Friends,
 Join me this Sunday, June 17, as the Fellowship of Reconciliation marches with peace and global justice groups from around the New York City area in a silent march to end "stop and frisk."
When: Father's Day, Sunday, June 17, beginning at 3:00 PM
Where: Assembling at West 110th Street, between Eighth Avenue (Central Park West) and Fifth Avenue
What: A silent march against New York City's "stop and frisk" policy with civil rights, faith, labor and community groups
More info: See www.silentmarchnyc.org or view the Facebook event
Can't make it? Follow the march live on Twitter beginning at 3:00 PM
Last week, the Fellowship of Reconciliation joined more than 200 other organizations in calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to fulfill his stated commitment to ending racial profiling. In testimony delivered to the U.S. Senate a few weeks prior, FOR Executive Director Mark Johnson said, "Racial profiling fills U.S. citizens with a sense of terrorism ... Failure to end racial profiling in the United States is a blatant statement of hypocrisy and further undermines our nation's voice in the world market."
FOR's participation in the silent march against New York City's "stop and frisk" policy is a local step toward this national and international goal.
Watch a video from the NAACP explaining the "stop and frisk" policy and why we're standing against it:
The coalition, including FOR and nearly 300 groups endorsing Sunday's march, released the following statement:
"We are a diverse gathering of groups working for global justice and peace around the world. Our focus is usually on the actions of global economic powers and governments as they foster inequality, suppress human and civil rights and use military force. As U.S.-based organizations, we struggle to end U.S.-led wars and militarism and to confront economic and political policies that deprive people of their freedom and justice.
"At the same time, we are keenly aware of the US government's policies at home. Police brutality and repressive policies are nothing new to communities of color, especially to Black and Latino communities in the United States. We are alarmed by recent developments in institutionalized racial profiling, increased surveillance, the continued chipping away of constitutional rights, and the expansion of police presence in many communities.
"These are the domestic expressions of the foreign policies we rigorously oppose. As the police at protests look more and more like soldiers and as the NYPD continues to pull people of color off the streets at random and throw them into prisons and detention centers, we see that the militarization of the state has been crucial for the maintenance of both U.S. foreign and domestic policies. The militarized state tries to keep us from organizing against these policies by forcibly dispersing protests and locking people up so they can't lead movements for local and global change in their neighborhoods and communities.
"On Sunday, June 17, a broad coalition of civil rights, labor, religious, youth and student, and diverse community groups led by the communities most targeted by policing will silently march down Fifth Avenue to demand an end the stop and frisk policy of the New York Police Department. Grounded in racial profiling, this policy has unjustly targeted young Black and Latino men in communities across New York City. Last year some 685,000 stops were made, and the numbers are growing this year.
"We know the struggle for peace and justice abroad is and must be linked to the struggle for racial and economic justice at home. On June 17, we will march to strengthen that link. And we call on all peace and global justice organizations and activists to join us."
I hope to see you this Sunday, June 17, at the Silent March Against Racial Profiling!
Ethan Vesely-Flad
Communications Director
Fellowship of Reconciliation |
