“Noche” Diaz is facing years in jail for standing up for the rights of people.  The NYPD targeted and arrested him 5 times since October and piled 11 charges on him in 4 boroughs. We’re calling on you to rally behind this young activist who is respected by people in the neighborhood, and persecuted by the police. Stop-and-frisk is the crime! Noche should do no time.    more info

Dozens of people were arrested for protesting this racist and illegal policy and nineteen are still facing trial and possible jail time for actions in  and .  Heroically standing up to this illegal policy is not a crime; the policy is what should be put on trial.  Sign the resolution to have the charges against these new Freedom Fighters dropped and the stop-and-frisk policy ended immediately.

Signees (organizations):

Freedom Socialist Party; Holy Ghost Upper Room Filling Station Ministry; National Action Network; Peers Group; Queerocracy; Radical Women; Unity Fellowship of Christ Church NYC; Ursulines of Tildonk for Justice & Peace; Veterans For Peace - NYC  Chapter 34; World Can't Wait

Signees (individuals):
John Watusi Branch, Afrikan Poetry Theatre; Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist, co-initiator of Campaign to Stop “Stop and Frisk”; Jazz Hayden, Campaign Against the New Jim Crow; Noel Leader, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care; Constance Malcolm, mother of Ramarley Graham; Margarita Rosario, mother of Anthony Rosario, and aunt of Hilton Vega, killed by NYPD; The Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network; Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait, Jumaane Williams, New York City Councilman; Basir Mchawi, International African Arts Festival Chair; Allene Person, mother of Timur Person, killed by NYPD; Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson, killed by NYPD,

and hundreds more...

by Carl Dix
Stop-and-frisk has been much in the news in New York City. A federal judge ruled a civil suit against it could go forward as a class action suit, saying the city’s arguments “do not withstand the overwhelming evidence that there, in fact, exists a centralized stop-and-frisk program that has led to thousands of unlawful stops.” The New York Times wrote an editorial titled “Reform Stop & Frisk,” which concluded, “the city should be trying to settle this case and working immediately to reform a policy that violates rights and undermines trust in the police.” NYPD chief Ray Kelly announced new measures that center on greater supervision of street cops.

On June 5, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed legislation to reduce the penalty for possessing a small amount of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a violation.

Stop Mass Incarceration Network


It took 45 days of nation-wide protest to get Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, arrested. 

June 5th marked 100 days after Trayvon’s murder.  On that day, activists across the country wore hoodies to let people know that we will not let this case be swept under the rug.  We will win justice for Trayvon.  More...

Monday, September 3, 2012  The Stop Mass Incarceration Network distributed thousands of bright orange and yellow whistles to parade viewers and marchers heralding a new and more widespread wave of public protest of the NYPD police of stop-and-frisk beginning Thursday, September 13. 
Their message “No one will be stopped-and-frisked in silence,” was cheered. Thousands of photos were snapped of their banner “Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk Thursday Sept. 13.”

But one group did not like the contingent’s message, and blocked them from entering the parade, then encircled them with hundreds of armed officers.  The NYPD, despite the group’s authorization from the West Indian Day Parade Association to participate in the parade, refused the contingent admittance at several times and places along the route.  At one point, after they were directed to their place in the march, police pushed the contingent out of the march and onto a side street.

Carl Dix, an initiator of the campaign along with Cornel West, said, "The NYPD set out to keep our message--Blow the Whistle on Stop & Frisk--from getting out on Labor Day.  A ‘white shirt’ cop told us that he wrote the permits for who gets to march on Eastern Parkway in the West Indian Day Parade.  This is what a police state sounds like."

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network says, “If it sickens you to know that under Stop-and-Frisk, almost 2000 people, most of them Black or Latino are subjected everyday to harassment, disrespect, brutality and even worse; if you are tired of seeing Muslims and South Asians are targeted;  if you hate the way immigrants and LGBT people are treated as less than human by NYPD;  if you are someone who knows this will never happen to you but also know it's wrong; Join in BLOWING the WHISTLE on STOP-and-FRISK Thursday September 13. On September 13, nobody gets Stopped-and-Frisked in silence!”

The Network has announced gathering points where youth are regularly stopped and frisked in 5 boroughs on September 13, and also plans to symbolically “blow the whistle” on 1 Police Plaza at 4:00 pm that day.

"What a great campaign. I shared it on my Facebook page."

"From Union Square: 'How do you feel about having been stopped and frisked?' 'Well that’s the way it is.' This brother spirit has been destroyed. He has been mentally enslaved! No more can this continue!!"

"This police state/Jim Crow mentality MUST be confronted and stopped, YESTERDAY!! Please join us as we protect ourselves and our youth from 'unreasonable search and seizure' (The Constitution of The United States of America) BTW I was 58 years old when stopped and frisked in broad daylight 5 minutes from the front door of my former residence. My suspicious criminal activity…W.W.B. Walking While Black!"

Clips from press conference, August 29, 2012

To those who are tired of seeing police step to our youth with harassment, brutality and even worse; to those outraged because the NYPD stopped and frisked 684,000 people last year alone; to Black and Latino youth tired of knowing that every time you leave your house you might be descended on by cops; to parents who fear that no matter what you tell your kids about surviving an encounter with cops it won’t be enough to keep them safe; to people who know this will never happen to them but also know it’s wrong — join us on September 13th to “Blow the Whistle on Stop & Frisk!”

Stop & Frisk is racist, and it’s no damned good. People have begun to stand up and fight it. In the face of the massive public outcry, the NYPD is doubling down. They are on pace to stop and frisk even more people this year. Now is the time to unleash resistance that can sweep Stop & Frisk away. The racial profiling Stop & Frisk concentrates is a pipeline to mass incarceration and the warehousing of our youth in prison. We don’t have to suffer all this anymore, and we won’t. There is no good reason for Stop & Frisk to remain in effect. It’s illegal and illegitimate. It must be stopped! We are going to stop it, and you must join us in doing that!

Join us in Blowing the Whistle on Stop and Frisk! On September 13th, thousands of people all across NYC will politically confront the cops who are violating people’s rights. We will be blowing whistles to call out these injustices and using cameras to document the criminal actions of the cops. At 6 PM, we will all blow our whistles at once to signal to all those who have been targeted by Stop & Frisk, to all those who have stood up against it and to the cops and officials who enforce it that there are people all over who will no longer be silent. And in cities across the country, people have to act in solidarity: Blowing the Whistle on the way cops target Black and Latino youth, whether they call it Stop & Frisk or not.

On September 13th we will say in a strong, united voice: WE WILL NO LONGER STAND BY SILENTLY WHILE PEOPLE ARE DENIED THEIR RIGHTS. Our actions on that day will drive a nail into the coffin of Stop & Frisk.

Be a part of making this day happen. Get your whistles and get them out to others in your neighborhood, at your school, in your workplace or in your place of worship. Spread the word and organize people you know to be a part of this day. Take to the streets on September 13th and with us declare that the days when the cops can violate people’s rights however they want, when people aren’t inspired and organized to politically resist this kind of injustice are no more.

Initiators:
• Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party
• Cornel West, professor, author and public intellectual

Endorsers:
Gbenga Akinnagbe, actor 
Nellie Hester Bailey, activist, Occupy Harlem
Herb Boyd, author, activist; Harlem, NY 
Elaine Brower, World Can’t Wait, Military Families Speak Out
Rev. Luis Barrios, professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice CUNY*
Randy Credico, political satirist, activist 
Nicholas Heyward Sr, father of Nicholas Jr., murdered by NYPD
Dawn Jones, National Board Member, National Action Network*
Arturo O'Farrill, Afro Latin Jazz Alliance 
Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center, Greenville, SC 
Luke “Aidge” Patterson, artist and activist
Rev. Stephen Phelps, Senior Minister, The Riverside Church*
Debra Sweet, Director of World Can’t Wait 
James Vrettos, professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice CUNY*
Clyde Young, Revolutionary Communist and former prisoner

* for identification purposes only

What You Can Do: Donate funds for whistles, flyers and palm cards! * Form Organizing Committees in Your School or Neighborhood * Help Get the Word Out Now! * 

July 27, 2012

STOP AND FRISK IS THE CRIME, NOCHE SHOULD DO NO TIME!

Protestors rallied in front of Bronx Criminal Court today protesting charges against Noche Diaz, who was unjustly arrested for observing Jeffeth James being beaten and then arrested by officers of the 43rd last March ( of the beating).

COURT UPDATE: Noche's trial has been postponed until October 2.

What you can do:

• Sign the resolution to drop charges

• Call Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson at & tell him to drop the charges against Noche Diaz
  

“Noche” Diaz, a young revolutionary, has been arrested five times since October and has had eleven charges piled on him in four boroughs, all for observing and protesting the illegitimate actions of the NYPD.  Noche was one of the founders of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, which has organized major protests against stop-and-frisk beginning on October 21, 2011 in Harlem, kicking off a citywide struggle against stop-and-frisk.  He is well known to the people...and to the NYPD for being a member of the People’s Neighborhood Patrol of Harlem.

In March, Noche was arrested in the Bronx.  This is the same precinct where NYPD officers from the 43rd Precinct killed Amadou Diallo in 1999 with 44 shots, as he stood, unarmed, in front of his door, and where they killed Malcolm Ferguson, another unarmed Black man, in 2000.   As Noche walked up to the intersection of Westchester and Boynton on March 13th, .  Bystanders were screaming at the police to stop, and pulling out their phones to document the brutality.  But to the NYPD, the problem wasn’t the beat-down of an unarmed man, but peoples’ outrage at them for doing it.  The police put a headlock on a woman taping the police, and threw her partner into a window for coming to her defense.

Noche and others were watching police conduct, as they have a legal right to do, but he and two others were arrested. Bronx prosecutors even admit Noche was within his rights to observe, as he told them at the scene.  He is charged with disorderly conduct and specifically with not obeying a cop’s order to move. 

Because NYPD arrested Noche in Brooklyn and Queens last fall for participating in mass civil disobedience to STOP stop-and-frisk, and arrested him twice in Manhattan when they claim he interfered with their attempts to arrest unnamed other person who were not arrested, NYC prosecutors now argue that Noche shows a “pattern” of interfering with police.  In Noche’s case the pattern is of unjustified arrest for doing lawful activity, and of police lying, piling on charges to target this young revolutionary activist.

What about the PATTERN of police murder and brutality against millions?  What about the PATTERN of getting stopped-and-frisked, getting put into the system with a record, and incarceration facing a big part of this generation of youth?  It's outrageous that police routinely beat people, way too often killing young men like Ramarley Graham, unarmed when he was shot in his own apartment this year in the Bronx.  But people who observe, document, and verbally expose the routine brutality of the police are themselves arrested and brutalized and called criminals? 

No more guilty-until-proven-innocent for our youth! We can’t allow the authorities to target, convict, and jail Noche, who faces years in jail on Class A misdemeanor charges. By targeting Noche they are trying to send a message that people who stand up to their brutality and expose the illegitimate use of authority by the police are criminals.

No!  Right is on the side of the protesters.  We can’t and won’t stand for this, coming from authorities who endanger hundreds of thousands in NYC alone, with the racist, illegal and unconstitutional practice of stop-and-frisk, enforcing a system of mass incarceration of millions. We can defending Noche by condemning these unjust charges, demanding the prosecutors drop them, and by hundreds of us showing up July 27th for his trial, and strengthening and spreading the movement against mass incarceration, stop-and-frisk, and the whole unjust system it’s part of.

Thursday, 12 July 2012 14:55    from the New York chapter of

The synergy created by the Fathers Day Silent March against "Stop and Frisk," the Center for Constitutional Rights'  against the NYPD, and advocacy by other groups who challenge the NYPD policy is powerful. Indeed the Bloomberg administration and Ray Kelly have been very much on the political defensive because of all the protest, but so far they've gotten away without changing anything substantial on the policy of "stop and frisk."

No action can substitute for people directly confronting an abuse that is immoral and illegal. TheStop Mass Incarceration Network called for non-violent actions at police precincts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens where people directly confronted the NYPD. This led to arrests of 83 people who demanded an end to Stop and Frisk policies.

Despite demands to "drop the charges" the trial of activists arrested in Manhattan resulted in a conviction for disorderly conduct but no jail time. Now the prosecutors have upped the ante.  Those arrested in Brownsville and Jamaica  face misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration and possible jail time.

One of the protestors is “Noche” Diaz, who is also a member of the People's Neighborhood Patrol of Harlem (whose aim is to prevent law enforcement from violating the peoples' rights and brutalizing them under the color of authority). Noche has been arrested 5 times and faces 11 charges which prosecutors are attempting to combine into one trial: (charges from the 'Stop & Frisk' protest in October 2011, and an arrest in March 2012, when they arrested Noche during a youth protest around Trayvon Martin;  he also faces charges in the Bronx where he witnessed a police attack on a Black motorist). Clearly Noche has been targeted for his activism and  faces serious jail time if this combination of charges is allowed to stand and charges are not dropped.

See Noche .

WHAT YOU CAN DO to SUPPORT THE RESOLUTION TO DROP THE CHARGES

1. :  Contributions are tax deductible--indicate Defense Fund
2.  
3. Ask any groups/organizations you belong to sign on to the Resolution 
4. Forward this e-mail to friends and family and speak to them about signing the Resolution
5. Ask anyone you know who has been stopped and frisked to tell the story at .
6. Join the Defense Committee:  Meetings Mondays at 7 pm every two weeks (July 16 and beyond) at the Riverside Church--enter on Claremont between 120th -121st.