHT BACK!! FIGHT HATE!!! |
