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CCNY'S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER   MAY 2000 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 5

CUNY Civil Disobedience against Police Violence
by Bill Crain

The Amadou Diallo verdict and the subsequent police shootings of Malcolm Ferguson and Patrick Dorismond sent shock waves throughout much of the city. The police seem to have new license to kill people simply because of the color of their skin.

On April 5, I joined l6 college students, many from Hunter College SLAM, in an act of civil disobedience to protest the police violence. Late that afternoon, we briefly stopped traffic approaching the Brooklyn Bridge. We were arrested, sent to One Police Plaza for a few hours, and then “put through the system” at central booking, better known as the Tombs. There we spent the night and much of the next day.

Until recently, people arrested for civil disobedience were spared the Tombs. They were typically released after a few hours at a local precinct. I believe the Mayor and the police are now sending protestors to the Tombs in a war against them.

In the Tombs, prisoners are placed into overcrowded cells where they try to relax on the metal benches. However the benches are too slippery and you must constantly upright yourself to keep from falling off. Thus, it’s difficult to sleep. Many prisoners try to get some sleep by lying on the cold concrete floor, but this doesn’t feel too great, either. There are signs warning of TB, but there’s little you can do about it. From time to time the guards move the prisoners to new cells, which also are overcrowded. As the hours wear on, prisoners become increasingly anxious to be called to “go upstairs” to see finally see a lawyer and go before a judge. Even people who have served time in various prisons find the Tombs difficult. They want out.

All the prisoners I talked to were grateful for our protest. Some police shared our sentiments, too.

One thing that made a deep impression on me was the large number of prisoners who were likely to serve long jail sentences for trivial offenses—especially for possession of marijuana. If one would like to reduce crime, judicial backlogs, and human misery, one would do well to work for changes in the marijuana laws.

Those of us arrested on April 5 were scheduled to appear in court May 1 and are being represented by lawyers Ron McGuire and Karl Franklin.

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