Occupy Harlem Leaders in Court on Monday, April 30

Rev. Earl Kooperkamp and Nellie Bailey will be on trial starting tomorrow.  Bring ID and come early so that you can get through security in time for the 9:30 start.

 Put NYPD Stop & Frisk Practice on Trial NOT those who challenge it!

On Monday, April 30 Dr. Cornel West and Carl Dix, leaders of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and 18 others to be tried for disorderly conduct arrests protesting NYPD “Stop and Frisk."

Press Conference 8:45 am; Trial 9:30 am
Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, 100 Centre Street, on street and in trial Room 506

The arrests stem from an October 21, 2011 non-violent civil disobedience protest of “stop and frisk” policy at the
NYPD 28th Precinct in Harlem. 

Defendants include Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University Professor of African Studies;  Carl Dix, Co-Founder of the Revolutionary Communist Party;  Randy Credico, social comedian and former director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice; Rev. Stephen Phelps, Senior Minister of The Riverside Church; Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem; Prof. Jim Vrettos of John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Debra Sweet, Director, World Can’t Wait; Nellie Hester Bailey of Occupy Harlem and activists from Occupy Wall Street.

In 2011, the NYPD stopped almost 700,000 people, or more than 1,900 people each day. More than 85 percent of those stopped and frisked are Black or Latino, and more than 90 percent of them were doing nothing wrong when the police stopped them.  “Stop and Frisk” is the first step in a pipeline that has ultimately placed 2.4 million in prison.

“Stop & Frisk,” a policy heavily promoted by Ray Kelly and Michael Bloomberg, is also being challenged in court by the NYCLU and Center for Constitutional Rights.

Scott Stringer Distorts the History of Columbia Expansion Resistance

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/04/24/stringer-talks-role-small-scale-politics-urbanism-panel

For those of you not around for the approval process, Stringer ignored the 197-a land use plan for Manhattanville created by Community Board 9 but decided that the Board had been sufficient opposition to the normal, corrupt planning process, that he removed many of the long-time members from it and packed it with pro-development yuppies who knew no history of the community or its relationship with the University.

Stringer talks role of small-scale politics at urbanism panel

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer argued that Columbia’s campus expansion would have been impossible without input from community boards. “They give neighborhoods a say in their own futures,” he said.

By Avantika Kumar

Spectator Senior Staff Writer

Published April 24, 2012

Matthew Sherman / Senior Staff Photographer

At the age of 17, high school senior Scott Stringer was the youngest person ever to serve on a community board in New York. Now 51 and Manhattan borough president, Stringer highlighted today’s community boards, the most local of governing bodies in the city, as the types of grassroots political discussion forums he wants to see more of.

Stringer gave the keynote address and a panel of intellectuals discussed the future of the city at an event organized by the School of International and Public Affairs on Monday.

Stringer outlined three “arms of improvement” for New York: fostering community-driven politics, increasing the role of the “creative class” of professionals like artists and social workers, and expanding infrastructure.

According to Stringer, it is necessary to have “institutions that foster a sense of community, a sense of place,” especially in local units such as the community boards. Stringer revived the community board system when he took office in 2006, with the numbers of African-American and Asian-American members increasing by 40 percent. Half of all new members, he said, are under the age of 40. (The average age of a community board member when he served in the late 1970s, he joked, was “around 80.”)

Without community boards, he argued, Columbia’s, Fordham’s and New York University’s campus expansions would have been impossible. “They give neighborhoods a say in their own futures,” he said.

He pointed to a recent proposal by Community Board 7 that would institute new zoning regulations on the Upper West Side—limiting the storefront width of banks and preserving mom-and-pop shops—as an example of both public participation in the design process and a way that community boards can preserve the character of the city.

Stringer also expressed support for greater government transparency, advocating for the open distribution of data from the government.

A potential mayoral candidate in 2013, Stringer took more than a few jabs at Mayor Michael Bloomberg, noting to the amusement of the crowd that the mayor cannot be up for re-election in 2025—a reference to Bloomberg’s workaround of the two-term limit policy in 2008 to serve a third term.

The event featured a panel of experts, including sociology professor Saskia Sassen, an expert on global urbanism, who voiced different perspectives on the central concerns related to city development.

Alexander Garvin, an architect and an urban planning professor at Yale University, emphasized the importance of city planners in shaping the city’s development.

“They must engage in a process that leads to actual changes,” Garvin said, adding that city planning “brings together the forces of government, business, finance, politics, and public opinion.”

Kavitha Rajagopalan, SIPA ’03 and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, highlighted the challenges surrounding the immigrant experience. Rajagopalan echoed Stringer’s criticism of “retrograde” immigration policies, such as the cap on H-1B visas granted to students. The limit on visas, they said, prevents foreign students who studied in the U.S. from staying in the country and working.

According to Rajagopalan, although industry and policy experts have argued for the economic benefits of relaxing immigration policies, “the conversation about immigration continues to be an emotional one.”

Panelist Greg Lindsay, a journalist, said that studying global issues at a city level is important because the city is “quite literally where they are situated.”

He said he was “very pleasantly surprised” by Stringer’s keynote address, although he was skeptical of Stringer’s emphasis on providing open data to the public and enabling cities to be privatized.

According to Andrea Moore, SIPA ’12 and managing editor of SIPA’s student-run Journal of International Affairs, the panel reflected SIPA’s increased focus on examining city affairs. The journal’s 65th issue covered similar topics, and SIPA recently introduced a concentration in urban and social policy.

“It’s becoming increasingly in demand by SIPA students,” Moore said.

“We couldn’t do an issue, ‘State of the World 2012,’” Ethan Wilkes, SIPA ’12 and marketing director of the journal, said. “But we felt the city was a good vehicle to filter a lot of the issues we discuss in SIPA.”

Audience member Puleng Botlhole, SIPA ’12, said she came to learn more about New York City’s plans and was “amazed at what it takes to actually plan a city.”

“The kind of questions that the audience asked truly reflects the passion that they have for the city,” Botlhole said.

avantika.kumar@columbiaspectator.com

Harlem March Against Racist Killings Strongly Supported by Community

Thousands of persons on the route of the Harlem March Against Racist Killings expressed their support and solidarity with the event which began with a rally at Marcus Garvey Park and ended with another rally in front of the Harlem State Office Building on 125^th Street.

More than 200 persons marched from 124^th Street and 5^th Avenue, up to 135^th Street and back down to 125^th Street and Adam clayton Powell Boulevard. As several participants noted, the march received the warmest and most militant expressions of support as it passed through working class sections of Harlem. People eagerly approached the marchers to request literature and shout encouragement. Many said that it was about time that someone took the streets in the community to denounce the killings. The event was one of many which have been organized recently by Occupy Harlem which is headed by Nellie Bailey.

The focus of the march was the recent killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida.  However, at the rallies, the names of many of the countless victims, mostly Black and Latino, were also mentioned. Mrs. Henry, the grandmother of Ramarley Graham, an unarmed 16 year old who was killed by a cop in the bathroom of the youth’s home in front of his six year old brother was one of the speakers in front of the State office Building.

Participants in the event also included: Valerie Orridge, a retired nurse who is president of the Delano Village Tenants Association; Cornelius Ricks of the Harlem Law Library Project; professor Bill Sales; Karim Abdul Muhammad of the Circle of Brothers; Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report; Ralph Pointer, husband of jailed lawyer and political prisoner, Lynne Stewart;  Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party; members of the Peace and Justice Committee of St. Mary’s Church in Harlem; Bill Henry of Hands Across Harlem; members of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops; the Chinese Staff and Workers Association; Families Against Stop and Frisk; members of the Socialist Freedom Party; Cleo silvers; Jazz Hayden; Marty Goodman, a member of the Transit Workers Union; Larry Holmes of the International Action Center; and others.

Nellie Bailey announced that the work that went into the march and the event itself are part of a broader strategy approved in meetings of Occupy Harlem to create a city-wide United Front Against Racist Violence. She stated that work on this important United Front will continue in the next meeting of occupy Harlem.

In the meantime, Occupy Harlem will participate in the following events: the immigrant workers march in solidarity with May 1 on Saturday April 28 in Queens parting at 2PM from the Philippine Forum located at 69^th Street and Roosevelt Avenue; and International Workers Day on Tuesday, May 1 at Union Square Park.

thanks to Daniel Rivera for photos and text.

Occupy Harlem March and Rally Against Racist Killings

Saturday, April 21, 2012
1:00 PM Assembly at 124th/5th Ave
(Take 2, 3 subway to 125th St/Lenox Avenue. Walk one block east)
2:00 PM Leave 124th/5th Avenue for March

March Route: North to 125th Street, west to Lenox Ave, north to 145th
Street, west to Frederick Douglass Blvd, south to 125th Street and
east to 125th/Adam Clayton Powell Blvd for rally from 3 PM to 6 PM

Links to Information about Mass Incarceration and Trayvon Martin

Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide April 19 is the day to break the silence www.a19action.wordpress.com
Tell your story about police abuse. Go to www.bearwitnessproject.tumblr.com
Trayvon’s murder was no isolated incident-Zimmerman’s arrest does’t mean the system worked #SMI-A19
No More Trayvons, No More 2.4 million people warehoused in prison
TWEETS: "We’ve been working to get a twitter campaign going where we send out regular tweets using one hash tag. The hash tag is #SMI-A19" (From Carl Dix)

Kenneth Chamberlain: Killed by Police in His Home

HARLEM RALLY AND MARCH AGAINST RACIST KILLINGS

SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY,  APRIL 21, 2012

Thursday, April 12th at 6 PM: Kennedy Center, 34 West 134th Street
(Take 2 or 3 Train to 135th Street)

There will be a citywide protest against the murder of Trayvon Martin
and the refusal so far of the police authorities in Sanford, Florida
to indict George Zimmerman for the murder of 17 year old Trayvon
Martin. We march in protest of Trayvon and all the “other Trayvons”
across the country including up south New York City.

WITH PROTEST WE MUST HAVE DEMANDS AND A PLAN OF ACTION.
POWER CONCEDES NOTHING WITHOUT A DEMAND. IT NEVER HAS AND IT NEVER WILL!
When will another Black person, Man, Woman, and Child become the next victim of
apartheid terror & murder in the US? WHAT ARE WE PREPARED TO DO?

EMMETT TILL IS NOW!!
WE DO HAVE POWER ! THE POWER OF THE PURSE!

WE ARE CALLING FOR A NATIONWIDE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST THE STATE OF FLORIDA!
Boycott Disneyland Theme Park & All related tourist attractions.
Boycott Disney Products i.e films, toys, etc.
Boycott all citrus products/produce from Florida
Boycott the State of Florida for conference & vacation destinations

(All are Welcome except NYPD & US Intelligence Operatives)

For More information contact OCCUPY HARLEM GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT
646-812-5188.  Email:occupyharlemgeneralassembly@gmail.com;
Twitter.com/occupyharlemnow.