New York 1199ers took to their computers and smartphones on the afternoon of June 13 to spread the word about the Father’s Day, June 17 rally to end the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy. Hundreds of users from 1199SEIU and other organizations who have endorsed the march produced the tweets, reports the l1199SEIU web department.
Many of the tweets included some of the most glaring statistics often cited by critics of stop-and-frisk:
■ In 2011, NYPD officers conducted 685,724 street stops, a more than 600 percent increase since Mayor Bloomberg’s first year in office.
■ Nine out of 10 people stopped are totally innocent, meaning they are neither arrested nor ticketed.
■ No gun is retrieved in 99.9 percent of stops.
■ The number of stops of young black men stopped in 2011 exceeded the entire city population of young black men.
A typical tweet read: Last yr, 685,724 NYers were stopped by the NYPD. Tell your #StopandFrisk story.
Organizations and individuals are also using other forms of social media to build for the march. Facebook postings and YouTube videos have spiked significantly during the past week. Hosts of organizations are contacting their members. One of those, United for Peace and Justice recently emailed their members, The call stated: “Our hope is that this event will be so large that the media will no longer be able to ignore the growing movement demanding changes in policing practices in NYC. Momentum is building - over 230 organizations have already endorsed June 17th - and what we do in these next few days will determine whether this will be a big march, or a tremendous one.”
The call to the march by the organizers reads: “In contrast to previous demonstrations, we will march in silence as an illustration of both the tragedy and serious threat that stop and frisk and other forms of racial profiling present to our society. The silent march was first used in 1917 by the NAACP—then just eight years old—to draw attention to race riots that tore through communities in East St. Louis, Illinois, and build national opposition to lynching.”
1199ers are asked to gather at 110th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue at 1 p.m. The march will end on 78th Street and Fifth Avenue, one block south of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s home.
Many of the tweets included some of the most glaring statistics often cited by critics of stop-and-frisk:
■ In 2011, NYPD officers conducted 685,724 street stops, a more than 600 percent increase since Mayor Bloomberg’s first year in office.
■ Nine out of 10 people stopped are totally innocent, meaning they are neither arrested nor ticketed.
■ No gun is retrieved in 99.9 percent of stops.
■ The number of stops of young black men stopped in 2011 exceeded the entire city population of young black men.
A typical tweet read: Last yr, 685,724 NYers were stopped by the NYPD. Tell your #StopandFrisk story.
Organizations and individuals are also using other forms of social media to build for the march. Facebook postings and YouTube videos have spiked significantly during the past week. Hosts of organizations are contacting their members. One of those, United for Peace and Justice recently emailed their members, The call stated: “Our hope is that this event will be so large that the media will no longer be able to ignore the growing movement demanding changes in policing practices in NYC. Momentum is building - over 230 organizations have already endorsed June 17th - and what we do in these next few days will determine whether this will be a big march, or a tremendous one.”
The call to the march by the organizers reads: “In contrast to previous demonstrations, we will march in silence as an illustration of both the tragedy and serious threat that stop and frisk and other forms of racial profiling present to our society. The silent march was first used in 1917 by the NAACP—then just eight years old—to draw attention to race riots that tore through communities in East St. Louis, Illinois, and build national opposition to lynching.”
1199ers are asked to gather at 110th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue at 1 p.m. The march will end on 78th Street and Fifth Avenue, one block south of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s home.
