The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
November 2, 2011

New York City Occupy Supporters Join Anti-Police Brutality Activists in Stop & Frisk Protest 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Occupy protesters in New York City joined anti-police brutality
activists in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville Tuesday to
demonstrate against the controversial police tactic known as "stop and
frisk," which allows officers to detain and search citizens with little
to no reason. Critics argue the tactic, which produces few arrests,
creates a sense of institutionalized harassment in poor communities and
communities of color. Christina Gonzalez is an Occupy Wall Street
protester who joined the demonstration.

Christina Gonzalez, protester: “These are the communities that are
affected. A community like mine in Far Rockaway. Communities like up in
Harlem and communities like in Brooklyn and certain places in Queens.
These are way where we really need to be. These are where the problems
are. These are where we should be mobilizing more people to come out.
And Occupy Wall Street has given a movement like this a chance so that
we can come out and network and get more people and raise awareness to
people who are like, ‘Hey, corporate greed is bad, oh but wait a
minute, they’re stopping people in the streets for absolutely no
reason? Okay, I wasn’t a part of that. I had no idea. Now I know and
now I’m here.’ So that’s the beautiful thing, it’s just bringing
everybody together.”

Twenty-seven participants in the demonstration were arrested after
engaging in a deliberate act of civil disobedience by blocking the
entrance to the offices of the New York City Police Department's 73rd
Precinct, where "stop and frisk" rates are the highest in the city.



.