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Live Protest Updates: Thousands Dressed In White Protest In Brooklyn, Chanting "Black Trans Lives Matter"
By
Sydney Pereira
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Jake Offenhartz
Published Jun 14, 2020
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Scott Heins / Gothamist
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By
Sydney Pereira
and
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jun 14, 2020
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Here's the latest:
- Atlanta Police Chief Resigns, Officer Fired Following Police Shooting Of Rayshard Brooks
- Running List Of Protests On Sunday, June 14th
- Peaceful Marches Continue In NYC On Saturday, Including Rockaway Beach
4:05 p.m.: Another group of protesters filled Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, waving the flags of various Caribbean countries like Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica, chanting for George Floyd.
"Not just American Black lives matter—all Black lives matter," 26-year-old Flatbush resident Eve Ghost told us at the Caribbean-led action, emphasizing how some Black New Yorkers are also immigrants or children of immigrants.
Protest music kept the mood lively at the rally, organized by the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy.
Meanwhile, the march for Black trans lives has made it to Fort Greene Park. The demonstration stretched for miles from the Brooklyn Museum towards the park. Thousands dressed in white marched, often in near silence.
Thousands Dressed In White Protest In Brooklyn, Chanting "Black Trans Lives Matter"
2:50 p.m.: Thousands dressed in white chanted "Black Trans Lives Matter" and "Black Trans Power" outside of the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday afternoon in an action highlighting black trans people who have been killed.
"It's not just some protest, it's a movement," 28-year-old Brooklyn poet Jonathan Burkhalter told us.
"The speakers here represent housing, food access—it's all different types of issues intersecting in this city," Burkhalter added.
Jake Offenhartz/Gothamist
The family of Layleen Polanco—a trans woman who died at Rikers Island after guards failed to provide her medical care after she suffered seizures in the jail's solitary unit—spoke at the rally.
According to an activist at the rally, Polanco's sister said: "Everytime they knock one of us down, we come back stronger, we're all we got."
The Bronx District Attorney recently announced there was no criminality in her death—deadnaming her in a press release by using her former name, which Polanco's sister referenced in her remarks at the rally.
Thousands of protesters filled the front of the Brooklyn Museum into Eastern Parkway, to Classon Avenue, and onto side streets Sunday afternoon. A helicopter that appeared to be an NYPD chopper buzzed overhead, drowning out some speakers.
"We're just trying to listen to these extremely profound messages and this police helicopter is getting in the way of everything," Bounce, a Harlem-based dancer and artist, told Gothamist. "They're trying to make it so we can't hear. Whether or not we can hear it, we know why they're here. But it's a real pain [in the] ass."
Brownsville resident Diana Jordan, originally from Barbados, also protested on Sunday—her first time attending a protest in 50 years.
"It's a blessing. It's beautiful. Everything is peaceful," Jordan said.
One video captured how massive the action is from a fire escape:
The protest—Brooklyn Liberation: An Action For Black Trans Lives—was organized by The Okra Project, Marsha P. Johnson Institute, and other organizations.
With Scott Heins.
Atlanta Police Chief Resigns, Officer Fired Following Police Shooting Of Rayshard Brooks
10:40 a.m. As NYC enters its 18th day straight of demonstrations against police violence and systemic racism, the Atlanta police chief has resigned after an officer fatally shot a Black man at a Wendy's drive-thru, sparking another night of protests in Georgia's capitol that ended with the Wendy's being set ablaze, according to news reports and Georgia authorities.
Officers confronted Rayshard Brooks, 27, who had fallen asleep at a Wendy's drive-thru, and conducted a sobriety test on Friday night, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. When Brooks failed the test, the officers attempted to arrest him, but a struggle ensued in which Brooks is accused of taking an officer's taser and running away. Less than a minute later, Atlanta Officer Garrett Rolfe fatally shot Brooks, according to a Times' analysis of various video footage.
Brooks had attempted to fire the taser he took towards the officer. The Times noted: "the flash of the Taser suggests that Mr. Brooks did not fire it with any real accuracy." When Brooks was shot, he was running away, a video shows.
In the wake of the police killing, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned Saturday night. Rolfe, the officer who shot Brooks, was fired, and a second officer Devin Bronsan was placed on administrative duty, according to CNN.
"For more than two decades, I have served alongside some of the finest men and women in the Atlanta Police Department," Shields said in a statement. "Out of a deep and abiding love for this City and this department, I offered to step aside as police chief."
In New York City, more than two dozen protests are planned on Sunday—a day after Governor Andrew Cuomo told protesters they could stop marching because they had "won."
"You don't need to protest. You won. You won. You accomplished your goal. Society says, you're right. The police need systemic reform," Cuomo said Saturday, after he issued an executive order mandating that local police departments meet with community members to determine how to restructure them. He then threatened to take away state funding if local governments don't comply.
Activists behind a popular Instagram account centralizing protest information wrote in a post that Cuomo's comments should "enrage" New Yorkers.
"The outpouring of rage that began with George Floyd’s murder is born of a layered patchwork of institutions and systems that leave Black Americans without opportunity, susceptible to shoddy #publichealth systems and corporate exploitation, and to a state apparatus that criminalizes #poverty."
"[E]ven when it comes to the police, 50-a was a softball. We’re only getting started," the Instagram post from @justiceforgeorgenyc reads. "Also, how pedantic. How patronizing. This is what we are going to be up against. The people who hold power in this country expect us to tire ourselves out and go home. They do not have, and do not expect in you, the commitment to change the systems that led to these protests."
Here's a running list of protests planned for Sunday, June 14th:
BROOKLYN
Herbert von King Park (meditation) 10 a.m.
Church Avenue and Flatbush Avenue (march to Grand Army Plaza for 2 p.m. rally) 12 p.m.
Eastern Parkway and Washington (rally) 12 p.m.
Outside Brooklyn Museum (rally + silent march) 1 p.m.
Maria Hernandez Park (vigil) 1 p.m.
Grand Army Plaza (percussion) 3 p.m.
Utica Avenue and East Parkway (walk, protest, guided meditation) 3 p.m.
Washington Street and Water Street (family march for Breonna Taylor) 4 p.m.
Maria Hernandez Park (vigil) 8 p.m.
MANHATTAN
East River Park Amphitheater (run) 10 a.m.
Riverside Drive at 89th Street (chalk) 11 a.m.
Mitchel Square Park (rally) 12 p.m.
Mitchel Square Park (march) 1 p.m.
163 West 125th Street and St. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (march) 2 p.m.
125th and Adam Clayton Blvd. 1 p.m.
Washington Square Park (protest) 2 p.m.
163 West 126th Street (march) 2 p.m.
72nd Street at Riverside Park (children's march) 3 p.m.
10 Columbus Circle (protest) 4 p.m.
Allen Pavilion Hospital (march) 4 p.m.
86th Street and East End Avenue at Carl Schurz Park (vigil) 7 p.m.
QUEENS
York College Parking Lot (rally) 1 p.m.
Waltham St. facing Liberty Ave. (drive) 1 p.m.
34th Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets 2 p.m.
Juniper Valley Park (vigil) 2 p.m.
Eternal Love Baptist Church (walk) 3 p.m.
Grover Cleveland Playground (remembrance) 4 p.m.
Queens Borough Hall (rally) 4 p.m.
STATEN ISLAND
LA Fitness Forest Parking Lot (march) 2 p.m.
BRONX
140 Benchley Place (rally) 1:30 p.m
Protest information via @justiceforgeorgenyc
Tagged
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2020 protests
Sydney Pereira
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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