Dec 21, 2006 9:01 pm US/Eastern
'Day of Outrage' Rally Held On Wall Street
Protest Against Police Brutality And Shooting Death Of Sean Bell
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Sean Bell was killed by a hail of police gunfire in the early morning hours of Nov. 25 outside a Jamaica nightclub.
CBS
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Thousands marched on 5th Avenue Saturday to protest police brutality.
CBS
Several hundred people demonstrated near Wall Street on Thursday to protest the shooting of an unarmed black man by police officers in Queens.
The march in Manhattan's financial district was the latest in a series of protests over the death of Sean Bell, who was killed last month by a fusillade of police bullets as he left a Queens nightclub hours before he was to be married.
Protesters carried signs reading, "Shut Wall Street down," and "Wall Street finances police state."
Organizers wanted to bring the high profile and political power of the nation's financial capital to bear on their cause, said Roger Wareham, a spokesman for lead organizers the December 12th Movement, a human-rights group.
"It's also to let Wall Street know that it is not exempt from the outrage and the anger and grief that the black and Latino
community feels because of the activities of the police in our community," he said.
Police barricades prevented the predominantly black crowd from approaching the New York Stock Exchange.
Wareham said he did not know how many people were expected at Thursday's "Day of Outrage" demonstration, but the goal was to make the financial district take notice, if not shut down.
"It's really to make a statement to Wall Street," Wareham said. "If there are large numbers of people, simply the presence of those large numbers of people will make it hard for people to get around."
Organizers of the march called for the resignation of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the prosecution of officers involved in the shooting.
Bell, 23, was killed and two friends wounded when police officers conducting an undercover vice operation at the Queens club opened fire on their car. The officers said they thought one of the men had a gun. No weapon was found.
Critics of the shooting say the men were targeted because they were black.
"Black males are the number one endangered species. We're guilty automatically," said marcher Sayyid Ali, a resident of Queens. As he spoke, he looked at the police officers monitoring the march. Many were black.
"How can they look in the mirror after looking at this?" Ali said.
The officers who fired the shots at Bell were black, white and Hispanic. All five have been put on paid administrative leave while prosecutors investigate.
A few bystanders to Thursday's demonstration appeared confused by the connection the protesters made between New York's giant investment firms and alleged police brutality.
"Why are they here?" wondered Lan Zhang, 38, as she stood with a camera behind a barricade.
"I still see the police as protecting us," she said. "Under the circumstances, they misjudged, but that's not equal to police violence."
Roger Wareham, a spokesman for the December 12th Movement, which was involved in organizing the march, said the protest was intended "to let Wall Street know that it is not exempt from the outrage and the anger and grief that the black and Latino community feels because of the activities of the police in our community."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
CBS 2's Coverage Of The Death Of Sean Bell
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