By Andrew Strickler
Newsday
Read the P1 News Report: 3 NYPD detectives cleared in shooting
NEW YORK — Bitterness over the Sean Bell verdict spilled onto city streets yesterday as peaceful protesters blocked bridge and tunnel traffic at a half dozen places around the city, triggering more than 200 arrests.
Among hundreds chanting protesters who gathered after 3 p.m. on the red-brick plaza in front of police headquarters was Sean Bell’s great-aunt, Gloria Porter, 64, an educational assistant from New Haven, Conn. “We’re going to fight the fight, but with God on our side,” she said. “I won’t give up. I’ll kneel down and pray.”
Yesterday’s coordinated acts of civil disobedience were the most widespread protests to date since a judge overseeing the racially charged trial cleared three detectives who fatally shot Bell and wounded two others in a hail of bullets.
Renee Collymore of Brooklyn, who attended a demonstration near the Holland Tunnel, said she didn’t fear arrest. “The city is not listening,” she said. “It’s not a black thing or a white thing. It’s about humanity.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, dressed in black and accompanied by Bell’s fiancee, friends Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, and other supporters, arrived at One Police Plaza about 4 p.m. Without addressing the crowd, Sharpton led demonstrators to the Brooklyn Bridge.
After about 100 people blocked the Brooklyn-bound lanes for several minutes, a police lieutenant used a bullhorn to warn of impending arrests. Officers then bound Sharpton’s and Nicole Paultre Bell’s wrists and led them to police vehicles, followed shortly by Guzman and Benefield. Paultre Bell’s mother, Laura Harper, was also arrested, as was Hazel Dukes, the New York State NAACP president.
Similar scenes of coordinated arrests played out, more or less simultaneously, at the Manhattan Queensboro and Triborough bridges and the Holland Tunnel.
Speaking after his release last night, Sharpton said, “I think this dispels the myth that people are not interested. ... I think a real statement was made,” he added of the protests.
Sharpton and members of the Bell family are to meet Gov. David A. Paterson in private today and Sharpton said more weekly protests were planned.
Seeing yesterday’s turnout — “all the support and everyone by my side saying Sean’s name - it feels good,” said Paultre Bell.
Guzman, injured in the November 2006 shooting, said: “We’ll do this 365 days a year if we have to.”
Police said about 225 people were arrested by 7:30 p.m., but dozens remained outside police headquarters as night fell. Police said most of those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct and issued a summons to appear in court.
Many demonstrators yesterday expressed anger over last month’s acquittal of detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper. Others said they hoped “pray-ins” would pressure federal prosecutors to file civil rights charges against the officers. Demonstrations were also held in Chicago and Atlanta. Police detective union president Michael Palladino met congressional leaders in Washington, D.C., to argue against federal prosecution.
“One has to move from being outraged about things to taking action,” said Manhattan psychotherapist Jenny Heinz, 63, arrested at the Queensboro Bridge.
Julia Nunez, 42, a banker from Harlem, said she attended partly out of concern for her nine brothers. “It’s very sad that a black man’s life is not valuable. You don’t see police officers doing this to white men,” she said.
In Brooklyn, more than 250 demonstrators, surrounded on three sides by police, chanted “We are all Sean Bell” as they marched down Atlantic Avenue toward the Brooklyn Bridge. At about 4:30 p.m., at the Manhattan Bridge, there was a brief shoving match as police arrested Barron and organizer Rev. Herbert Daughtry, police said.
“The system cannot go on as usual,” said Bay Ridge lawyer Mimi Rosenburg, 55. “There needs to be justice for Sean Bell. I think civil disobedience is necessary.”
Copyright 2008 Newsday