Unrest continues in Brooklyn in the aftermath of the police killing of Kimani Gray, 16, who died in a hail of cop gunfire. The people of Brooklyn took to the streets in protest., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
NYPD declares state of emergency in Brooklyn
Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:45AM GMT
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has declared a state of emergency in Brooklyn amid clashes with demonstrators who held a vigil for the recent shooting of an African-American teenager.
The NYPD turned the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn into a ‘State of Exception’ on Thursday, arresting over 45 people including the sister of slain 16-year-old Kimani Gray.
On March 11, demonstrators held a vigil for Gray, who was fatally shot by undercover police officers who said the boy brandished a .38-caliber gun. Gray did not fire his handgun, which was recovered at the scene.
Meanwhile, protesters have demanded that the police officers involved in the shooting be brought to justice.
Local residents have grown quite suspicious and distrustful of the police, widely accusing NYPD officers of racial profiling and unfairly targeting mostly African-American youth in their supposed efforts to fight crime.
Rickford Burke, the president of the New York Caribbean Institute, said, “The police department has proven to be racially inattentive to black communities and this one is no different.”
The NYPD has been criticized for its stop-and-frisk campaign, which targets black and Latino people even in low-crime areas, leading to a ‘two-tiered’ policing system.
There have been several deadly shootings across the United States over the past few months, putting the issue of lax gun control laws back in the spotlight.
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