“I do not believe in your heart you are racists. I think you are afraid, and I’m telling you, if you speak up, we will have your back front and sideways,” a woman told NYPD officers in Union Square during Saturday’s protests against the grand jury decision in the Eric Garner case.
On Dec. 3, the Staten Island jury decided not to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in the killing of Garner. In July, Pantaleo seized Garner in a chokehold minutes before Garner died from a heart attack. Protests swept the streets of New York and cities across the country in response to the Garner verdict and another grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the August killing of 18-year-old Ferguson, Mo., resident Michael Brown.
“Your silence is killing people… We want to trust you… but you murder us,” the woman in Union Square pleaded with the officers against a hum of applause and whistles. “What are they teaching you? … You are being failed by policymakers and what you are taught… Where is your outrage? … What do you say to your children about what you do for a living? … Why do you let the racists run the show? Why? What is the culture of fear within your police force that you sit silently while racist policies are acted out? … We need you to step up. We need you to open your mouth. We need you to call it out. It’s wrong. It’s murder.
“What are you going to do to repair the public trust?” she asked. “What is your response besides batons and riot gear?”
Here are two still shots of the scene, which was captured by YouTube user danduranduran:
