Quinn No Show At LGBTQ Rally Against Stop And Frisk Outside Floyd Trial

Christine Quinn Was A No-Show At LGBTQ Rally

At Thursday's rally by LGBTQ groups outside the U.S. District Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, where the Floyd v. City of New York class-action, stop-and-frisk trial was in progress, only one mayoral candidate showed up to express solidarity -- and to renew a call for an end to stop-and-frisk. And it wasn't Christine Quinn.

Thank you, John Liu, for showing leadership, courage, and solidarity with the LGBTQ community.

Maybe New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has not been able to hear the pleas from the LGBTQ community, because her office is soundproofed ?

During Michael Bloomberg's three terms as mayor, over 5 million New Yorkers have been stopped and frisked. During the over-lapping time that Christine Quinn has been Speaker of the City Council, over 3.9 million New Yorkers have been stopped and frisked.

Many politicians act powerless in the face of the NYPD's use of brutality, discrimination, and excessive force, but the members of the City Council, which each year approve the NYPD budget, simply rubber stamp Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attack on due process, the Bill of Rights, other civil rights, and civil liberties. If the City Council actually stood up to the mayor in the budget process, then maybe the City Council could legislate change without having to use the court system, like what is happening right now in the Floyd trial, a lawsuit that is challenging the NYPD's unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices.

The description at Thursday's rally by members of various LGBTQ groups of how the NYPD target, harass, and even falsely arrest LGBTQ New Yorkers was tragic, and the pleas for help were compelling. But one must wonder why Speaker Quinn was absent from the rally, why Speaker Quinn did not express solidarity with the LTGBQ community's efforts to end stop-and-frisk, and why the Floyd trial was being used as a backdrop for this demonstration ?

Because so many non-profits took part in Thursday's rally, one must wonder if an explanation of the lock-step could not be found in a demand for an election year political favour ? We know that how Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn manufacture political patronage support is by making private donations or distributing discretionary City Council funds, respectively. Were the members of the LGBTQ groups manipulated into showing up outside the Floyd trial in order to distract from the fact that Speaker Quinn supports stop-and-frisk and has expressed her desire to continue NYPD Commish Ray Kelly's policies of harassment, profiling, discrimination, and brutality ?

Indeed, last December, activists in Jackson Heights organised a demonstration to highlight Speaker Quinn's failure to end stop-and-frisk. Speaker Quinn is a high-profile LGBT leader, but she turns her back on LGBTQ New Yorkers, who are deliberately profiled and targeted for harassment and arrest by the NYPD, said activists during last December's demonstration.

Related : Christine Quinn Betrays The LGBTQ Community

Christine Quinn no longer advocates for LGBT liberation from de jure discrimination

Man who claimed cops beat him during gay pride party says police made multiple return visits to his home and conducted illegal searches of his apartment.

Christine Quinn, the openly lesbian Speaker of the New York City Council, used to be the director of the Anti-Violence Project. Back when she was head of AVP, Ms. Quinn used to advocate on behalf of victims of violence.

But now that Speaker Quinn is running for mayor, she is afraid to aggravate her close relationship with Raymond Kelly, the commish of the NYPD.

If LGBT New Yorkers get beat up by haters, you can count on Speaker Quinn to elbow her way in for photo opportunities. But if the haters are NYPD officers, you can count on Speaker Quinn to look the other way.

From The New York Daily News :

Jabbar Campbell — a Crown Heights man who claimed cops disabled his apartment’s security camera before beating him during his gay pride party in January now says 77th Precinct cops have since made multiple return visits to his home.

Campbell, who had already filed a notice of intent to sue the city, said plainclothes cops illegally searched his place last week. Campbell said he turned over the footage to investigators.

The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating both incidents, police said.

Related : Crown Heights man : Cops raided my pride party and assaulted me with fists and anti-gay epithets (NYDN) * Jabbar Campbell files paperwork to sue the city for what he says was a hate crime at his gay pride party Sunday (NYDN)

Read more : Christine Quinn Betrays LGBT New Yorkers

NYPD lied under oath in Occupy Wall Street trial

Jury Finds Occupy Wall Street Protester Innocent After Video Contradicts Police Testimony [Updated: VIDEO]

Occupy Wall Street - D17 Arrest from Jon Gerberg on Vimeo.

Michael Premo was found innocent of all charges this week in regards to a case that stems from a December 17, 2011 Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan. For over a year, prosecutors working on behalf of the New York Police Department have insisted that Premo, a known artist and activist, tackled an NYPD officer during a protest and in doing so inflicted enough damage to break a bone. (NYPD lied under oath in Occupy Wall Street trial : RT.com)

In the first jury trial stemming from an Occupy Wall Street protest, Michael Premo was found innocent of all charges yesterday after his lawyers presented video evidence directly contradicting the version of events offered by police and prosecutors. (Jury Finds Occupy Wall Street Protester Innocent After Video Contradicts Police Testimony : Village Voice)

Christine Quinn Caught In Stop-And-Frisk Trap

At tremendous political peril to Christine Quinn, the leader of the NAACP plans to make ''stop-and-frisk'' a major mayoral campaign issue.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been so close and chummy with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's and NYPD Commish Ray Kelly's unconstitutional and racist policy of ''stop-and-frisk.'' She has been waging a neoliberal campaign that is hard on crime by being harder on people of color.

But now comes NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who is sick and tired of the racial profiling that underpins the entire ''stop-and-frisk'' program, The New York Post reported.

Mr. Jealous "trashed" the stop-and-frisk program during remarks he made at Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn yesterday, and Mr. Jealous's comments were seen as criticism of Mayor Bloomberg's and Police Commissioner Kelly's ill-conceived support for the use of stop-and-frisk. Indeed, Mr. Jealous portrayed Mayor Bloomberg and Commish Kelly as "villains."

“We intend to ensure through every legal means that stop-and-frisk becomes a thing of the past with the next mayor of this town,” Mr. Jealous said.

Three of the four major Democratic candidates — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson — have all said the practice should be reformed but not scrapped. Quinn has yet to take a position on a package of bills before the Council to scale back the program.

City Comptroller John Liu wants to abolish stop-and-frisk altogether.

Jealous also said he wants the next mayor to get rid of Kelly, who consistently polls higher among Democrats than any elected official.

Quinn has signaled she would keep Kelly on board if she won the race and Kelly was willing to stay.

Her competitors in the primary have not made the same commitment.

For her past support of Commish Kelly and for going along with fully funding the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program all these many years -- over 3.7 million stop-and-frisks have occurred whilst Christine Quinn has been speaker of the City Council -- Speaker Quinn has been targeted by activists for enabling the NYPD's discrimination against people of color. (Another blog post about the protest against Christine Quinn's support of stop-and-frisk.)

Read more : Christine Quinn Caught in Stop-and-Frisk Political Trap

VIDEO : NYPD Beating Queens Teen - YMCA

(Revised : Wednesday 20 Feb 2013 6:50 a.m.) This appears to be the true story behind the YouTube video, which keeps disappearing : Queens teen accuses NYPD of police brutality

We need a federal commission to investigate the NYPD use of brutality and other misconduct.

A few police officers hold a Queens teenager down on a sidewalk for unknown reasons. In this undated video, the few police officers receive backup assistance from other officers, who then begin to use excessive force against one sole young man. Police can be observed twisting the young man's limbs, and it appears that some police officers kick the young man's body.

(When this video was first uploaded to YouTube, the young man was described as a student from a Flushing high school. But in the time since, he is described as 19 year old Robert Jackson, who was enrolled in classes at the Flushing YMCA.)

No word, yet, from New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn about the NYPD's use of excessive force against young men in New York City.

Bloomberg, Quinn, NYPD, Winski Destroy OWS, Democratic Social Movements, Lawful Activism

Updated ! Sign the Change.org petition that calls on Commissioner Raymond Kelly to fire Deputy Inspector Ed Winski.

Systematic suppression of the Constitutional rights of lawful political activities of activists, politicians, and journalists to observe police actions against Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Deputy Inspector Edward J. Winski, on orders from City Hall : Mayor Michael Bloomberg and approval (either tacit or express) by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn engages in use of police force, misuse of authority, no professional, lack of respect and courtesy, not to mention abridgment of the Constitutionally-protected Freedoms of Speech and Assembly, to thwart the lawful political activities of citizens. Note how police officers selectively pick activists from within a crowd and use force to make false arrests. One person also provides testimony that a legal observer is arrested by the NYPD.

In this video, some activists deliver first-hand witness accounts of Deputy Inspector Winski misusing his official authority for the sole purpose of interfering, thwarting, and destroying the rights of these activists. The intent of Deputy Inspector Winski can solely be to destroy any chance activists have to peacefully and lawfully assemble and express themselves.

According to the video's description on YouTube, the above video was filmed on September 15, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it shows "some of the major events," which took place during livestreamer Luke Rudkowski's live broadcast at the "Occupy Wall Street #S15 action."

And no amount of independent monitoring, oversight, community regulation, not even the existence of the Civilian Complaint Review Board or Internal Affairs investigations, can correct the abuse of authority when it is ordered by and/or is carried out with the tacit or express approval of the politicians, who give orders to NYPD. Here is past evidence about how Deputy Inspector Winksi and the NYPD have misused their authority against peaceful and lawful #OWS activists, I'm sure this can't be the rest of it.

To change the system, you have to join community organising efforts to challenge the oppressive conditions, which violate citizens' rights, and this includes taking action to vote out of office the politicians, who give these orders to NYPD.

Bloomberg, Kelly, and NYPD to put up Security Checkpoints to Thwart OWS S17 Anniversary

By putting up barricades and security checkpoints all over Lower Manhattan, which has not been done since 9/11, is this how the NYPD thinks it is going to serve and protect us ? Is it trying to protect us from our own Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech ?

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints, Demand ID in Lower Manahttan on OWS Anniversary Since when are Americans required to carry and show ID to the police to go about their daily business? Apparently since the 1% became sufficiently afraid of the 99% so as to regard the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to assembly and free speech as security threats. This notice gives a flavor of what to expect for the September 17 celebrations of the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (click to enlarge; hat tip nathan):

2012 09 14 Pace NYPD ID Checkpoints for Occupy Wall Street Anniversary

Original Source : Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints, Demand ID in Lower Manahttan on OWS Anniversary

Intermediary Post : Suzannah B. Troy : Occupy Wall Street Alert Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints

Chicago Police Beat NATO Protesters With Batons ; Police Use Of Violence Against Citizens Highlights Need To End War, Conflict (Raw Video)

"The police have several demonstrators detained behind their lines, calling for medics. Bloodied protesters being dragged out of sight now," Occupy Chicago group wrote on its Twitter page earlier in the day.

A city official, who was not authorized to talk to the media on police matters, told CNN that between 75-100 protesters had refused to leave the area after being told to disperse.

Police Brutality: Mother knocked out with baby on the side-walk

San Francisco, California. Video shows a San Francisco police officer throwing a resisting suspect to the ground, apparently knocking her unconscious, while leaving the baby to cry on the side-walk.

Impeach Mayor Michael Bloomberg Petition

WE THE PEOPLE, of the city of New York and citizens of America, demand the immediate resignation of current mayor Michael ''Mike'' Bloomberg due to gross negligence in handling of Occupy Wall Street, thousands of protestors have been denied their 1st amendment right. Mayor Bloomberg continually turns a blind eye to the abuse being brought by the NYPD.

OWS NYPD Police Brutality Protest at Union Square

YouTube video of #OWS protest against NYPD police brutality and use of excessive force, plus an invitation to the three-year anniversary of the term limits extension rammed through the City Council in 2008 by Speaker Christine Quinn.

Women Pepper-Sprayed by NYPD

Peaceful Female Protesters Penned on the Sidewalk and Pepper-sprayed by the NYPD in a Show of Excessive Force.

Is City Council Speaker Christine Quinn going to denounce the NYPD for their use of excessive force against unarmed women ?

During Troy Davis Protest, NYPD Use of Excessive Force

NEW YORK CITY (22 Sept 2011) -- At a passionate, yet peaceful flashmob protest and march, activists against the death penalty demonstrated yesterday in New York City one day after the execution of Troy Davis, a man believed to be innocent of the charges that lead to his execution. In this exclusive video, watch as how officers from the New York City Police Department carried weapons, used excessive force, and made at least one violent arrest during yesterday's demonstration.

Courageous Egyptian Protesters

من مظاهرات يوم الغضب - شاب شجاع جدا

A courageous Egyptian protester stops an armoured truck bearing a water cannon on protesters on what appears to be Qasr al-Ayn Street in Cairo, Egypt.

Similar to the Tiananmen Square hero from the 1989 protests, in Cairo today a hero-protester stood in front of an armoured truck.

NYPD gay entrapment lawsuit update

City Fails in Bid to Block Porn Bust Suit ; Judge rules Robert Pinter’s allegations, if proved, show no probable cause for arrest -- Gay City News

"A federal judge Tuesday refused to toss out a gay Manhattan man's malicious-prosecution suit against the city, saying the NYPD's actions in arresting him appeared 'unsettling and inappropriate,' " The New York Daily News reported.

Mr. Pinter had been arrested in 2008 under a systematic and organised progam by NYPD that targeted sex shoppes ; by early 2009, community backlash to the entrapment arrests had begun to culminate in protests ; one such protest took place near New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse. The mayor oversees and is ultimately accountable for the actions by the NYPD.

The NYPD have to end their systematic, organised, and targeted discrimination against the GLBT community. And the mayor has to do something about it, he can, you know? So, let's see him put his money where his MOUTH is.

Mayor Bloomberg is responsible for appealing a 2005 court ruling that favoured marriage equality ; meanwhile, Bloombo Dicto marches in Gay Pride Parades ; meanwhile, Bloombo Dicto recruited homophobic Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, who refused to acknowledge Gay Pride in Indianapolis ; meanwhile, GLBT politicians still align themselves with this two-timing mayor.

By 2009, Bloombo Dicto was again courting the GLBT vote by supporting marriage equality, but this time GLBT voters had begun to wise up. It is high time for more voters to take Mayor Bloomberg, and his enablers, to political divorce court.