New Yorkers Rally for Freddie Gray in Harlem
By Rachelle Anthony
Around 200 people gathered on West 125th street on May 2 to protest the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man from Baltimore. Many of them raised signs above their heads, “Demand Justice,” “Arrest the Police,” “We See Racism.” They chanted “All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie Gray” and spoke about what they saw as police officers’ brutal treatment of black men and women.
“Last week there was a wild coyote running the streets of New York City and of course the coyote was tranquilized,” said Raschaad Hoggard. “A wild animal is treated with more dignity than black and brown bodies, that means we have a corrupt system and something needs to be changed.”
One person after another walked up to the front, took the bullhorn, and spoke to the crowd. Everyone listened intently as a woman, who stood in front of a crowd of spectators, said into a bullhorn. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win, we must love and protect each other, we have nothing to lose but our chains.”
As she spoke, there seemed to be an echo because the crowd repeated each phrase.
Freddie Gray was arrested and placed into a police van on April 12. It is still unknown how, but while Gray was in the police van, being transported to a police station, he sustained a severe spinal injury and died several days later. The medical examiner’s office ruled Gray’s death a homicide caused by severe trauma.
“The police policy that allows police officers to wait days before giving a report and talking is unacceptable,” said Nse Esefa. “It takes way too long to get the information. It gives them, (police officers), all the time to find these witnesses who supposedly heard Freddie Gray banging his head. It just creates all this space for them to make up whatever narrative they want to prevail, to find quote unquote evidence.”
After Gray’s death, thousands of people took to the streets of Baltimore to protest the brutality and negligence of police officers whom they believe caused Gray’s death. On May 1, the Baltimore prosecutor charged six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray.
Raschaad Hoggard said he believed that laws need to be changed to protect marginalized, oppressed people. “What we’re fighting against now is an unjust system that has never had the interest of people of these communities at heart,” he said. “When we fight, we not only fight for our lives, we fight for future generations yet unborn. We fight for young brothers and sisters who have not fully come into knowing who they are as young people of African descent, so when we fight, we speak, we organize, we protest and we do so with urgency and seriousness in hopes that our collective voices might once again be heard as they were down in Baltimore, Maryland.”
Esefa said she believes African Americans are often approached and arrested without a cause. “When you look at Freddie’s case, why was he arrested in the first place? It’s like the constant and it’s absurd.”
As the crowd assembled to march across several blocks in Harlem, a wide black flag with white letters which read “Black Lives Matter” was placed in front of the crowd.
“If we have the courage to speak with conviction, I think that these law enforcement officials will hopefully have the courage to hear us and dismantle these systems of inequality that so ineffectively hurt us,” Hoggard said.