PRIDE
Peaceful Queer Lib March Ends With Pepper Spray
Tens of thousands join Reclaim Pride to support Black lives, push back against brutality
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
While tens of thousands
peacefully
marched from Foley
Square to the West
Village on June 28 to mark the
5oth anniversary of the fi rst Pride
March and to express solidarity
with the Black Lives Matter movement
and opposition to police brutality,
the event was marred when
police arrested an individual who
had allegedly sprayed graffi ti and
then attacked a crowd that had
surrounded a police vehicle that
the individual was placed in.
“People surrounded the van until
the person was let go,” Eliel Cruz,
the director of communications at
the New York City Anti-Violence
Project, told Gay City News, noting
that police used pepper spray. “I
saw 10 people on the ground with
water in their eyes.”
The march organizers, meanwhile,
say that several other people
were arrested during the melee.
The march stepped off from Foley
Square at roughly 1:00 p.m.
heading north on Lafayette Street
then west on Chambers Street and
fi nally north to the West Village on
Church Street and then Sixth Avenue.
At 3:15, the end of the march
was just entering the West Village.
While it was an overwhelmingly
white crowd, it was fi lled
with signs and chants expressing
support for Black trans lives and
the Black Lives Matter movement,
opposition to police brutality, and
calls to defund the police.
At roughly 5:00 p.m., police arrested
one person near Washington
Square Park who the some
observers said police alleged had
sprayed graffi ti on a nearly building.
A large group of marchers who
had been dancing in or near the
park then booed and jeered the police
as they put the individual in
a police vehicle, which was immediately
surrounded, according to
video of the arrest and eye witness
accounts of the struggle that followed.
At one point, an offi cer used
pepper spray on the crowd — and
apparently, video from the scene
suggests, pepper sprayed another
offi cer. Collectively, the videos of
the arrest and later confrontation
had received hundreds of thousands
of views on Twitter by 6:00
p.m. as many marchers remained
in Washington Square Park or
were even still arriving.
“It calmed down,” Cruz wrote
on Twitter. “They went away when
folks held the line.”
The 1969 Stonewall riots occurred
after police raided the
Stonewall bar on Christopher
Street. The explanation is that police
believed that a blackmail ring
targeting gay men was operating
out of the bar, which is likely since
the bar was owned by the Genovese
crime family and operated by
a man who had previously run a
blackmail ring targeting gay men.
During that raid, patrons and LGBTQ
community members who
were angered by police harassment
fought back. The rioting continued
for several days. The riots are seen
as marking the start of the modern
LGBTQ rights movement.
In Twitter posts following today’s
police actions at Washington
Square Park, elected offi cials
including out gay City Council
Speaker Corey Johnson, Public
Advocate Jumaane Williams, City
Comptroller Scott Stringer, and
Manhattan Borough President
Gale Brewer expressed dismay at
this turn of events.
“The fi rst #Pride started as a
response to police brutality,” Johnson
wrote. “Today, peaceful protesters
were pepper sprayed on
the 51st anniversary of Stonewall.
This is incredibly disturbing. We
need a full investigation into what
happened today.”
Williams retweeted Brewer’s
post which said, “I am concerned
that in these instances the NYPD
failed in their duty to protect NYers
& de-escalate. We need answers,
especially as we approach a potential
budget agreement defi ning our
city’s values.”
Stringer said simply, “This is
DONNA ACETO
The banner that led off the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s march from Foley Square to the West Village and
on to Washington Square.
DONNA ACETO
DONNA ACETO
The underserved needs of Black people living with HIV were also highlighted.
The throngs who joined the march.
➤ QUEER LIB MARCH, continued on p.5
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