Recently, large aerial banners – presumably paid for by
disgruntled NYPD officers – have been spotted flying around New York bearing
expressions of outrage at mayor’s rather mild objection to the fatal strangling
of a 43-year-old Eric Garner by a member of the force. Instead of expressing
regret over Garner’s death or talking about how similar tragedies might be
avoided in the future, the cops are circling the wagons in an effort to stamp
out growing calls to reform police practices before such an incident happens
again.
But if the public can’t question the police for
killing an unarmed, non-violent father of six in broad daylight, with the whole
incident captured recorded by a bystander’s camera, when can they be questioned?
Since they don’t seem to wanna listen, let’s take a
page out of their playbook and fly our own aerial banner to send them a message
they can’t ignore!
We’ll get the feedback of donors before settling on
a message. Tentative options include:
NYPD: Hands Up, Don’t Shoot
NYPD: Behave Yourselves
NYPD: Serve and Protect, Don’t
Bully and Complain!
NYPD: Blood On Your Hands, Too
NYPD: You Serve Us, We Don’t Serve
You!
What
will the money be used for, exactly?
$1500 will pay for the banner to be flown over the
Hudson River for several hours – long enough for thousands of residents, beat
cops, members of the NYPD police brass down in 1 Police Plaza, confused
tourists, and, hopefully, a few dozen reporters and photographers.
I
don’t live in New York City. Why should I care?
Police abuse, as recent events have shown, is not
just a local issue; it’s a national one. And the NYPD hasn’t been alone in its
bad behavior; other departments have shown similar anger in response to citizens’
totally reasonable objections. Plus, as America’s largest city, what happens
here often impacts what happens elsewhere. In fact, if this campaign is
successful, we hope it might spark other aerial banner campaigns in other
cities. Police everywhere need to know that citizens from coast to coast are
reminding officers that their job is to serve the public, not rule it.
Do
you guys hate cops?
Of course not! But we’re alarmed by the level of
hostility being expressed by the NYPD toward even the most ….mild criticism or
the most neutral talk of reform. There are 40,000 cops in this city and it’s
bad for everyone when they mount such an aggressive display of immunity to
criticism.
Who
are you? Are you part of some organization?
We’re a small group of friends/concerned residents
of NYC who came up with the idea after hearing about the first couple of
banners flown by the police (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/anti-de-bla...).
We’re not regular activists and are not affiliated with any group. (And for the
record, we’re not particularly fond of Mayor DeBlasio either.)
