New York Times — March 26, 1999
As the Bronx grand jury considering last month's police shooting of Amadou Diallo finished its work Thursday, 219 people calling for justice in the case were arrested for disorderly conduct in front of Police Headquarters, and a high-profile group of black and Hispanic leaders began to plot strategy for upcoming meetings with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has led near-daily demonstrations since the Feb. 4 shooting, said protests at 1 Police Plaza would continue until indictments are unsealed early next week, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson scheduled to be arrested Friday.
« I plan to be with a coalition of conscience that has come to protest not only the slaying of Diallo, but in fact a mood of permissive violence toward people of color, » Jackson said in an interview last night. « The atmosphere is toxic. We are in a very explosive moment. »
Even before reports of impending indictments filtered out, yesterday seemed to bring two months of activism over the shooting to a crescendo, with the largest crowd yet turning Police Plaza into political theater at lunchtime.
Among the marquee names on the roster of those arrested were the actress Susan Sarandon and the Rev. Floyd Flake, a former Congressman who has been among Giuliani's strongest black supporters. And for the first time, off-duty police officers staged a counterdemonstration to protest what they said was increasing anti-police sentiment in the city, though they were largely overshadowed by the boisterous crowd of more than 500, who chanted, among other things, « Arrest the killer cops. »
Starting at 11 A.M., as diverse crowds of students, religious leaders and workers on their lunch breaks began to fill Police Plaza, the protesting officers somberly read the names of 100 colleagues slain in the line of duty since 1977, marking each with the ring of a small bell. Later, they were mostly quiet as they watched the theatrics, but when Reverend Sharpton passed, they hissed, « Shame on you. »
James Higgins, a board member of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, organized the vigil.
« While the Diallo death was certainly a tragedy, there is no excuse for turning it into a full-scale attack on police officers, » he said. « If you're not engaging in cop-bashing, why are you here? »
Sharpton yesterday led four separate groups down the aisle created by blue police sawhorses to the doors of Police Headquarters, where they lined up quietly before being taken inside to be handcuffed and sent to local precincts for processing.
The first was a group of Hispanic, Asian and African-American students; they were followed by Ms. Sarandon and other members of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York civil liberties group. Flake and his supporters came next, followed by a group of Episcopalians, including a priest who had previously been arrested for civil disobedience protesting apartheid outside the South African Embassy, and Chloe Breyer, the daughter of Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.
« Safety at the expense of civil liberties is unacceptable, » said Ms. Sarandon, who walked to her arrest singing « We Shall Overcome » quietly. « I'm here to protest racial profiling and a lot of other issues that have made it unsafe for people of color in this city. »
Flake said he had spoken to Giuliani two days ago about his plan to get arrested, and said he hoped to act as a liaison between the Mayor and Sharpton, who was standing at his side. « It's not just Diallo, it is the overall weight of what has happened in the past, » Flake said. « We can't afford to have another case like this. »
Even as hundreds filled Police Plaza, black and Hispanic leaders throughout the city were discussing how best to capitalize on the open-door policy the Giuliani administration has suddenly adopted this week in the wake of intense protests. They scheduled a strategy session, which is to include elected officials as well as dozens of religious, civic and labor leaders, for tomorrow. Among those expected to attend are
all of whom have been arrested during the series of protests at Police Headquarters.
The group plans to write a list of demands to be presented to Mayor Giuliani, possibly including the establishment of a civilian commission with subpoena powers to oversee the Police Department – a concept the Mayor has fought for years – as well as a requirement that police officers live in the city and a greater commitment to integrating the predominantly white police force, organizers said.
In addition, they will either recommend or demand that the Mayor meet with Sharpton, who is considered by some to be the catalyst for the administration's recent interest in establishing stronger ties to the city's black and Hispanic officials, but is also Giuliani's most vociferous antagonist. The Mayor has steadfastly refused to meet with him.
Giuliani is scheduled to see McCall tomorrow morning, ending the Mayor's four-year pattern of refusing to meet with the state's highest elected black leader. Giuliani met Wednesday night with C. Virginia Fields, the Manhattan Borough President, another black leader he had previously shunned.
But the Mayor's efforts to improve relations with black and Hispanic political leaders have generated skepticism among some, who note that he has reached out before, in the wake of the Abner Louima case, and that the effort was brief and turned rancorous.
Tomorrow's minority summit, to be held in midtown Manhattan, was decided upon after Sharpton and others learned of Giuliani's meeting with Ms. Fields. Sharpton suggested yesterday that black leaders who are being « picked off » by the Mayor must all voice similar demands.
« We want to make sure that everybody understands that if they meet with the Mayor, we should all be saying the same thing," Sharpton said. He added, "No one minds if they have a meeting, but they should all be coming out saying the same thing. »
Ms. Fields last night defended her decision to meet with Giuliani. « This was an important meeting on several levels, » she said, adding that « elected officials have to make their own decisions. »
In a separate interview, Dinkins said, « Any meeting with the Mayor is meaningless if it doesn't result in his commitment to do the things that we have all been talking about. »
Giuliani, meanwhile, said yesterday that he had agreed to these meetings in part because he thought there was a « serious difference here between perception and reality.»
If people are interested in « informing that perception with reality, » he said, then he would meet with them. « If there isn't, then there's no point in doing that because all you do is feed the false perception even more. »
Outside a middle school auditorium in Bushwick, Brooklyn, last night, where Mayor Giuliani held a town hall meeting, dozens of people chanted « No justice, no peace,» some of them holding signs critical of the Mayor. But there were no questions about the Diallo shooting police misconduct raised during the tightly controlled session, as residents instead focused on pothole problems and drinking water.
The meeting was introduced by Assemblyman Vito Lopez, a Democrat who has been a strong supporter of his. It drew a mostly Hispanic and white audience, although the neighborhood is heavily African American. In a standard procedure for a town hall meeting with the Mayor, residents had to fill out forms saying what their topic would be before asking a question. One young man said he had tried repeatedly to ask about aggressive policing, but was not permitted t speak. Another audience member, Ruben Beltran, 38, said the same thing.
« I was raising my hand for so long that I had to have my friend hold it up for me, » said Ruben Beltran, 38.
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