The Occupy Wall Street Movement–initially written off as a bunch of white hipsters–has joined forces with black leaders and religious leaders in New York City. Together, they marched in solidarity with one another in order to raise awareness about the NYPD’s outrageous “stopping and frisking” policy, in which police officers stop and frisk young men of color for no clear reason.
John, a 25-year-old Navy veteran, spoke to a crowd at Zuccotti about his experiences with “stop and frisk.” While going to get Chinese food with friends, he was pulled over, handcuffed, and asked to perform a dance by the NYPD called the “Chicken Noodle Soup.” The leaders claimed that the NYPD is on pace to stop and frisk 700,000 this year in NY. 85 percent will be blacks and latinos, and 92 percent of them will have done nothing wrong.
Because of situations like John’s, Dr. Cornell West and Carl Dix, a spokeman for the Revolutionary Communist Party, led a march to a local police precinct in Harlem. With religious leaders and OWS protesters, they linked arms in front of the police station as an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. They were all arrested.
