[Onthebarricades] US: Police repression, unrest at Puerto Rican parade

[Andy]

http://www.midhudsonmostwanted.com/stories/20070612-03.htm

Riot breaks out during street party

Newburgh - What started as a street party following the annual New York City Puerto Rican Day Parade, turned into a near riot in the City of Newburgh Sunday night.

The violence began when someone apparently exploded fireworks in the crowd in the vicinity of Benkard Avenue and Renwick Street. Debris fell into the crowd, promoting a fight.

When police were called in to assist, the crowd turned on the officers, many of whom were injured.

Officers from other nearby agencies were called in to help quell the rioting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/nyregion/12parade.html?ref=nyregion

208 Arrested at Puerto Rican Day Parade, a Steep Increase 

Correction Appended

The police disclosed yesterday that 208 people were arrested at the Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday - far more than in previous years - after reports that members of the Latin Kings gang planned to join the parade. But several of those arrested said they had simply been swept up with the crowd and denied having any gang associations.

Among the paradegoers arrested were a 55-year-old postal worker from Paterson, N.J., and the college-bound nephew of a New Jersey police officer. The police, however, said that all but 10 of those arrested were gang members. 

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's deputy commissioner for public information, said advance intelligence suggested that gang members were going to try to march in defiance of parade organizers, who did not want them there. "The parade organizers did not invite the Latin Kings, and they did not want them in the parade," Mr. Browne said.

Of the 208 people arrested, 132 were charged with gathering illegally, the police said. Most of the rest were charged with other misdemeanors, including marijuana and weapons possession. At last year's parade, 50 to 60 people were arrested, according to the police.

Many of those arrested spent a night in jail before being arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court. Their friends and relatives filled the wooden benches on the first floor of the courthouse at 100 Centre Street in Lower Manhattan yesterday, waiting for them to be released.

During the arraignments, prosecutors provided few details of what had led to the arrests, for the most part reciting the boilerplate charges.

Edward McCarthy, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society who was representing many of those arrested, said he was struck by the incongruity of people being charged with unlawful assembly at a parade. 

He said that many defendants contended that they had been swept up as part of a crowd.

"People said they were being told by the police that they needed this group to turn the corner; then when they obeyed, the police were waiting around the corner," Mr. McCarthy said.The New Jersey police officer, dressed in plainclothes with a gun at his hip, waited all day for his nephew to be released. He said his nephew was an 18-year-old high school senior who would be going to Alabama State University on a football scholarship in the fall. 

"I'm concerned because he has a final exam tomorrow," said the officer, who declined to give his name to avoid embarrassing his nephew. He said his nephew was not a gang member.

The postal worker, wearing jean shorts and a blue T-shirt, looked shaken and exhausted as he was led out of court by his 22-year-old son. He said he had been swept up in a large group of people around 47th Street and Fifth Avenue. Showing a skinned elbow, he said he was knocked to the street by officers while being arrested. 

The son said his father was a peaceful man. "He comes home, he works, cooks, that's my father," he said. 

They also said they were too embarrassed to give their names. 

Mr. Browne said that 198 of the 208 arrested were gang members, including 145 Latin Kings, 40 Bloods and 13 Natas. He said the gang unit of the department was concerned not only that the Latin Kings would show up uninvited, but also that violence could break out between rival gangs. 

He said the Latin King members had been identified in part by their colors, gold and black.

Mr. Browne said a majority of the gang members were from outside the city, mostly from New Jersey and Connecticut. He said that when they were booked, a number of Latin Kings were chanting "Amor de rey," which is their gang theme. 

He declined to comment when asked whether any of those arrested had been innocent bystanders, saying that all had specific charges against them.

The parade has been a concern for the police since 2000, when more than 50 women said they were attacked in Central Park after the parade. The city settled lawsuits by 22 women, including a British tourist who said she was stripped and sexually assaulted. Eighteen men were convicted of charges stemming from the attacks. 

Marilyn Gonzalez waited in the courthouse hallway yesterday for her son Stephen, a student at Automotive High School in Brooklyn, to be arraigned. "He's not a gang member," she said. "He's a good kid who goes to school. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black dress pants and dress shoes. He was presentable." 

Another parent, Paul Brown, a pharmacist from Brooklyn, was waiting for his son. He said he was puzzled by the arrest. "If he was arrested because he's 20 years old and he's Latino, there's a problem," Mr. Brown said.

Mr. Browne, the deputy police commissioner, said four people were arrested on felony charges: two for illegal weapons possession, one for assault and one for evidence tampering. An additional 172 were misdemeanor arrests, including 132 for unlawful assembly and others for marijuana possession and weapons possession. There were 32 arrests for disorderly conduct, a violation.

Several young men and women from Yonkers said they had been arrested because they were wearing yellow T-shirts with black lettering. They said the police had misconstrued their T-shirts, given to them by a friend to advertise his rap album, as Latin Kings shirts. 

"We were bum rushed by a bunch of cops," said Samantha Santiago, one of the Yonkers contingent. Ms. Santiago, a saleswoman at a sneaker store, was arrested along with her boyfriend. She was wearing a pink shirt, and her boyfriend was wearing one of the yellow shirts.

Correction: June 13, 2007


An article yesterday about the high number of arrests at this year's Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan referred incorrectly to the estimated number of arrests at last year's parade. The figure of 50 to 60 arrests last year was taken from an article that ran in The Times in 2006; the estimate did not come from the New York police in the course of reporting yesterday's article. (The 2006 article cited "at least 50" arrests, but the Police Department disputes that figure, saying 151 people were arrested.) An article about the reaction to this year's arrests appears today. 

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/572324.php?contentType=4&contentId=602039

      Newburgh Cops: Officers Assaulted by Partygoers

     
      NEWBURGH, N.Y. -- Police in a Hudson Valley city say some of their officers were attacked by people attending a street party held after Sunday's Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan.

      1010 WINS Slideshow: Puerto Rican Day Parade 2007

      Newburgh police officials say officers tried to break up a brawl that broke out Sunday night during the street party in Newburgh. Authorities say some people in the crowd tossed bottles and rocks at the officers and one of the cops was struck in the face by a table leg.

      No serious injuries were reported. Police say they arrested four people, charging them with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot.

      Newburgh police call in help from other law enforcement agencies, including state police and local town police and sheriff's deputies.

     

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/onthebarricades/attachments/20070613/c6690056/attachment.html>