"HOW MANY SHOTS? 1! HOW MANY SHOTS ? 2! ? HOW MANY SHOTS? ...41!"
Mazkirut Artzit Protests Police Brutality in New York

by:Ellen Friedrichs

On Wednesday, March 25th, the Mazkirut Artzit joined demonstrators at 1
Police Plaza in New York City to protest the shooting death by police of
Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from Guinea. The protests which have
been organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton have been going on since March 9th
and have been attended by an extremely diverse mix of individuals and
groups. The Diallo shooting comes in the wake of many controversies
surrounding the New York police force. The conservative republican mayor,
Rudy Giuliani has taken much credit for reducing crime in New York, which
has been done at a great cost to the civil liberties of the people of New
York; particularly visible minorities.

We as a mazkirut opposed many of these actions and in particular the recent
shooting, so when we heard that the group Jews for Racial and Economic
Justice, as well as many progressive rabbis, such as Rabbi Arthur Waskow,
were organizing a day of Jewish Civil disobedience by joining the protests
at 1 Police Plaza, we knew we had to be there.

When we arrived at 1 Police Plaza there were already protesters marching
behind police barricades and carrying signs which read Arrest Giulani and
It Could Have Been Me, It Could Have Been You. 41 shots had been fired at
Amadou Diallo and as we walked up we heard the crowd cry out "How many
bullets--ONE, How many Bullets, TWO..." until they reached 41. We joined
the diverse group which was made up of rabbis in tie dyed tallit, union
supporters, whites, blacks, the young and the old. At one point an older
woman in a wheel chair approached us asking where to go to get arrested. We
protested and chanted slogans until police emerged and quietly positioned
themselves around the plaza. This was taken as a sign for the demonstrators
to move towards the police headquarters building which sits at the head of
the plaza. In an extremely orderly fashion we watched as 212 people were
taken into custody by the police. 126 were members of Jews for Racial and
Economic Justice, including Sam Apple, editor of New Voices, the Jewish
student magazine which shares our office space.