New York Police Overreacted at March, Jackson Tells Rally
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday that New York City police overreacted in breaking up a youth movement march in Harlem organized by a controversial former Nation of Islam spokesman.
“I haven’t seen that type of overreaction since Mayor Daley sent the police out after demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic convention,” said Jackson.
Jackson and others spoke at the Million Youth Movement March, where 3,500 to 4,000 people attended workshops and a march aimed at focusing attention on the plight of black youths and launching a movement to empower them.
The event in Atlanta had goals similar to those of Saturday’s march in Harlem, which ended with a clash between police and the crowd. New York rally organizer Khallid Abdul Muhammad told participants to beat up police officers “if they so much as touch you.”
The Atlanta march was far different from the one in Harlem.
In Atlanta, there were discussions of how black youths can end economic isolation and reignite the spirit and values of community empowerment broached at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., in 1995.
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