Protest about Mayor Baraka's arrest

5/10/25 While a lot of queer activists - including most of our marshals- were out at Brighton Pride supporting LGBTQ asylum seekers, I was at Foley Square marshaling the rally against Mayor Baraka's arrest by ICE. As we stood in our pre-rally marshal huddle, someone approached us to point out two known provocateurs lingering in the area. One of them was a man in black with a brightly colored tote bag at his feet as he stood at a distance from the rally. When we finished meeting and turned around, he had disappeared, so we fanned out looking for him. While we were looking, he slipped through the crowd and climbed atop the black granite statue memorializing the Middle Passage of the slave trade. Standing up there, he unfurled a red Trump flag and started yelling things like "Viva Trump"! Knowing that these types respond differently to men than to women, we had assigned our only male marshal to deal with him. He and another marshal climbed up there and began trying to talk him. He got agitated and started shoving the marshals and some masked young men in the group wanted to get in his face. I kept telling them not to give him the attention and several backed up but one guy on the other side provoked him so much that he jumped down to get in his face. Marshals herded them, stil exchanging threats, away from the rally while I encouraged people to turn their attention back toward the speakers. After a while I heard him shouting again and spotted him on the edge of the rally with several young men hard on his heels. The police across the street decided this was getting too close to violence and came across and led the guy away from the young men. Eventually he showed back up a distance away from the rally. The banner was gone, but he had something metal that he kept hitting to make noise, while yelling at the rally. At one point he started chating "Trump! Trump!" After each Trump, the crowded chanted "Must go!" which shut that down pretty quickly. It's kind of strange what MAGA thinks would bother us - at one point he started calling us socialists, which isn't an insult at all, especially considering the horrific state of capitalism. My favorite was when he started yelling "You hate America!" I turned to Cypress, who was standing beside me trying to suppress his violent thoughts about this guy and said "I do hate America". I hate the America that elected this cheating, lying sociopath TWICE. I hate the America where people can die because of the cost of healthcare. I hate the America that can watch children be shot in school and still not get rid of the guns. I hate the America that demonizes immigrants when every one of us who is not native american is an immigrant here. There is so much to hate about America.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shut Down Trump

Image
I had to be up at 5:30am for today’s action, so I tried to get to sleep early. It turned out to be a crazy night where I got woken up by the weird noises and vibrations of road repaving, then by Connor, who had not shown up for dinner, meowing for food which he barely ate. Then I was woken up by a weird feeling like my heartbeat was doing strange things. And then finally noisy drag racers and garbage trucks. I groggily launched myself out into the early morning, leaving behind a bunch of puzzled cats not used to getting breakfast so early. I found Ben in the crowd in front of the Main Library, and we gathered with our assigned group until it was time to march. To keep from being arrested too soon, we marched on the sidewalk filling both sides of 42nd St. As we marched to 2nd ave, I told Ben that I thought all the remembering I have been doing has to do with turning 50 and the feeling that there is more life behind me than there is ahead now. We talked about his mother and my d...
Read more

Monk

Image
Despite the expect-anything native New Yorker attitude baked into me, I was somewhat surprised to spot a monk in TD bank on 42nd St. I think it was the incongruity of my associations of chanting and ancient monastaries vs the neon glare ad hypercapitalism of the bank. "But," I told myself, "even clergy have to do the mundane tasks of life." Waiting there in line, my mind went back years to a fundraiser for VOCAL-NY that was held at the Frying Pan, a boat turned venue space moored off the west side of Manhattan. Jenn was still in charge at VOCAL then, and the Church Ladies had been asked to perform. I don't usually wear a nun costume in the Church Ladies, but for a reason I can't remember, Sister Mary Cunnilingus and I were both in full fake habits. It was a pretty hot day, and we were melting under the layers. After the show, we found our way to a nearby park and began taking off pieces of costume. I noticed a man watching us closely and tensed up, e...
Read more

Angel

When New Alt was new and small I personally knew most of the donors, but that was years ago. These days most of the donors I interact with personally are on the Angel List, a special list of donors who have signed up to receive emails when one of our clients has a specific need. This runs the gamut from textbooks to work uniforms to housewares for a new apartment. Even most of the Angel donors I don’t get to know beyond a sense of what type of request tends to appeal to them. And then there’s Susan. I first noticed Susan in 2012, back in the days when donations came in the form of checks. Not only did she often respond to requests, she also signed up as a Gay Santa and I was struck by how pretty and thoughtful her gift was, not just the requested item tossed in a box, but the candy and extras and careful wrapping we tend to use with people we care about. And unlike any other Santa,she asked for the recipient's birthday, and sent her gifts then, too. Even her donations had a th...
Read more