Brooklyn City Council Members Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush) and Carlos Menchaca (D-Sunset Park) were among a group of seven people hauled away in handcuffs by the New York Police Department after engaging in a civil disobedient protest in front of Trump Towers earlier today.
The group was protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump, which was taking place when they were busted. Labeling the movement, “Resist From Day 1,” the protestors sat in the middle of traffic as a way to send a message to the 45th President that they do not agree with his policies and administration, and how the country should be run.
Also arrested were State Senator Marisol Alcantara (D-Manhattan), National Action Network Regional Director Kirsten John Foy and Pastor Gillman Rose of the Brooklyn-based Churches United to Save and Heal (CUSH).
“We got to represent. This moment right now is a morning that I woke up to with a lot of resistance naturally in my mind and heart. Donald Trump wants to make America great again. That means that we have to stand on the shoulders of the giants that built this country from the beginning and that includes my people, the Mexican community, Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. We , we have a responsibility to stand up for those people today and that’s what we’re doing,” said Menchaca.
“Our message today is about uniting our country, our message today is to take a peaceful non-violent moment and to echo in between these buildings in New York City that we are going to be united. If we’re going to be successful as a country we need to unite,” he added.
The day of protest around Trump Tower drew hundreds from around the country including citizens from Colorado and California as well as the New York City metro area. The people took to the streets to shout for justice and equality. One resounding chant at the protest was “No Justice! No Peace!”, a slogan that began back during the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Williams is now stranger to protests or arrests. Both he and Foy, who was then working for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, were arrested after an altercation with police at the West Indian Day Parade in 2011. Last year, Williams also twice kept seated during the pledge of allegiance instead of rising to his feet to salute the flag during stated city council meetings as a response to police killings.
“We decided that it wasn’t particularly important to watch what was going on in D.C. It was more important to be here and ‘Resist From Day One.’ This incoming administration, though light on specifics, was very clear that the policies they want to pursue are very much rooted in things I believe opposite of what America says it stands for. Whether it’s bigotry, violating women, racism, xenophobia, immigration. We believe that we have to resist those things: we have to resist the nominations, we have to resist him [Trump] wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We need to resist what he wants to do to immigration. We need to resist stop, question and frisk. We have to resist from day one, we can not wait until he’s done the things he said he was going to do,” said Williams.
Brooklyn resident and first generation Dominican American Hailey Nolasco joined in on the protest to stand up for her family’s rights as immigrants and her rights as a women and echoed Alcantara’s sentiments.
“Today means to resist everything that Trump has stood for, everything that has shed negative light on people who look like myself, that’s an immigrant, that’s black or brown, somebody that’s not in a good economic social standing, that’s what I’m resisting today. He [Trump] represents the one percent, I feel he’s out of touch he doesn’t understand the plight of the people that he’s representing,” said Nolasco.
The crowd eventually swelled into hundreds with people waving posters and chanting in the street until the NYPD dispersed everyone. Throughout, the protesters remained non-violent and did not engage in any violent acts with police or civilians present at the event.
