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COURIER LIFE, JUNE 5-11, 2020 15
Activists gathered at the Metropolitan Detention Center in
Sunset Park on May 29 to demand detainees be released
amid the pandemic. Photo by Paul Frangipane
Protesters call for
release of detainees
at Sunset Park prison
BY JESSICA PARKS
Citing unsafe conditions
and an inability to
social distance during
the coronavirus pandemic,
dozens of protesters
called for the governor
to release detainees
at Sunset Park’s Metropolitan
Detention Center
on May 29.
“Cuomo has the
power right now to free
ICE detainees, as well
as incarcerated people,”
said Teresa Shen, an organizer
with the immigrant
advocacy group
Cosecha. “But he is not
doing anything.”
Chants of “Free them
all” were met with loud,
powerful bangs on the
windows of the detention
center from inmates —
who, organizers noted,
are mostly immigrants
awaiting federal court
trials to determine their
freedom.
The federal jail on
29th Street and Second
Avenue claims the second
highest number of
staffers infected with
COVID-19 — the highly
contagious respiratory
illness brought on by the
novel coronavirus — and
organizers say Cuomo is
putting lives at risk by
continuing to detain people
at MDC.
“He is just letting people
die of COVID,” Shen
said.
Literature handed
out at the protest cited
a study by former chief
medical examiner for
the city jails, Homer Venters,
who The Intercept
fi rst reported found the
prison to be ill-equipped
to prevent the spread of
the virus. The examiner
visited the jail on April
23 as part of a lawsuit
over the center’s poor
conditions, according to
the Gothamist.
Friday’s protest in
Sunset Park was the last
in a series of ongoing protests
titled “#FreeThemAll
Fridays,” organized
by a coalition of
advocacy groups pushing
Cuomo on a series of
demands — which also
include establishing an
emergency relief fund
for undocumented immigrants,
canceling rent
and developing protections
for all workers.
“Every week, we have
been doing actions like
this all over, starting at
Cuomo’s offi ce,” Shen
said. “We have been going
to different locations
supporting different
causes.”
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