Several protesters were arrested Wednesday evening after they stormed into a Brooklyn subway station, jumping the turnstiles in fury over the killing of upstate prisoner Robert Brooks.
Last month, hundreds of protesters marched outside of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Midtown office and gave the city an ultimatum: Either arrest the correction officers caught on video beating Brooks inside of Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9 or they will “shut the city down.” The demonstrators in Brooklyn looked to keep that promise on Jan. 22.
“We’re out here tonight to continue to keep the pressure on,” Reverend Kevin McCall said as he and fellow demonstrators gathered outside of the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station just after 6 p.m. Wednesday night “We want to make sure that every last single person responsible gets arrested. It’s been over 46 days, and no arrest has been made. So, we’re going to continue to scream his name — justice for Robert Brooks!”
While Hochul launched an investigation into Brooks’ vicious, deadly beating in December, those calling for justice in his name say it is not enough and want those in the footage brought up in murder charges.
McCall and fellow advocates say they were not just going to scream and holler this time but also disrupt business as usual but “shutting down the bustling transit hub during rush hour. It never became apparent how the group would achieve this, however, as an army of cops were waiting for them when they hopped the turnstile, evading the fare.
Police rushed in to restrain the protesters in a brief struggle.
“Justice for Robert Brooks!” protesters called out from both sides of the turnstile.
As the cops marched those arrested to an awaiting van outside of the station, several more protesters got into a heated face-off with cops, but no additional arrests were made.
“Robert Brooks was a black incarcerated person, and his life mattered, and that’s what we’re here today,” said Renny Smith, executive director of Family and Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted. ”We want to bring justice to this issue. This was the injustice that was done to Robert Brooks, his family and the community at large.”
