Rise and Resist Statement on the Vehicular Assault on Protesters in Times Square
Rise and Resist joined the Emergency Protest for Daniel Prude organized by Nupol Kiazolu on September 3, 2020 at 7 pm in Times Square. As a crowd formed, a half dozen pro-Trump counter-protesters arrived with a bullhorn and shouted “All Lives Matter.”
They used the bullhorn to drown out the protest organizers expressing anger and outrage over the covered-up killing of yet another Black person by police. Daniel Prude was choked to death by police in Rochester, New York, on March 23, but it was called an overdose. Most of the country learned about his murder when his family obtained and released police body cam footage September 2.
A dozen Rise and Resist members attended the action. A few attempted to de-escalate conflict between the pro-Trump faction (several of them familiar to us from previous actions) and the growing group of protesters. The counter-protestors continued to try to provoke arguments and fights with people attending the protest.
The counter-protesters were quieted enough that speakers could address the crowd, which grew to around 300, even as rain began to fall. Speakers called for solidarity among everyone opposed to white supremacy. They expressed outrage that Daniel Prude was suffering mental distress and needed medical assistance and instead was murdered. Outrage that his murder was covered up for months by both Rochester and New York state officials. Despite the fury and frustration that this keeps happening to Black people with no consequences for their killers, no speaker advocated violence of any kind.
After the speeches, the leaders called for a march heading West on 46th Street. As people gathered to march, a car pushed its way slowly into the crowd on 46th street, touching several bikes with its front bumper. The car then accelerated directly into the crowd, hitting people and sending bikes flying. Video from this linked article shows NYPD helping the driver and passengers into the car moments before it assaulted the crowd.
I and other Rise and Resist members saw medics bandaging people and others in distress processing what happened. We also saw a large group of police officers, 30 or so of them, at the Southwest corner of West 46th and 7th Ave doing nothing. You would never have known that someone had just attempted vehicular homicide right in front of them. Over a week later, no charges have been brought against the people in the car, though they were identified and questioned.
Rise and Resist was formed after the 2016 election with the goal of “opposing, disrupting, and defeating any government act that threatens democracy, equality, and our civil liberties.” We have encountered counter-protesters and had police at most of our actions. Though our interactions with police have been mostly non-aggressive, we know NYPD malfeasance and police unions’ efforts to protect officers who assault citizens did not begin when Trump got elected.
But it has gotten worse, in New York and around the country. Since the death of George Floyd on May 25, cars have driven into groups of Black Lives protesters more than 50 times. Right-wing websites share memes of such vehicular attacks under the heading All Lives Splatter. And as we saw in Times Square last week, police often do nothing to stop the attacks.
Peaceful protests against police brutality have been met with shocking police brutality in New York. In fact, the NYPD drove an SUV into a protest in Brooklyn. The police said they felt threatened, and Mayor de Blasio backed them up.
The links between white supremacist, right-wing vigilantes and police departments are not new. But President Trump is now encouraging militia members and vigilantes out of the shadows and into the streets. He has not said the name of Jacob Blake, shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but has defended militia teen Kyle Rittenhouse, who traveled to Kenosha and murdered two protesters and wounded a third.
Angry, armed white supremacists feel emboldened, even deputized by their commander in chief to take aim at Black Lives Matter protesters. The Department of Homeland Security has been told to downplay white supremacist violence, by far the most common form of domestic terrorism, and instead trumpet violence by “antifa” and Black Lives Matter, which is negligible.
Most of New York City knows that Trump is a liar, a cheat, a racist, and a force of chaos, interested only in maintaining power. Mayor de Blasio has voiced his opposition to Trump, yet he will not stand up to the NYPD and the police unions, who are following Trump’s agenda. Especially since George Floyd’s death reinvigorated the Movement for Black Lives, NYPD is targeting peaceful protesters and turning away when counter-protesters attack them. The NYPD is thus upholding white supremacy through violence. New York City can’t say it’s better than Trump while it lets this happen.