Protesters march in Coney
Island against police brutality
BY ROSE ADAMS
A few hundred protesters
gathered in Coney Island on
June 12 to march against police
brutality — saying that
they frequently witness cops
along the People’s Playground
use excessive force.
“The police, they have a
tendency to abuse their authority,”
said Coney Islander
Justin Sterling, a member
of a local charitable group
called Good Brotha, who said
he’s experienced unfair policing
himself. “Being stopped
when I’m not doing nothing,
at times going to work.”
Marchers — led by local offi
cials and several neighborhood
groups — met for a rally
at Asser Levy Park before
heading to the Riegelmann
Boardwalk and marching
down to W. 30th Street. Attendees
carried signs in support of
the Black Lives Matter movement
and chanted George
Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s
names as they marched.
COURIER L 4 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
The Friday afternoon protest
— the fi rst as of late in
the southern Brooklyn community
— comes on the heels
of countless demonstrations
citywide, and mirrored those
taking place across the globe
in wake of Floyd’s killing.
Most attendees were residents
of Coney Island, a largely
Black community, who said
that they are fed up with the
police department’s treatment
of Black people.
“Coney Island, they don’t
stand up themselves, that’s
why I put up a poster. Everybody
needs to be out here,”
said resident Monique Thompson,
adding that the police killing
of George Floyd resonated
throughout the community.
“This happened in Minneapolis,
but you felt that pain right
here in Coney Island.”
Just two weeks ago, Thompson
said her daughter was violently
stopped on the peninsula
for failing to adequately
social distance herself.
“About 50 police offi cers
jumped on my daughter,” she
said. “There’s too much excessive
force going on and it has to stop.”
Throughout the protest, leaders
chanted, “More neighbors,
less strangers” — a call for Coney
Islanders to overcome their
ethnic divisions to denounce police
violence, according to the
protest’s lead organizer.
“I was hurt that my community
is so divided that we
would sit back and allow this
momentum to continue and
not add fuel onto it,” said Moses
Sesay, a 29-year-old Sierra
Leone native who grew up in
Coney Island. “So when I did
this there was only one goal
for me, and it was to stop being
strangers.”
After turning onto W. 30th
Street, protesters headed back
to Asser Levy Park via Mermaid
Avenue where organizers,
local leaders, and elected
offi cials spoke.
During the rally, Sesay
honored a 60th Precinct police
offi cer and friend of the protesters
with a gold medal. The
gesture, he said, was meant
to honor the offi cer’s commitment
to enacting change
within the department and
encourage other anti-racist
police offi cers to call out their
racist co-workers.
“I wanted to honor that police
offi cer for doing the right
thing,” Sesay said. “To the
good offi cers: recognize that
these bad apples are dirtying
the batch … We need these
good offi cers to stand with
us.”
Protesters made their way down the boardwalk in support of the Black
Lives Matter movement on June 12. Photo by Paul Frangipane