[Fuck NYPD] New York se réveille

Tensions à New York après la mort d’un jeune Noir tué par la police

La mère d’un jeune Noir tué le week-end dernier par la police à New York  a réclamé jeudi que « justice » soit rendue, tout en affirmant qu’elle n’approuvait pas les incidents qui ont depuis conduit à des dizaines d’interpellations dans son quartier d’East Flatbush à Brooklyn.

« Je veux la justice, je veux savoir pourquoi mon fils a été abattu », a déclaré lors d’une conférence de presse Carol Gray, en évoquant son « bébé de 16 ans », Kimani Gray, dont elle brandissait la photo. « Je veux une enquête approfondie, pas un écran de fumée. La justice. Ses droits civiques », a-t-elle martelé.

Mais alors que 46 personnes ont été interpellées dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi en raison d’incidents les opposant à la police, après une première nuit de tensions lundi, elle a tenu à dire qu’elle ne prônait pas la violence. « Je n’approuve aucune émeute, aucun pillage, aucun coup de feu, rien, contre aucun policier », a-t-elle lancé. « Deux policiers ont tué Kimani, et je veux simplement la justice, que ces deux policiers soient retirés de la rue avant qu’ils ne fassent du mal à un autre jeune. »

Kimani Gray a été tué samedi soir dans la rue, après qu’il eut pointé un revolver en direction des deux policiers en civil, selon la police. Le rapport d’autopsie a montré qu’il avait été atteint de sept balles, dont trois dans le dos. Même s’il ne précise pas dans quel ordre ont été tirées les balles, sa publication a ajouté à la tension à East Flatbush, où certains doutent de la version de la police. La mère de l’adolescent a dit jeudi qu’elle ne croyait pas que Kimani ait eu une arme. « Mais je n’étais pas là », a-t-elle reconnu. Selon certains témoignages, le jeune homme était avec un groupe, mais il s’était éloigné en voyant la voiture de police banalisée. Les deux policiers l’ont alors approché, trouvant son comportement suspect. Ils ont été suspendus après le drame, selon les autorités.

Trois veillées ont été organisées en mémoire de l’adolescent dans son quartier, dont deux ont dégénéré : lundi soir, avec des magasins saccagés, et dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi, avec 46 personnes interpellées, a indiqué la police à l’AFP. Quelque 200 personnes participaient à cette veillée, selon le New York Times, et la situation s’est tendue quand la moitié d’entre elles se sont dirigées vers un poste de police. Des policiers en tenue anti-émeute ont essayé de fermer la rue, interpellant la sœur du jeune Noir tué, qui cherchait à la traverser, provoquant ainsi la colère des manifestants. Une chaise a été lancée contre la police, puis des bouteilles. Une brique a été également lancée contre un policier et une voiture de police, et deux agents des forces de l’ordre ont été légèrement blessés.

Déjà l’an dernier, à quelques rues de là, une jeune femme de 23 ans, non armée, avait été tuée par un policier alors qu’elle essayait de s’enfuir à bord d’une voiture qui avait été signalée volée.

Presse anti-émeute (Agence Faut Payer, 14 mars 2013)

Outsiders Faulted for Unrest in Brooklyn

The anger in East Flatbush is local. But the unrest that has gripped the Brooklyn neighborhood, including clashes with the police after officers fatally shot a 16-year-old, has been encouraged and incited by people coming from outside, community leaders said on Thursday.

The leaders appealed for calm a day after a vigil for the teenager, Kimani Gray, turned chaotic around Church Avenue late Wednesday night. Dozens of marchers were arrested and two officers were hurt, the police said. The crowds on the street swelled with local teenagers and seasoned organizers, including some members of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

It was the most sustained unrest in three consecutive days of vigils and marches. A protest the night before, in which people from outside the neighborhood were also prominent, ended without incident. (…)

The police said that all of those arrested on Wednesday lived in Brooklyn, though it was not immediately clear how many lived in East Flatbush, a neighborhood of low-rise apartments, single-family homes and bustling avenues.

Jenna Pope, 22, was among those who came from other neighborhoods to march Wednesday night in East Flatbush. “It didn’t happen where I live or to someone I know, but as an activist I believe that everyone is in this fight together,” she said.

The crowd was far different from those Ms. Pope saw when she lived at the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park, she said. “It was mostly teenagers from the community,” she said, adding, “In the end, we’re all together and we support each other.”

Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, who was there on Wednesday, inveighed against those he saw as outside agitators, first on Twitter and then standing with other local leaders in front of a growing shrine to Mr. Gray on 55th Street and Church Avenue.

“There are people, well intentioned though they may be, coming into the community and capitalizing on a situation and making it worse,” he said. Mr. Williams said anger in the neighborhood was real and justified, but added that “it’s easy to take their anger and exploit it” but harder “to channel the anger properly.”

Before the leaders spoke, a police helicopter churned overhead in a sign of the tense atmosphere.

Some of the protesters who came from outside East Flatbush found fertile ground for an antipolice message in a neighborhood where many have voiced doubt over the official account of the shooting.

By Thursday, Mr. Williams was navigating a difficult strait as he sought to direct anger at police policies like the stop-and-frisk tactic, while resisting calls for a more pitched confrontation. The councilman — arrested in 2011 during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in Lower Manhattan — found himself pleading with protesters to calm the tone.

As Mr. Williams referred to the lack of attention paid to violence committed by black youths against each other, a man standing at the edge of the crowd of reporters began speaking over him. “This is a police brutality issue,” said the man, Jose LaSalle, 43, an activist on police issues from the Bronx. “Let’s not boil things down and sugarcoat them.”

Some standing at Mr. Williams’s side moved to quiet the man. One shouted: “You are agitating the community, you are agitating those young kids. You are part of the reason there was a problem last night.”

Another man standing next to Mr. LaSalle, shouted: “I’m from this area, born and raised.” The man, Omowale Adewale, 34, continued: “Ask the youth in the community what they want!”

“There is a full discussion that needs to be had,” Mr. Williams said, trying to wrest back control without addressing the men. “If you want to address only one part of the discussion, you are being destructive to the community.”

“Investigate the investigators!” another man, Dave D. Douglas, 26, a union steamfitter born in East Flatbush, called out a few minutes later.

As many in East Flatbush braced for another confrontation, Mr. Gray’s mother, Carol Gray, told reporters that her son was a “regular teenager” with a 10 p.m. curfew who had been “sold prison culture.” She said he had just left a 16th birthday party when officers confronted him on Saturday night.

Wearing sunglasses and a black scarf over her head, Ms. Gray paused occasionally to compose herself. “Why did the police fire the first bullet? Why the second bullet?” she asked, counting the shots on her fingers. “Why the third bullet? Why the fourth bullet? Why?”

She said her son died only a block from the home where he had lived when he was younger.

Councilman Charles Barron, who sat at Ms. Gray’s side and occasionally consoled her, said that while some had called for peace, “our call is for justice.”

Presse anti-émeute (J. David Goodman, The New York Times, 15 mars 2013)