Spread the word!
Howard Haywood, retired pastor at Myrtle Baptist Church, just posted the following on Facebook:
JOIN ME AND OTHERS FOR A SILENT PROTEST MARCH OVER THE LACK OF INDICTMENTS OF POLICE WHO KILL BLACK BOYS AND MEN. WE WILL GATHER AT 4PM SATURDAY OUTSIDE OF MYRTLE BAPTIST CHURCH 21 CURVE STREET WEST NEWTON. THE MARCH ROUTE WILL BE CURVE TO PROSPECT TO WASHINGTON STREETS INTO WEST NEWTON SQUARE. PLEASE BRING A SIGN AND FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO AGREE THAT WE HAVE TO STOP THESE MURDERS.
The vast majority of police officers are fine people, who do a great job under often difficult circumstances. But what happened to Eric Garner was not only an outrage, it was a murder caught on video. The lack of an indictment of those NYC police officers undermines the standing of every good officer, and makes a mockery of our “justice” system.
I’m just curious as to what has sparked all of these incidents. It seems like it’s one after another. It’s a true shame.
Tom,
This is a country of 350 million people. Stuff happens, and always has. The media are who take events that occur here and there around the country and make you think there’s an epidemic by harping on all the details and giving the demonstrators and thugs the national exposure that they want.
Mike,
I agree with you. Based upon the video, I’d say the cop is a murderer. You can hear the guy begging that he can’t breathe. We don’t know the whole story, but there appears to be not much more than the video shows. Those cops probably could have handled a minor situation of a guy selling individual cigarettes without ganging up on him, in spite of his obvious size.
On another note, perhaps Howard Haywood should listen to Charles Barkley, instead of stoking the flames of racism.
But, ah, no, everyone has to join in the attack on police, our only protection against the anarchy that would be generated by those who loot, and burn, and smash. I think the Reverend should be out protesting their bad behavior. Or maybe he doesn’t see that as bad behavior. Maybe next he’ll lead a march to demolish stores in Newton Center.
Only if the conversation is about basketball.
Actually Barry, the only people who protected ferguson businesses were the oath keepers… who were threatened with arrest by the local police who let 20 buildings burn, and forced to stand down after no buildings were lost on their watch.
I suggest googling it as the MSM has been largely silent. Armed civilians defending ferguson better than LE doesnt fit their agenda.
Someone should tell Howard Haywood that Big Mike wasn’t innocent, and neither was Trayvon (Pages 14 & 15).
http://www.bostonbroadside.com/2014/12/BostonBroadSide_2014_12-1%20Folder/BostonBroadSide_2014_12-1_w2.pdf
Glad we have this forum in Newton – thanks Greg. A couple of key points here:
1. The death of Eric Garner wasn’t murder, but it was clearly 2nd degree manslaughter under NY state law. There was no indictment because the DA in the case, Dan Donovan, is a Republican facing re-election in 2015. Anyone who has been around criminal law at all knows that DAs can get grand juries to do just about anything they want.
2. The notion that one has to be “innocent” (whatever that means) to avoid being the target of unlawful deadly force (applied by a civilian in the Trayvon Martin case and by a police officer in the Eric Garner case) is so laughably un-American that it’s almost not worth addressing. Read the Constitution.
3. The problem here is not that all police are bad, but that individual officers who have acted badly are not being held accountable for their actions. When their malfeasance is papered over as proper policing in a misguided attempt to protect them from the consequences of their wrongdoing, that’s when all police officers are stained by their bad acts. Bad doctors, bad airline pilots and bad cops all can and must be held accountable for their actions – just like the rest of us. It has been my privilege to know many police officers over the years, and I am pleased to say I can’t imagine any of them using deadly force on someone selling 75-cent loose cigarettes.
Actually, Mike (not Striar),
I kind of agree with you, although I don’t 100% agree with your desire to depend upon personal firearms to keep the peace, which you’ve often expressed.
In reality, the only protection against crime is a civilized society, where most people respect the law, and where lawbreakers are few and far between, and therefore easy to handle without heavy-handed police tactics. Today’s society allows and even encourages lawlessness. Gangsta’ rap, freedom of speech allowing sickening Islamic web sites that promote butchery, a president who sets examples of ignoring the law when he doesn’t like it, and so on. The law has become simply what an individual likes.
Societies based upon clear moral codes, where people want a sound society even at the expense of some wild and exciting experiences, and those are usually religious, but not always, mean people can walk around not fearful that they’ll be mugged, or that their houses will be burglarized, or that some frenzied mob will destroy their business, etc.
Such subcultures exist but don’t make the headlines. Newton is generally one. Look at the Police Log in the TAB. Almost no crime. Not because of police, but because the people of Newton are too busy doing constructive things, and generally respect other people’s property and lives.
But, no, some even here take an organization like the Boy Scouts, that trains kids to be “honest, kind, reverent, etc” or however the oath goes, and trashes them because they think homosexuality is inconsistent with a bunch of boys being in close contact with each other. This is another form of trashing moral codes.
It just goes on and on, and this society is in big trouble.
Reverend Haywood should be marching against the lawlessness in many black communities and not against the people who risk their lives to protect people there. While some black people may be harassed by cops, how many white people would survive walking through an inner city black neighborhood at night? This is a severe form of racism by blacks. Obama set a hugely bad example when he trashed the cop who tried to protect Henry Gates’ home, and continues to set bad examples.
@Barry Cohen – Yikes!! You should get out a bit more
I did just last week. I had no idea that it was only dumb luck that I survived such a life threatening ordeal.
Jerry,
You know what I mean. I know there are neighborhoods where you wouldn’t venture. This isn’t true of every neighborhood, and sorry if I gave that impression, but it is true in too many, and it’s racist.
FYI this march has been changed to Sunday!
Like everyone, I have been watching the events unfold over the last several weeks around the country.
I believe in our right to protest peacefully. There is a lot to discuss and changes need to be made.
What I do not understand, and do not condone, are the tactics that are being used right now.
What possible purpose is served by disrupting a tree lighting ceremony? How do we benefit or learn from blocking streets and highways? Will this protest walk stay on the sidewalk or walk down the ramp onto the Pike and shut down the highway? Will the group gather in front of the police station and point fingers at a police department that has nothing to do with any of this?
None of this helps me understand or helps me make positive change.
@TheWholeTruth
@Barry Cohen
Do you know something that the rest of us don’t?
Given this, I’m completely bewildered at your posts. No comment, reactions or thoughts about one of our fellow unarmed (and strikingly polite) citizens being killed, in contravention of clear police regulations, over possibly being guilty of selling loose cigarettes, and the justice system says “nothing wrong here”.
If your response is the trivial “Irate people might stop traffic” or if your response is the product of fever dreams “… or burn down Newton Center?”
Things are a bit worse than I imagined.
If you haven’t already – watch the video and then decide what your biggest concern should be.
@Jerry Reilly,
“…at a police department that has nothing to do with any of this?”
I have seen the video, many times.
The video is just a snippet in time of an event. It does not show us what happened prior nor does it tell us anything about the history of ANY of the people involved. Do NOT mistake this comment as me suggesting this was okay. It was not. And it should never happen again, to anyone.
But the type of protests we are seeing are not helpful in educating people to the problem or in making positive change.
I would much rather see Rev.Haywood hold a peaceful rally on the steps of City Hall encouraging people to look inside themselves and make a difference in their own lives. To make a difference in the lives of others. I would like to see civic leaders meet with the lawmakers of our cites, towns, states and national government to make sure that the laws are written to allow for prosecution in cases such as these. The Grand Jury did not indict because this was a cop. They did not indict because the laws, as written, did not allow them to based on the evidence presented. The deaths of these men may be the fault of the officers involved, but the failure to indict them is the fault of OUR laws. Change the laws and you make a positive change. How does disrupting traffic accomplish any of this?
What I have seen over the last several nights in Boston has been nothing but frustrating. My tax dollars are being spent to pay LOTS of overtime to the police to keep these protests as orderly as possible. I have seen people purposely challenge the police in hopes of inciting them to react and create chaos. I have seen people in these crowds that have NO IDEA what they are really protesting. There are people in these groups that can not tell you that it was Michael Brown in Ferguson MO or Eric Garner in Staten Island that died in these incidents. How does disrupting traffic change any of this?
I have watched on TV as groups of thugs have smashed windows, overturned cars, set fires to local businesses. Many of these properties were owned by the hard working neighbors of the people doing the damage. How does stopping traffic change any of this?
The only thing disrupting traffic does is raise tension more. It teaches us nothing. Change is not an end result.
This event was organized by leaders and members of communities of faith in West Newton and others, black, white and brown. The silent protest march will begin at Myrtle Baptist Church on Curve Street in West Newton, proceed past Lincoln Baptist Church then across the Mass. Pike, and conclude in West Newton Square at the First Unitarian Society in Newton with a moment of prayer and connection in our Sanctuary, after which we will all gather in the Parish Hall for refreshments and fellowship. Does that sound dangerous, threatening or disruptive to you?
I will be marching along with Rev. Haywood and all the other good people from our community in search of justice and a mutual understanding that black lives matter. There can be no doubt that black and white people across the country see these events through very different prisms. This is an opportunity for a diverse group of people from our community to come together and try to see the world through each others’ eyes and feel with each others’ hearts.
West Newton is an obvious place for this silent protest march to take place. Lincoln Baptist Church first welcomed African-Americans who wanted to worship together in a racially integrated congregation. Myrtle Baptist Church is one of the oldest African-American churches in New England, celebrating the 140th anniversary of its founding by freed slaves in 1874, and opens its doors to people from all backgrounds, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey. The First Unitarian Society in Newton was co-founded by Nathaniel Allen, who also founded one of the first racially integrated schools for boys and girls in America right here in West Newton, and is a welcoming congregation that affirms the inherent worth all people.
Why protest? Edmund Burke said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. Black boys and men are dying at the hands of police officers and wannabes like George Zimmerman at a disproportionately higher rate than white boys and men. Michael Brown was unarmed. Prosecutors, who it is said could indict a ham sandwich, uncharacteristically presented exculpatory evidence to the grand jury in the case of the police officer who shot him to death, and not surprisingly no indictment was returned. Eric Garner’s killing was recorded on a video and ruled a homicide by the coroner, but the grand jury somehow came back without a finding of cause to try the police officer who caused his death for homicide.
The lack of indictments of the persons responsible for the deaths of unarmed black boys and men means there will be no trial to determine whether these killings were justified or not. Instead, the victims are tried in the court of public opinion, and time and again they are somehow found wanting or deserving of their fates by the majority of Americans who have never been stopped, harassed, or arrested just for being the wrong color, in the wrong place, or at the wrong time.
I urge everyone who is interested to join this silent protest march in the spirit of community and fellowship in which it is intended.
No Ted, it does not. But the kind of peaceful protest you describe is NOT what has been happening here in Boston and in other cities and towns across the country. I also never said there should not be protests. I simply said there are far less disruptive, and far more constructive ways of making a point.
I do not disagree with anything you said. But I will add one more thing. The victims are not the only ones being tried in the court of public opinion. Just this morning I saw a picture of a police car belonging to this city covered in smashed egg. Why? What did this Officer do wrong? What did this police department do wrong? What is accomplished by this act of vandalism? How is this a positive step toward change?
Here’s a few quotes from today’s Boston Globe. MBTA Transit Police spokesman Richard Sullivan said “That was true democracy taking place. Peaceful protests and professional police equals democracy”
Boston Police Commissioner Williams Evans said “some among the THOUSANDS who marched deliberately antagonized some of his officers but the overwhelming majority were intent only on making sure their voices were heard”
@Jerry,
I get it. But please stop insisting that these protests are all peachy keen and kumbaya. They are not.
I have no issue with peaceful gatherings. Plain and simple.
Still, nobody has been able to tell me what blocking traffic, burning property, throwing eggs at cruisers and much more accomplishes.. Nothing. Nothing good at all comes from any of that. Good comes from thoughtful people who express themselves in constructive ways.
Agreed, of course. and nothing about Rev Haywood’s proposed march on Sunday would lead me to believe it would be anything other than “thoughtful people who express themselves in constructive ways”
TWT, a lot of good has come from sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, bus boycotts, civil disobedience, and marches across a bridge stopping vehicular traffic in Selma in the name of civil rights and equal treatment. Sometimes, people have to stand up to the abuse of authority, and be driven back by fire hoses in order to bring attention to social injustice. Indeed, there are times at which outrage and righteous indignation are the only reasonable responses to an unjust situation. Why are you so focused solely on the stupidity of a handful, and so quick to discount the good intentions and deeds of the vast majority of protesters?
As for egging police cars, was this a protest or a childish prank or act of vandalism? Where is your proof this was connected to protests against what happened to Eric Garner?
At a healing service at Myrtle Baptist Church a couple months back, NPD’s chaplain, an African-American police officer, made the case that proper training and using force only as a last resort could have prevented what happened to Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Amandou Diallo, and so many other unarmed black boys and men who did not and do not deserve to die at the hands of police officers. It seems to me we should focus on that instead of deflecting attention from the real issues.
Large protest marches can have a productive and lasting effect. It was peaceful and unified protest gatherings by Catholic and Protestant women of Northern Ireland that broke the back of terrorism, paved the way for the Good Friday Peace Accords and produced the relatively peaceful country it is today. Northern Ireland is a far far better place than it was before Catholics and Protestants marched together to end the years of senseless fighting up there.
FLor those of you that were thinking about going to the Myrtle Baptist Church later than 4 PM, the silent demonstration has been rescheduled for tomorrow (Sunday) at 4PM because of the rain.
TWT,
You are frustrated and should be. The people who are speaking on this blog feel honestly like they are trying to deal with an injustice. But they are being used. This is a dangerous situation. (Parenthetically, let me add that there are thousands of police interactions that occur every day, all involving police with weapons and training who are dealing with criminals or people who might be criminals and could be a threat to them, and few end up like the ones we see. But agitators can make you focus on these as if there is an epidemic occurring.)
someone sent me an interesting article that might explain why there are a lot of people marching who have no idea why they are there.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/john-perazzo/saul-alinsky-lives-in-ferguson/#.VII3BUUvwDE.email
Pitting the people against the police is an ideal scenario for the leaders of these marches.
But, folks, go out and march and disrupt life supporting a cause for which there is no solution other than putting into police a fear of acting. Then see what problems you have.
Barry, glad to see you have a problem with freedom of speech in addition to homosexuals. FWIW on the latter note as a Marine Corps infantryman the vast minority of guys I know had any issue with homosexuals among or ranks… I know we aren’t quite as cool as the BSA but I’m pretty confident they’ll survive leaving bigotry at the door as well.
On the issue of self defense. I wasn’t suggesting an armed citizenry should be the only line of defense against various societal issues, I was simply pointing out that the whole idea that the police are the only thing that can save us is crap. In fact they have no legal obligation to do so.
Finally… Brown and Garner are two seperate issues almost entirely. Mixing them up does a disservice to the true tragedy of what happened in NY. Cops should have hung for that, or at least lost their job. It is my assessment that Michael Brown got what he had coming to him…. not the case in NY.
“…there are times at which outrage and righteous indignation are the only reasonable responses to an unjust situation. Why are you so focused solely on the stupidity of a handful, and so quick to discount the good intentions and deeds of the vast majority of protesters?”
Perfectly put Ted. I am much more outraged at the killings of these unarmed fellow Americans than I am at some traffic blockages. If I have to sit in traffic or be stuck on the T in order for more people to wake up to the literally unbelievable reality that too many of our fellow citizens endure every single day… well it seems beyond petty and small-minded to complain about that.
In fact that is the whole POINT of civil disobedience – to force people, particularly political leaders, to acknowledge and deal with a serious problem they’ve been ignoring.
Yeah except they wont touch any of the real problems… they will just put headline grabbing bandaids over the symptoms… or have I missed the political leaders calling for an end to the war on drugs? Nope… they were too busy trafficking guns to Mexico. Our government has become a joke and yet the majority still bow down.
Mike
@Mike: Just because we’re not solving ALL the problems immediately, doesn’t mean we should give up hope on solving some or even one problem ever. Progress does get made. My favorite Nelson Mandela quote: ““It always seems impossible until it’s done.” (And if anyone had reason to give up hope, it would have been him.)
The same Nelson Mandela that ordered the murder of women and children to advance his cause?
Please. I’m all about civil disobedience, but what is the objective here? There are so many better examples of police abuse that transcend racism that go ignored. There are VIDEOS of no-knock warrants being served on the wrong houses and the owners being gunned down over drugs that aren’t there, and nobody gets upset. Case and point, I’d be surprised if anyone here has heard of Jose Guerena…. No officers were charged, you can watch him be murdered online if you google his name.
Look at Watertown post Mararthon bombing for chrissake. THIS is a problem: http://jimbovard.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/watertown-gun-aimed-at-photogrphaer-923495_10200611106256641_1972215990_n.jpg
Yet people were happy to look out their windows and have loaded rifles pointed at their faces, out of the turret of an armored gun truck. Yet people protest a thug getting shot for fighting a cop? Please.
Mike (Not Striar),
Being one of the more reasonable people on this blog, I wish you hadn’t focused on what you did from what I said, which was a lot more. The issue of the BSA was really an example of the lack of wisdom of the people here in throwing out a fine organization like the BSA (which had been prohibited from meeting at a lot of places) because of one issue like homosexuality. And what was the substitute for teaching these values and including gays? Nothing. The issue of homosexuality, which we can debate in other blogs, and I have, should not be raised to the point where it destroys good organizations (throwing out the baby with the bathwater), any more than the issue of a couple of people being killed by police should generate massive civil disobedience or debasing of all police.
I think TWT has expressed quite well how I feel. The people doing the protesting, except for what seem to be expert organizers, like the Occupy organizers, are sheep doing the bidding of the professional organizers. Walking around with hands symbolically held up or spouting phrases like “I can’t breathe” or the like, have reduced a complex issue to nonsensical simplicity and erroneous conclusions.
I finally ask those who believe in all this protest, what is it that you want? What will make you say, I got that, and I can go home? No-one can really verbalize this, because there is nothing that can satisfy them, and therefore protests like this can go on forever, accomplishing nothing, but over the course of time will become distasteful, as did the Occupy protests.
Broad based demonstrations nationwide can spur state and federal elected officials to reexamine systemic issues including more thorough background checks for hiring law enforcement employees, better enforcement of current civil rights laws, and an improved judicial process, including governing grand juries. Sunset is at 4:10pm today, so bring flashlights.
I focused on what you did because equally ridiculously you stated that free speech was a problem.
I truthfully see no real issue with what happened in Ferguson. Man robs store, man assaults cop, man gets shot. Not exactly news.
What happened in NY is another issue altogether, the problem is it isn’t a race issue, it just being turned into one, which is a great disservice to the real problem. Why cops are attacking someone over selling cigarettes. At the VERY worst he should have been given a summons. End of issue.
Politicians love this because it is a distraction from the real problem which they don’t want to fix.
Mike
It’s also worth noting that you now have Newton alderman energized to go protest this non-issue while they have been silent on issues of all the other people who have been killed, black, white and brown, during the “War on Drugs” and other stupid government programs meant to win votes. They are so desperate to be politically correct they overlook the main issue in its entirety.
Mike (Not Striar),
In my opinion there are limits to and proper definitions of “free speech”. The old thing of “you can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” tells us that there are limits. It’s a lengthy debate.
I agree on Ferguson. The New York thing seems clear, but there are a lot factors that we don’t understand that a grand jury may have had time and inclination to think about, unlike the sheep out protesting and chanting “I can’t breathe”. And he was a huge guy and not easy to bring down. Again a long discussion. We don’t know why the police felt the need to restrain him. But he did resist. Garner said “I can’t breathe”, but if he couldn’t, he couldn’t speak either. So, maybe he had difficulty breathing. He was a sick man, with asthma, diabetes, obesity, and who knows what else which could have made him more prone to death, and the police couldn’t have know that, other than obesity, by looking at him.
The “unlawful” sale of cigarettes shouldn’t be an issue of police interest beyond issuing a summons in the first place. No-knock warrants shouldn’t exist except in the case where one’s life is presumed in immediate danger. What happened in watertown should have people outraged, but instead they rally in support of it.
Here’s an easy example of the problem: I bet 90% of people on this blog support MA’s assault weapons ban (though less than 10% could define it without googling it). If they do support this law, they should support some of their neighbors in the state being arrested and having their lives ruined for no reason, and even some being killed in the process. Because nobody should have/do XYZ. This same thinking with drugs, and all sorts of other things is the problem. The truth is people are happy to have “criminals” taken of the street, often by violent means. These same people cannot help themselves when they see the potential of being labeled as racists.
Mike
I’m sorry I won’t be able to come to the protest march, but I will be there in spirit. I’ll also be thinking of Tamir Rice the 12 year old boy killed in a Cleveland Park.
NYC police need training in the new environment that has eliminated “stop and frisk” and need to be expected to follow past protocol, “head locks” have been prohibited since the 90’s. Prosecutors have to start holding the police responsible when they break both the rules of engagement and the law.
Protests have yielded results in many cases. It’s the only way the people with no power can express their outrage and help bring about change. They are not always peaceful. Even MLK and Malcom X were getting closer in the years before they were murdered. Sometimes the response to peaceful protest brings the need for change to the attention of lawmakers and others. When blacks were allowed to be served at the counter of Woolworth in Atlanta, my family had a huge cross burned in the front yard. Those crosses, though terrifying, were a response that brought secretive hatred, abuse and lynchings out into the open.
The no knock warrants and the seizure of assets without cause have far exceeded their intent and should be discontinued.