On May 16, as Alberta Spruill was preparing to go to work, New York City cops broke down her door and tossed a flash grenade in her apartment under the guise of looking for drugs. The grenade created a deafening noise and blinding flashes. The cops wrestled the 57-year-old Black woman to the ground and handcuffed her. An hour and a half later, Alberta Spruill was dead from a heart attack caused by the cop assault.

Spruill was a longtime municipal worker and member of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 37 and of the Coalition of Black Trade unionists.

Seven days later, a cop killed Ousmane Zongo as he was repairing African art at Chelsea Mini Storage. Zongo, 43, was an immigrant from Burkina Faso who also lived in the neighborhood. Zongo was unarmed as police officer Bryan Conroy chased him in the storage facility before shooting him four times.

The cops claim they raided the 5,000-room storage building looking for bootleg compact disks.

Nellie Bailey from the Harlem Tenants Council was the main organizer of the demonstration and chaired the rallies. “There is a war of terror by the New York Police Department against people of color and the working class,” she told the crowd, adding that “repression will continue until the collective will of the people is heard.”

Nina Paulino, a friend of Santiago Villanueva, a Dominican-born garment worker who was killed by police in New Jersey April 16, 2002, told the protestors about the circumstances of Villanueva’s death. While at work in a Bloomfield, New Jersey factory he had an epileptic fit. “Four cops arrived and killed him,” she said. “The four cops have been indicted by the grand jury for 2nd degree reckless manslaughter.”

During the march from Spruill’s apartment building on 143rd St. to Harlem’s center on 125th St., this reporter spoke with some of the demonstrators, who marched chanting “No justice, no peace, no racist police!”

“It’s unfair that a person in good standing in our community has to die at the hands of the police,” said Marva Jones. “They are militarized. If she can die like that, the rest of us are in trouble.”

Hashim Warren, who, as Spruill had been, is a member of District 37, made a similar point. “I live in Harlem and have been stopped by the police who say they were searching for guns,” he said. “The way they killed her, it could have been me.”

A number of students took part in the march. “It’s really important to oppose police brutality in New York,” said Julie Kessler, a New York University student. “Most people don’t even hear about it. The march today helps let people know.”  
 
 
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