Brooklyn, NY, December 21 —Supporters and friends filled the lobby of an apartment building here in Brooklyn to mark the monthly anniversary of Kyam Livingston’s murder caused by the racist denial of treatment by the NYPD cops at the Central Booking holding cell. The Support Committee had planned an indoor event to mark the date with both talk and a meal to share together during the holiday season. The crowd included friends and family of Kyam, unionists, church members, family members of other police murder victims as well as many members of Progressive Labor Party.
We carried out those plans but added a march through the neighborhood as our response to Mayor de Blasio’s call for a suspension of anti-racist demonstrations until cops Liu and Ramos were buried. The Mayor’s call for respect for the mourning period stands in sharp contrast to how racist cops treat the working class every day.
Kyam’s mother explained at an impromptu rally how her daughter was left dying for seven hours in the Central Bookings cell. She pointed out that cops Liu and Ramos were buried with full honors while Kyam was denied last rites. Kyam’s sister had been frustrated from seeing Kyam’s body for hours after her death.
This is not a unique example of disrespect. Mike Brown’s body lay in the street for four and a half hours after he was shot. Eric Garner received no medical attention as he lay dying unable to breathe. Shantel Davis bled out after being shot with no medical care. Akai Gurley, shot by “accident,” lay dying while the NYPD killer called his “union rep” to ask what to do. Tamir Rice lay dead in a park while his sister, trying to help him, was tackled, handcuffed, and thrown into the back of the killer kkkops’ patrol car.
As we marched along Church Avenue we chanted “Eric Garner, Mike Brown — Shut this racist system down!” changing the names to remember Kyam, Shantel, Akai and others who have died at the hands of the police. Hundreds came out of their homes or stopped their shopping to watch us march by. Many enthusiastically joined in our chants like “how do you spell racist? N-Y-P-D, how do you spell murderer? N-Y-P-D!” Many copies of CHALLENGE were distributed along the march.
After returning to our starting point, a speaker from Ferguson moved the crowd with his recounting of how the murder of Mike Brown had changed his life. He brought the fight-like-Ferguson spirit to the crowd with his call to shut this racist system down. Finally, a PL’er who has lived in the area for 40 years recounted a list of racist police murders and explained that we fight with families for justice in each of these cases but to end this police terror we need to win communist revolution.