Huffington Post: LGBT And Civil Rights Groups Band Together To Protest Stop-And-Frisk Practice
On Tuesday, more than a dozen progressive groups, ranging from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to Empire State Pride Agenda, gathered at a bar where the modern gay-rights movement began more than four decades ago. In what appeared to be the strongest showing yet of solidarity between black and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders, the groups arrived at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street to announce a June 17 protest against the city’s stop-and-frisk practice, which they say is ineffective, unjust, and harmful.
The event marked what many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights community hope will be a new, broader focus of LGBT groups in the city now that they have won the fight to legalize same-sex marriage. Some also spoke of their hopes for a new chapter in the long and sometimes tense history of relations between black and gay rights groups. As the Reverend Al Sharpton put it, “Today, we go from dating on activist occasions to a marriage.”
- 1 year ago
Why We Need Unions
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker made his name with a coldblooded campaign to destroy public sector unions. Pro-union Wisconsinites tried to recall Walker; they failed. This has led to some gloating and speculation from the usual suspects (Rich Lowry, nice blazer, hair boy) that the death knell has formally sounded for unions in America.
Let’s hope not.
Unions are much more than a political mechanism by which teachers and policemen and firemen can be scapegoated. They are not limited to industries under the direct control of a governor’s diktat. There is a simple reason why all those huge employers of retail and service workers—Target, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, and countless others—are so emphatically anti-union: fear. These companies know that unions represent a sort of power for their workers that their workers will otherwise never have. That power translates to better working conditions and higher wages. That, in turn, eats into a company’s profits, as all expenses do. For some companies, this is merely a nuisance, a potential hit to the stock price. For others—like Wal-Mart, which has built the world’s largest retail chain by squeezing every last cent out of its costs—it is a potential existential threat.
- 1 year ago
The Stonewall Stop and Frisk Summit - Or, Al Sharpton, Chris Quinn and the NAACP Walk Into a (Gay) Bar...
An historic coalition of traditional race-oriented civil rights organizations, labor unions, and LGBT groups met yesterday at the Stonewall Inn to endorse the upcoming SIlent March to End Stop and Frisk on Father’s Day, June 17. The “press conference” featured an impressive roster of speakers — including the Rev. Al Sharpton, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and NAACP President Benajmin Jealous — and had anyone wanted to wipe out nearly every LGBT leader in the city, they could have done it with one strike.
- 1 year ago
- 1
At Historic Stonewall Inn, LGBT Groups Condemn Stop and Frisk
For Immediate Release: June 6, 2012
At Historic Stonewall Inn, LGBT Groups Condemn Stop and Frisk, Unveil National Coalition to Fight Racial Profiling, Police Harassment
More than 50 LGBT Organizations Will March on Father’s Day in Silence to Oppose the Stop and Frisk Policy in New York City
New York, NY—Last night, at the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, where a backlash against police harassment in June 1969 launched the modern LGBT rights movement, LGBT organizations from around the country joined civil rights leaders, labor leaders, and elected officials to announce support for the campaign against stop and frisk, and participation in the Father’s Day silent march against racial profiling, which has been organized by the NAACP, National Action Network, and 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.
The Stonewall gathering was convened by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which played a lead role in bringing LGBT organizations together to unveil this unprecedented national coalition that will apply a new source of pressure on the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg to curtail the stop and frisk policy. At the event, stop and frisk was criticized by a long list of speakers who called it both ineffective as a public safety tool and blatantly discriminatory against LGBT people and people of color.
A diverse group of participants connected the LGBT movement and civil rights movement through shared experiences with police harassment and discrimination based on identity. A full list of LGBT organizations endorsing the march is available here and below are statements from numerous participants in the Stonewall gathering.
“Too many people have been victimized and harmed by the stop and frisk policy, and we plan to march in record numbers on Father’s Day to show that discrimination, harassment, and profiling based on identity is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. This is one struggle—one fight—we’re all committed to winning. The fight against stop and frisk is a LGBT fight, a civil rights fight, a labor movement fight, a fight for justice and equality—a fight that unites all of us as one movement. We’re telling the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg that all New Yorkers deserve to live free of discrimination and harassment,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
“There is no better time than LGBT Pride month and no better place than the Stonewall Inn to unveil this national coalition of organizations and to show that shared experiences with police harassment and discrimination unify LGBT people and people of color. By coming together, we are telling the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg that as advocates for equality and justice, we are mobilizing against criminalization based on identity,” said Jeffrey Campagna, a National LGBT Advocate and Movement Strategist and Co-Chair of the LGBT Table of the Silent March Against Stop and Frisk and Racial Profiling.
“Police violence has always been and continues to be an LGBTQ issue: in our 2011 report we found that transgender people, people of color and transgender people of color were 1.5 to 2 times more likely to experience police violence throughout the country,” said Sharon Stapel, Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project and Co-Chair of the LGBT Table of the Silent March Against Stop and Frisk and Racial Profiling. “Police profiling and targeting is institutionalized racism, homophobia and transphobia aimed at the people who don’t conform with rigid race, gender or sex roles and is unacceptable state-sanctioned violence and AVP is actively working on solutions to end profiling and targeting. For as long as we are policed because of who we are, how we look, or who we choose to have sex with, racial profiling and stop and frisk will be an LGBTQ issue.”
“I’m proud to stand with LGBT leaders in support of the Father’s Day March,” said New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “Together we can send a message that more must be done to significantly reduce the number of unwarranted stops and to bridge the divide between the NYPD and the communities they serve.”
“The coming together of civil rights leaders and LGBT leaders on this issue is a historic union with broad social and political ramifications. If we fight for each others’ issues it broadens and strengthens each respective movement,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network, a convener of the Silent March Against Stop and Frisk and Racial Profiling, and MSNBC host, who endorsed marriage equality in 2004.
“The African American and LGBT communities have long histories of being harassed by the police,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO, a convener of the Silent March Against Stop and Frisk and Racial Profiling. “In this silent march to end racial profiling we will stand together to tell City Hall and NYPD that discriminatory policing policies like stop-and-frisk will not be tolerated.”
“We are proud to stand with the LGBT community on this important issue. Stop and frisk is a concern for all communities in this City as the young men who are so often targeted are our sons, brothers, nephews — future fathers and community leaders. That’s why on Father’s Day, June 17th, 1199 SEIU will join with civil rights, faith, labor and community groups in a silent march to raise awareness on the city’s stop and frisk policy. We urge all New Yorkers concerned about the future of our children and safety in our communities to march with on Father’s day to take a stand against racial profiling,” said George Gresham, President of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a convener of the Silent March Against Stop and Frisk and Racial Profiling.
“The reality is that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of color – including myself- are among those subjected to over 685,000 stops and frisks by the NYPD last year and we have been at the forefront of resistance to abusive policing long before Stonewall,” said Chris Bilal a survivor of stop and frisk and a Youth Leader from Streetwise and Safe, an organization focused on the policing of LGBTQ youth of color. “Sometimes our experiences are no different than the rest of our communities, and sometimes they are marked by homophobia and transphobia in addition to racism and policing of poverty.”
“As a transgender woman and a long time New Yorker, criminalizing a generation of young men in our city does not make me feel safe, not when the police confiscate 700 guns from 700,000 stops. It is time for the mayor and police to revisit the stop and frisk policy and replace it with common sense policing, based on real crime and not racial clichés,” said Melissa Sklarz, Director of New York Trans Rights Organization (NYTRO) and President of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City.
“We stand united against racial profiling and police harassment on the basis of a person’s identity. LGBT people, especially those of color, know painfully well what it’s like to be targeted and demeaned in this way,” said Stacey Long, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “Just as there was no sound reason to raid the Stonewall Inn in 1969, there is no sound reason to stop and frisk black and Latino men in 2012 simply for being who they are. This must end now.”
“As a legal organization, Lambda Legal knows that a policy that alienates hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers from law enforcement because of racism or homophobia, making people afraid of police and thus to report crimes or come forward as witnesses, does not make us safe,” said Kevin M. Cathcart, Executive Director, Lambda Legal.
“Public safety is important but must not be a noose around the neck of young men of color, constraining them from reaching their potential and unfairly stigmatizing them. Stigma and shame often lead to devaluation of self, promotion of risky behaviors,” said Marjorie J. Hill, PhD, CEO, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).
“LGBT Americans know too well what it means to be the target of biased policing and we are standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies to say that no group should be singled out for unfair treatment. While groups like the National Organization for Marriage have been exposed in trying to drive a wedge between the LGBT and people of color communities, we know the truth is that our communities overlap and intersect in ways that bring us together,” said Marty Rouse, National Field Director, Human Rights Campaign.
“In 2012, Commissioner Ray Kelly and the NYPD are on course to make over 800,000 “Stop and Frisks”! An increase of 1000% since 1999. Many of the “stops” involve LGBT people of color, members of the transgender community and our homeless LGBT youth. It is an unjust practice that is criminalizing an entire generation, and robs us of our essential dignity as human beings,” said Robert Pinter, Campaign to Stop the False Arrests Police Reform Organizing Project.
“As a rabbi, as a lesbian, I am profoundly aware of the ways that “stop and frisk” police techniques have been used as weapons against Jews and gay people. It is wrong when it is used against and to intimidate gay people or Jews, and it wrong when it unfairly targets young men of color. Justice demands that we stand together. I’m proud to be here today,” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah.
“Stop-and-frisk abuses and other discriminatory NYPD practices exemplify racial profiling at its worst —targeting low-income communities of color throughout New York City and undermining public safety. Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is proud to stand with LGBT New Yorkers and others who are affected by racial and gender profiling by the NYPD, and who are mobilizing to end discriminatory, unlawful and ineffective NYPD practices,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, Director, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR).
###
- 1 year ago
- 1
Gay City News: LGBT Leaders Lend Their Voices on Stop & Frisk
“Today, we are going from dating on occasion to a marriage.”
Displaying his trademark skill at artful turns of phrase, the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke to the dramatic significance of a June 5 press conference at the Stonewall Inn that brought together leaders of dozens of local and national LGBT groups and the organizers of a June 17 Manhattan march to protest the NYPD’s stop and frisk policies that affect people of color in starkly disproportionate numbers.
The End Stop and Frisk Silent March Against Racial Profiling is planned for Father’s Day, and its lead organizers include Sharpton’s National Action Network, the NAACP, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Federation of Teachers, and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Last year, the NYPD made nearly 685,000 stop-and-frisks, up from less than 100,000 in 2002. Police department data demonstrate the sharp racial and ethnic disparities in the use of the tactic –– with 53 percent of them involving African Americans and 34 percent, Latinos.
On June 5, most of the big names in LGBT advocacy –– the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Empire State Pride Agenda, the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), Lambda Legal, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Family Equality Council, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, Marriage Equality USA, the National Black Justice Coalition, and Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) among them –– stepped up in solidarity.
Terming the police’s stop and frisk policy “a process that is simply broken and that, if not fixed, will only cause further division,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an out lesbian Chelsea Democrat expected to seek the mayoralty next year, said, “The key to our safety as a city is a positive connection between the police and the community.”
The nearly 700,000 stops, she noted, are not distributed evenly across the city’s neighborhoods or eight million residents but rather “concentrated in particular subsets of New Yorkers.”
Read the full cover story and lead editorial in this week’s issue of Gay City News.
- 1 year ago
CBS New York: Gay Rights Groups To Join NYC Stop And Frisk Protest
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Gay rights groups are speaking out in support of a silent march being held later this month in protest of the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy.
Representatives from groups including the Empire State Pride Agenda and Human Rights Campaign joined Rev. Al Sharpton, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Benjamin Todd Jealous and union representatives at an event Tuesday announcing they would be taking part in the June 17 march.
“This is one struggle, one fight,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “We understand that justice is indivisible.”
Sharpton said, “You must be for the civil rights of everyone, or you’re not for the civil rights of anyone.”
The groups’ event was held Tuesday at the Stonewall Inn, a bar where patrons’ defiance of police in a 1969 raid was a watershed moment in the gay rights movement.
Last year, the NYPD stopped more than 630,000 people, mostly black and Hispanic men. About half were frisked, and only about 10 percent were arrested. The police department has said it made 203,500 street stops during the first three months of this year, up from 183,326 in the first three months of last year.
The department has said it’s a necessary crime-fighting tool that saves lives, but critics say it’s racial profiling.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said there would be changes to officer training and supervision in response to the public outcry about the street stops, including a new training course detailing how to conduct lawful stops.
Last month, a federal judge gave class action status to a lawsuit by people who had been stopped. The lawsuit accused the police department of purposefully targeting black and Hispanic neighborhoods and said officers are pressured to meet quotas as part of the program and are punished if they don’t.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that there was “overwhelming evidence” that the practice has led to thousands of illegal stops.
View the full story with an audio broadcast of press conference.
- 1 year ago
NY1: LGBT Activists Join Chorus Against NYPD Stop-And-Frisks
Members of several leading gay rights organizations called for an end to the New York City Police Department’s stop and frisk policy on Tuesday.
Gay rights activists joined civil rights leaders and union representatives at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village to speak out against the controversial policy.
Many of the speakers drew parallels between the gay rights movement and what they say is racial profiling experienced by the city’s black and Hispanic communities.
“It’s sending a message, that our quest, all of us as New Yorkers, is to make this a city that is free and safe and embracing for everyone,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
“Stop and frisk and the racial profiling behind it is destroying the social fabric of this city. It leaves us unsafe and it must stop,” said Kenneth Upton of Lambda Legal.
On Father’s Day, the groups plan to hold a silent march against racial profiling.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said the policy helps reduce crime.
- 1 year ago
The Associated Press: Gay rights groups to join NYPD street stop protest
NEW YORK (AP) — Gay rights groups are speaking out in support of a silent march being held later this month to protest the New York Police Department’s street stop policy.
Representatives from groups including Empire State Pride Agenda and Human Rights Campaign joined the Rev. Al Sharpton and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Benjamin Todd Jealous at an event Tuesday announcing they’d take part in the June 17 march.
The event was held at the Stonewall Inn, a bar where patrons’ defiance of police in a 1969 raid was a watershed moment in the gay rights movement.
The police department last year stopped more than 600,000 people, mostly black and Hispanic men. Half were frisked, and about 80 percent were never arrested.
The police department says it’s necessary. Critics say it’s racial profiling.
- 1 year ago
Gay Inc Takes On Stop and Frisk, the NAACP Goes to the Stonewall Inn, and Other Signs of the "Black/Gay Divide"
Today will see one of the most significant signs of a new alliance between traditional race-based civil rights groups and the current wave of LGBT oriented civil rights groups yet. At 4:00 PM, a cadre of gay organizations (including Lambda Legal, HRC, GLAAD, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, ESPA and GMHC) will be present at the Stonewall Inn, joined by Al Sharpton and the NAACP (marking the first time we’ve ever gotten a press release from the venerable civil rights organization telling us to meet them at a gay bar). Together, the groups will announce a new unified front in fighting “stop and frisk,” the NYPD’s practice of stopping, almost exclusively, black and Latino young men.
- 1 year ago
Top LGBT Organizations Join Campaign Against Stop and Frisk
***Media Advisory***
LGBT Organizations Join Campaign Against Stop and Frisk National Coalition Fights Racial Profiling, Police Harassment
LGBT Leaders Join Civil Rights Leaders, Labor Leaders at Historic Stonewall Inn
Tuesday, June 5, Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher Street, 4 p.m., NYC
WHAT: At the Stonewall Inn, where a backlash against police harassment in June 1969 launched the LGBT rights movement, top LGBT organizations will join civil rights leaders and labor leaders to announce support for the growing campaign against stop and frisk, and participation in the Father’s Day silent march against racial profiling. A day after Governor Cuomo unveiled legislation to curb certain kinds of arrests based on stops and frisks, this national coalition will apply a new source of pressure on the NYPD and Bloomberg administration to curtail the policy. A diverse group of participants will connect the LGBT movement and civil rights movement through shared experiences with police harassment and discrimination. This is a major news event that’s not to be missed.
WHO: Top representatives from GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Empire State Pride Agenda, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and several other leading LGBT organizations; Rev. Al Sharpton (National Action Network); Benjamin Jealous (NAACP); George Gresham, head of 1199SEIU; and Stuart Appelbaum, head of RWDSU.
WHEN: Tuesday, June 5, 4 p.m.
WHERE: Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher Street, NYC
###
- 1 year ago
