Police/ICE Accountability Work
Since our inception, Equality for Flatbush has fought against police harassment , violence and murders. Our very 1st campaign in 2013, was to organize against the racially profiling and economic harassment of Flatbush and East Flatbush dollar van and cab drivers , by the NYPD . We has fought alongside the families of people murdered by police, including Ramarely Graham, Eric Garner, Saheed Vassell, Davonte Pressley, Kimani Gray, Kyam Livingston, Shantel Davis, Akai Gurley, and Delrawn Small.
Since 2014, Equality for Flatbush, has been a leading member of The East Flatbush Cop Watch Team, which leads patrols and responds to police violence in Crown Heights , East Flatbush and Flatbush. Over the years, E4F has led successful campaigns to stop police harassment of street vendors, worked within city-wide coalitions to provide hotel rooms for homeless New Yorkers, and to have the charges dropped and/ or win the release of survivors of police brutality . In 2020 due the increase in police brutality due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, E4F has organized jail support, led protests and organize cop watch patrols to stop DeBlasio administration’s attack on homeless New Yorkers.
Since 2016, E4F has organized medical workers, social service workers, crisis intervention specialists, and legal workers for our Alternatives to 911 campaign, who rapidly respond to community crises. We understand that the NYPD harassment and violence toward our communities will only stop when police, ICE, prisons, and other carceral systems are abolished.
To join us in making our abolitionist vision a reality contact E4F at policework@equalityforflatbush.org or call /text (646 )820-6039.
Resources for you to use and share
How to Document NYPD/ICE Harrassment
Click to download/share
Suggestions & Tactics as an Alternative to Calling 911
Created in consultation with Anna Ortega-Williams, Phd, LMSW; Luke Peng-Patterson, LMSW ; and Imani Henry, MSW, MPA of the Radical Social Work Group.
View the English document HERE
View the French document HERE
Justice for Christian Emile!
On 5/13, the East Flatbush community came together to honor the life of 33-year old #ChristianEmilewho was brutally murdered by the NYPD on 5/12 . Our hearts go out to his parents, children , siblings, friends & community .- On 5/13, the East Flatbush community came together to honor the life of 33-year old #ChristianEmilewho was brutally murdered by the NYPD on 5/12 . Our hearts go out to his parents, children , siblings, friends & community .
- As always, the community had a very different version from what the cops said went down early Sunday morning. 1. Christian is described as a peace loving man who had just celebrated the fifth birthday of his youngest daughter one hour before he was killed. He had literally dropped off his child and was on his way to hang out with family and friends . And 2. Christian was shot 6 times from a hail of bullets from the NYPD that shattered pane glass windows of stores & pierced through doorways . Two people were grazed by bullets that night.
- Equality for Flatbush (E4F) is looking for folks with details to help counter the police narrative. You can remain anonymous Please contact us ASAP:
- * English:(646) 820-6039 or b4g@equalityforflatbush.org
- * Kreyol: (267) 277-3143 or EnKreyol@equalityforflatbush.org
- * Spanish: (862) 438-5060 or EnSPA@equalityforflatbush.org
- #SayHisName #JusticeforChristianEmile
- #AbolishThePolice
Community Patrol with East Flatbush Cop Watch Team
Currently recruiting Flatbush/ East Flatbush residents of color to join the Cop Watch Team!- Currently recruiting Flatbush/ East Flatbush residents of color to join the Cop Watch Team!
- Equality for Flatbush is a proud member of the Peoples’ Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability’s East Flatbush Cop Watch Team. If you are a person of color who lives in East Flatbush or Flatbush and are interested in joining the team, please contact us at: PoliceWork@equalityforflatbush.org or (646) 820-6039.
Dollar Van and Cab Drivers Community Solidarity Campaign
- Since 2013, Equality for Flatbush has fought the racial profiling and economic harassment dollar van and cab drivers along the Flatbush Avenue, Church Avenue and Utica Avenue routes. E4F has documented drivers receiving tickets as high as $2K by the NYPD . E4F provides a hotline specifically to document NYPD traffic stops as well as legal support. Drivers are asked to take a picture & text your tickets/summons to PoliceWork@equalityforflatbush.org or (646) 820-6039.
Victory against "Peaceful Ditmas Park" and #DitmasParkKaren
- On June 14th at 10:30pm, Equality for Flatbush, a Black Lives Matter, anti-gentrification/ displacement, police abolition group in Brooklyn, NY launched a national campaign to shutdown the “Peaceful Ditmas Park” Facebook page, created by Irina Manta, a white gentrifier appealing to the NYPD, Mayor DeBlasio and other elected officials“to do something” about “fireworks and loud music”. It is a culturally accepted norm of Brooklyn to expect amplified music and fireworks starting on Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. In fact, since the brutal police murder of George Floyd, across the US and around the world, setting off fireworks have become an act of resistance and a show of solidarity with the global #BlackLivesMatter rebellion.
- Read E4F’s statement on this victory
- Buzzfeed article: People In Brooklyn Were Setting Off Fireworks. Then Police Showed Up In Riot Gear.
Flatbush/East Flatbush Street Vendor Organizing in Collaboration with the Street Vendor Project
Street vendors are the lifeline of Flatbush and East Flatbush by providing unique and vital services that community residents heavily rely on. The vast majority of street vendors are Flatbush and East Flatbush residents who shop and send their children to school within the community. But gentrification has made their lives unbearable with street harassment and heavy ticketing at upwards of $2K by the NYPD. Between 2016 – 2017, E4F began fighting the current NYC policy that prohibits street vendors to be on Flatbush Ave between Parkside Avenue and Avenue H from 7am-7pm Monday through Saturday. The police enforcement of this ordinance successfully pushed street vendors off the corners of Church and Flatbush particularly in 2017.
E4F’s street vendor leadership, majority monolingual Spanish speakers, carried out a relentless campaign to stop the police harassment. We partnered with the Street Vendor Project, we met with the Flatbush Business Improvement District, The Small Business Administration, and the NYPD. We conducted a community selfie and petition campaign, attended the monthly 70th PCT community and created a film to denounce the economic harassment and racial profiling of street vendors in our neighborhood. By the summer of 2018, through these actions, E4F’s vendor leadership SUCCESSFULLY brought back their fellow vendors to the Church / Flatbush intersection and stopped the rampant NYPD harassment.
While the struggle to stop the economic harassment and racial profiling of East / Flatbush street vendors continues, E4F’s street vendor leadership demonstrated that when you fight, you win!
WATCH:
#Brooklyn #NoSeVende : New Spanish-language documentary short by #EqualityforFlatbush on the fight against economic harassment and racial profiling of the street vendors in #Flatbush and #EastFlatbush
GET HELP
If you are a BROOKLYN residential or commercial TENANT or HOMEOWNER experiencing harassment or need housing, legal or organizing resources please contact us at:
In English: B4G@equalityforflatbush.org or (646)820-6039
En Español: EnEspanol@equalityforflatbush.org or (732)641-3923
En Kréyol: EnKreyol@equalityforflatbush.org or (929)244-0885
#NOEVICTIONZONE #MYNYCLANDLORD #BeforeItsGone
2273 Church Avenue
POB# 260505
Brooklyn, NY 11226
B4G@equalityforflatbush.org