Prayers, Anger at Brooklyn Vigil for Fallen Cops and Victims of Police Violence

Pictured: The scene at Grand Army Plaza on Monday night. Photos by John V. Santore

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Another day, another local vigil for victims of gun violence in America.

Less than a month ago, Grand Army Plaza was filled with mourners remembering the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando — two of them Brooklyn natives.

This Monday, July 11, people gathered again to remember Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two black men fatally shot this month by police in Minnesota and Louisiana, respectively, as well as the five Texas officers killed by a gunman who said he wanted to kill white cops.

Brooklyn resident Amarie Johnson said that as a black woman, she feels comfortable around the police. She came out to the plaza Monday, she said, to show that "despite our differences, we're still so similar" — even though she's hardly impervious to the racism that persists in her country and city.

Pastor A.R. Bernard, who leads the Christian Cultural Center in the East New York area, said "there are no winners" after this month's tragedies.

"We are all victims," the pastor said.

"We dare not paint our entire law enforcement with a broad brush," Bernard said. Still, he added, there is "much more to be done" to overcome racial injustice in America.

Echoing remarks made in his recent New York Times op-ed, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who served as a police officer for 22 years, said he felt for mothers who had lost children to police violence. But he also argued that too little is known about the heroism of police.

"The bad guys want us to be divided," Adams said, in a call for unity. "We need police, and police need the people of this city."

NYC Public Advocate Letitia James was the first city official to mention the name of Delrawn Small — another black man fatally shot on July 4 in East New York by off-duty NYPD officer Wayne Isaacs. (Isaacs is also black.) On Monday, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton confirmed that the officer has been stripped of his badge and gun.

Video of Small's shooting, published last Friday by the New York Post, contradicted the NYPD's initial claims that Small had "repeatedly punched" Isaacs before the officer shot him in the head. The NYPD has yet to address the video or its content.

Asked Monday night if she thought the NYPD had shown adequate transparency in its investigation into Small's killing, James said only that she was working with the NYPD to release more videos, in the future, from officers' body cameras.

Adams, the borough president, told Patch he was glad the investigation into the shooting was immediately taken over by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. And with the investigation is now in the state's hands, Adams said it "would have been irresponsible" for the NYPD to release or comment on the video.

On a personal level, though, Adams said he took issue with what he saw.

The fact that Small was shot dead by a black officer does not make the case less significant, he said.

"An innocent person that is unarmed should not be shot," Adams said. Officers are "not there to harm, and that blue uniform and that shield matters."

Pictured: Cielo Hunte, left, and Carey Tan, center

As the vigil dispersed late Monday night, Carey Tan, a Prospect Heights resident and the director of CodeEd.org — a program that teaches computer science to middle school girls — stood with a sign that read, "Delrawn Small R.I.P. Black Lives Matter."

Tan said she was "a little bit disappointed" by the evening's remarks, which she described as "platitudes" that left her "angry" instead of hopeful.

"I think people should know one of our own was killed not far from here," she said, referring to Small.

Tan said she grieved for officers harmed in the line of duty. More than anything, though, she said she feels the NYPD, and police forces around the country, aren't moving fast enough to address systemic problems.

"I don't feel like black lives are being treated the same way [as others]," 13-year-old Cielo Hunt, another neighborhood resident, said while standing next to Tan. "The police that killed these people need to be in jail."

Rinette Jeanite, from Mill Basin in southeast Brooklyn, said she believed officers who lash out at civilians are at times overwhelmed by "adrenaline" or "fear."

"When you have that level of fear, you shouldn't be a police officer," she said.

Zushanna Turner, from Spring Creek near East New York, said she has struggled to decide what to tell her 3-year-old son about the police when he grows up.

"I've been raised to be respectful — you respect a cop," Turner said. But her son is also a black male.

"I'm going to teach him to respect officers, but I'm also going to teach him to be careful," she said. "It's hard to find that balance."

Turner said she thought police officers who use improper force should be prosecuted for their actions, and that police officials should make a point to publicly criticize these crimes.

"If we saw these officers saying, 'I am sorry,' that would be reassuring to us," she said. But as things stand, she said she lives in fear of "the officers who feel like they can get away with it."