(Updated) Saturday: Big Flatbush Rally Against Gentrification, Tenant Abuse, Police Brutality

Update: a spokeswoman for the parks Department told Patch on Friday that a permit for the rally was issued.

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — Local activists plan to hold a big, first-of-its-kind rally in Flatbush this coming Saturday. They'll be protesting what they see as three interconnected threats to longtime Brooklyn residents: gentrification, police brutality and tenant harassment.

The event will be held with or without permits, according to lead organizer Imani Henry.

Henry's group, Equality for Flatbush, is hosting the rally at 12 noon on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 441 Flatbush Ave.

He said this weekend's demonstration will be the first of its type in Flatbush, and that activists will be heading into the neighborhood from numerous surrounding communities Saturday to show their support.

Henry said he's noticed that as Flatbush becomes more and more gentrified, landlords are pressuring longtime tenants to leave so wealthier renters can take their place.

He said he's also watched policing standards change as his neighborhood gentrifies.

"Black and brown people are being shot and killed without any kind of recourse," Henry said. And even if they don't wind up dead, Henry claimed that New York cops routinely use non-lethal force to abuse locals.

He cited, for example, the alleged 2015 beating of Stephanie Dorceant in Flatlands by an NYPD officer. In a court filing, Dorceant, who was walking with her girlfriend at the time of the incident, claimed the officer called her a "f*cking dyke."

Henry claimed that even though Equality for Flatbush applied for rally permits weeks ago, the NYPD has yet to grant the group a permit to use amplified sound at Saturday's event. He also said that while the NYC Parks Department has neither approved nor denied their permit request, park officials informally asked the group to find another location, claiming they couldn't be accommodated at their intended site. (Henri said about 200 people have RSVP'd for the gathering.)

Neither the NYPD nor NYC Parks could immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

But the rally will go on regardless of its legal status, Henry said.

"Our community is in crisis," he said. "To tell us we should go somewhere else is just what the gentrifiers do. If they're trying to silence us, it won't happen."

Pictured at top: A previous Equality for Flatbush event. Photo courtesy of Equality for Flatbush