On Monday night, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters in Minneapolis monitored three suspicious, hostile individuals —later identified as white supremacists— who infiltrated their protest in front of the 4th precinct. (The 4th precinct is where the police officer who killed Jamar Clark works.) When five BLM protesters, assigned to security, approached the masked men and asked them to leave the protest, they were shot at point blank range. Police stood by allowing the racist attackers to escape and ambulances took over fifteen minutes to arrive.
On Wednesday evening in Washington Square Park, a rally led by Millions March, the Justice League, NYC Shut it Down and the ANSWER Coalition denounced the white supremacist attacks. 500 protesters poured into the streets of downtown Manhattan shortly after work. Carrying signs that read “Cops and the Klan Work Hand in Hand,” and chanting “Minneapolis to NYC, we Stand in Solidarity,” a young, militant crowd stood strong against the heavy handed police response.
The police fear the revival of the Black Lives Matter movement. They resorted to brutal assaults on women in the march and targeted arrests of young grassroots leaders who were keeping the energy of the march high. There were more than a dozen arrests, and unprovoked police assaults all night. It was clear that the state did not want the march to keep the streets, as they continuously corralled the crowd onto narrow sidewalks.
Police Abuses
Brendan O’ Brien, an activist with the ANSWER Coalition, was at the front of the march when it was forcibly attacked by police seeking to scatter the march as it weaved through downtown.
“I saw a group of police run towards us and they grabbed a young girl who was protesting and threw her face first towards the gutter. This kind of brutality demonstrates how the police are here to stand with the racist shooters in Minneapolis. We must not let them intimidate us, and we must keep marching for justice.”
After the attack on 3rd St. and Avenue A, protesters regrouped and marched to union square where more arrests were made as police began targeting people for simply leading chants. After a short rally in Union Square, where marchers were provided with information on their legal resources, should they be arrested, the march continued a mile uptown to the 34th Street, flagship Macy’s. The more distance the march covered, the more energy it radiated out to onlookers, some of whom joined and added to the momentum.
Catching Macy’s by surprise in preparation for Black Friday, activists stormed the Macy’s and urged shoppers to boycott the massive corporations who cash in on the looting of the working class. A participant in the march, who preferred to remain anonymous stated,
“It’s our dollars that keep these corporations running, and by refusing to participate in their crimes, we can bring their whole racist system down.”
The march then took Times Square by storm, surprising thousands of tourists in town for the holiday. The message of solidarity in the struggle against racism and police brutality reverberated around the world as tourists and locals alike joined in, tweeted, took pictures, and raised their fists in support of the long march.
The four hour solidarity march showed the world that the Black Lives Matter movement will not be suppressed or intimidated.
As long as there are fascists mobilizing behind demagogues like Donald Trump and police terror, there will be millions across the country that will take to the streets and resist their racist agenda. Working people and students of all colors stood together in the streets, sending a clear message that racism, and its parent, imperialism, must be defeated.
