Black Lives Matter demonstrators take to streets in Jackson Heights
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Hundreds of people took to the streets of Queens on Saturday to protest police brutality, racial injustice and the lack of consequences for perpetrators. Eagle Photos by Rachel Vick
By Rachel Vick
Hundreds of demonstrators marched through Jackson Heights Saturday afternoon to protest racist police violence in the wake of the killing of a black man, George Floyd, by cops in Minneapolis. The participants gathered in Diversity Plaza just hours after NYPD officers used aggressive tactics to break up a similar protest in Brooklyn and at the same time as concurrent events elsewhere in the city set off more violence by some cops and demonstrators.
In contrast, the Queens march remained peaceful, with Black Lives Matter organizers and other community members calling on elected officials to address the systemic racism, oppression and violence that has most recently manifested in the killings of Floyd, who was strangled for eight minutes by a police officer; EMS worker Breonna Taylor, who was shot inside her Kentucky home by cops executing a warrant; and Ahmaud Arbery, a Georgia man chased by white armed vigilantes in pickup trucks who shot him in the street.
“We need the New York City Council to step the fuck up,” said Sharmin Hossain, the political director at the justice organization Equality Labs, during a speech to the crowd. “We need them to defund the NYPD now.”
“You all need to call Corey Johnson, Mayor de Blasio — we need to organize every single elected across this country to stop accepting money from police departments,” she said.
Johnson has condemned the NYPD’s use of force during the weekend of demonstrations, while de Blasio has commended the response, even suggesting cops were correct in driving their vehicle into the crowd in Brooklyn.
“I’m out here because I’m tired of it,” said S. Sampson, a 28-year old black man from South Jamaica. “Cops overextend what they should do, and once I heard about a protest here I said ‘I have to step out.’ It makes me happy that everyone came together.”
“Growing up in Jackson doesn’t allow for racism, so to see it across the country there’s not an option to ignore it,” said 22-year-old H. Jare. “Our culture, we’re a community of immigrants so for us black lives matter, always.”
As the demonstrators marched along Broadway, they received support from drivers who cheered and honked their support. Neighborhood residents poked their heads out of apartment windows to shout and bang the pots and pans that New Yorkers have for months used to hail essential workers.
“We’re furious and we’re sick of it,” said a 39-year-old Jackson Heights father, who brought along his young son. “This has been going on for way too long – seeing the cops behave with impunity and abuse power this way for so long. You protest and you bring your kids.”
Ahead of the demonstration, organizers shared tips for avoiding violence and arrest on social media, taking a page from Hong Kong protestors who have urged participants to “be like water” and keep moving.
The Jackson Heights protestors, did just that, moving and growing to fit the size and shape of their container — from chanting in the wide-open space of Diversity Plaza, to squeezing along the sidewalks of Broadway and spilling into a full lane on Northern Boulevard before reaching the 115th Precinct stationhouse.
There, they knelt in front of a police barricade, while at least a dozen officers holding batons and zip tie handcuffs stood in uniform and riot gear.
Hundreds of protestors took a knee outside the 115 Precinct
“Is this okay?” one person shouted, a reference to the violence that erupted in Brooklyn and elsewhere in the country the night before when police waded into crowds shoving and hitting demonstrators while some protestors threw water bottles and pushed back
Others shouted, “We don’t pay you to kill us.”
Despite the tension, the protest concluded without escalation in contrast to events taking place elsewhere in the city.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated and revealed racist inequities that have persisted in New York City and throughout the country for centuries. Black New Yorkers are getting sick at a far disproportionate rate, according to city Health Department data, while black men account for the most social distancing-related arrests and summonses.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who represents Jackson Heights, walked in the march and helped hand out food to participants.
“We see food deserts. Food insecurity is, at the root, a racist issue, [as is] access to healthcare,” she said.
“Our community is in a lot of pain and I think the protest today is a peaceful expression of the anger that communities of color like ours have felt for a very long time because of institutionalized racism not only in law enforcement organizations but across various policies affecting our daily lives.”
