Youth Take Action on Immigration, Education Budget Cuts, Sean Bell Verdict, and More

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Youth Take Action on Immigration, Education Budget Cuts, Sean Bell Verdict, and More A PUBLICATION OF THE YOUTH POWER PROJECT AT MAKE THE ROAD NEW YORK ISSUE 18 SUMMER 2008 Youth take action on immigration, education budget cuts, Sean Bell verdict, and more . Jóvenes toman acción en inmigración, recorte del presupuestos de educación, el veredicto de Sean Bell y mas… Make the Road New York* promotes economic justice, equity and opportunity for all New Yorkers through commu- nity and electoral organizing, strategic policy advocacy, leadership development, youth and adult education, and high quality legal and support services. *Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace el camino al andar. Searcher, there is no road. We make the road by walking. --Antonio Machado, Selected Poems, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982). Email Word On The Street at [email protected] Youth Power at Sean Bell verdict protest. might not have done anything illegal. The police to police brutality. My First Protest overreacted because 50 shots is a lot, and they should The reason I wrote this piece is because I hate have known someone was going to die. how cops take advantage of their power and use it Why I rallied Two of the cops were charged with manslaughter against people of color. You can’t shoot at a guy 50 and one with reckless endangerment. The police times and try to make up lies to get out of trouble. I for Sean Bell were trying to move the trial out of city and it didn’t hate how Sean Bell had to leave this world. He was work. In this case, there was no jury, only a single just about to get married but he got shot and died for by Philip Simmons judge made the decision. The cops should have been no reason. I like how Al Sharpton tried to help the punished because they had no right shooting at Sean black community out and how much he cares about T WAS NOVEMBER 25, 2006, AT A N IGHT CLUB Bell 50 times and they could have done the right people. I liked writing this piece about Sean Bell in Jamaica, Queens. It was the start of a new thing by just getting them out of the car. Since the because it shows how cops act and react, and how Ibeginning for 23 year old Sean Bell. He and his shooting Al Sharpton has organized protests to help Sean was a good person and after he left the world two friends just came out of Sean’s bachelor party out Sean Bell’s family and the black community. He people were with him not against him. I feel that and were having fun when five undercover cops thought that what happened that night was wrong. everything should work out for the best and Sean came and shot 50 times at their van and two of them Yes, I believe that the people who protested against Bell R.I.P. and cops should get what they deserve got hurt and one was killed and the person who was the brutality used against Sean Bell helped the case and go to jail. killed was Sean Bell . The undercover cops thought and supported the family. I just read in the newspaper that it happened that Sean and his friends had a weapon. They didn’t I think the police tried to move the case out of before on February 4, 1999 when I was seven years and that’s why there have been rallies and protests. city because they thought they were going to lose old the cops shot Amadou Diallo 41 times because The cops were coming to make arrests on people for in the city. I think many people in the city were not he pulled out a wallet and they thought that it was a drugs and prostitution, and Sean got caught up in on the police’s side and that the jury was going to gun and they killed him. That started everything, but what the cops were doing because he was in the make an easy decision convicting them. But they I guess the cops didn’t learn the lesson. This stuff is night club that night partying. When the cops only had one judge because the police made it seem just out of hand because the cops were charged with approached, and Sean tried to ride away the cops like any jury would be biased against them. So to the manslaughter. I think a rule for the police should be shot at them. They shot at them 50 times because police, having one judge would be fair and if there cops should be trained better and it will help because supposedly they thought he was holding a gun. They was a jury, it would have been a victory for the Bell’s they will think before they do something. shouldn’t shoot at a suspected criminal because they and other families who have lost people they loved I read a New York Times article about the Sean Bell verdict and that the police officers were found not guilty. When the family arrived at the court no one thought they would lose but the judge said the cops are not guilty because there was not enough evidence to prove that the cops had done something wrong. The judge said that the witnesses for the case were just not believable, and he added that at times the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense. I think the verdict ended in a bad way because some of the Bell family walked out of the court very upset, and people thought the judge had to be on the police’s side. I really think that the judge chose the police because they serve the law. The judge stated, “the people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified in shooting.” He also said that the men were not guilty of all of the eight counts, five felonies and three misdemeanors against them. Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to the ver- dict. “There are no winners in a trial like this,” he said. “An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son.” Bad stuff – I feel for the Bell family. I went to the rally the day the verdict went down at the court house in Queens. I went to support him and to interview people to see their points of view. I got to see how people love and care about Sean Bell. Writer Philip Simmons (left) at Sean Bell rally. It was fun; I got to tell the people that the police made a wrong decision and the people want justice. People want to stop cops’ nonsense. I interviewed a lot of people and folks rapped and said what they had to say. Other youth from Make the Road showed their respect and had posters, and some of the youth from Make the Road made a speech. The rally was trying to show how much people care about the people in this state, and that the police need to stop thinking they can do what they want to people. I loved the rally because I got to speak to people and I got to show how much I care about Sean Bell. It was my first time at a rally like this. My parents thought it was good to go to sup- port a person that was killed by police brutality and they just wanted me to do the right thing. I knew some of the kids from Make the Road. It was fun to be with them and to see how much they care. I was not nervous at all because I think being nervous kills your personality and I wanted to talk to people and get their opinions. I expected there to be more people, but there were about three hundred. It felt good to be there because it was my first time and I got some of my best interviews. I talked to former teachers, I got to get a tee shirt and it said “I Wont Be Silent.” Philip Simmons is 15 and attends Newtown High School. SUMMER 2008 3 Women Wage War Against War One on one with a peace seeker by Marisol Milano AM WRITING ABOUT THE WAR BECAUSE I WA N T Since the Iraq war started, the United States has How did code pink start? to know why the soldiers are killing innocent been affected by war. In my opinion, the war has CODEPINK Women for Peace started as a women’s I civilians. The soldiers shouldn’t kill civilians in disrupted the education, the jobs, and the families in peace vigil in Lafayette Park outside the White the communities that they are fighting in. They America. The Iraq war has affected individual lives House in November 2002. should be fighting against terrorists, not going to the as well. We lose more troops each day. Every soldier towns, terrorizing innocent civilians. I know some needs to come home now. Everyday we are losing How did you find the group to begin soldiers do not want to go into the Iraqi’s towns kill- between 10-20 troops and lots more are wounded. I with? ing them. I think the Iraq war is wrong because war think the war is dangerous because there is nothing I joined the group in March 2003 a few weeks before isn’t the way to find peace in the world.
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