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Photos: Protesters Demand Ray Kelly's Resignation, Say He's "Lost Control Of NYPD"
By
James Thilman
Published Mar 20, 2012
Modified Mar 20, 2012
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By
James Thilman
Published Mar 20, 2012
Modified Mar 20, 2012
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Dozens of protesters gathered in Foley Square this afternoon and marched to 1 Police Plaza to demand that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly tender his resignation. The protest was spurred by the string of violent arrests made by the NYPD as protesters attempted to reclaim Zuccotti Park on the six-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests. "This beast will lock you up because you are poor, because you are queer, because you are black," Chino Hardin of the Center for NuLeadership said. Though no arrests occurred, the Mayor's personal army greeted protesters with an imposing presence of officers and barricades surrounding the plaza.
"I'm angry because every time I look around I see a black or brown person being searched by the police," Hardin said, referring to the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactic that overwhelmingly affects minorities. "Real community safety does not begin with the NYPD, it begins with members of that community."
Occupy Wall Street participant Jen Waller recounted her own arrest and described a number of arrests she witnessed before being detained in a six-by-ten foot cell with 21 other women. Among the dozens who were detained was Cecily McMillan, an OWS activist who suffered a seizure after she was allegedly violently arrested by police. "[Cecily] writhed in pain as the police did nothing," said Waller. "Later, when it was just me and one other woman in the cell, officers threatened to take me to the Bellevue psych ward if I didn't stop singing," she told us. "Ray Kelly should resign because he has lost control of the NYPD, a police department that continues to violate the New Yorker's rights without consequence."
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