Hundreds Converge on Army Recruiting Center in Brooklyn
Hundreds Converge on Army Recruiting Center in Brooklyn
Hundreds Converge on Army Recruiting Center in Brooklyn
Hundreds Converge on Army Recruiting Center in Brooklyn
Hundreds Converge on Army Recruiting Center in Brooklyn
On a beautiful Brooklyn day, protesters leaving from the Library were treated to a short play dramatizing military recruitment. Actors in masks and military uniforms convinced a young man to join the army, then shoved him into a black coffin. A marcher named Brian mentioned that he worked with High School children in the borough, and noted that he'd seen military recruiters in the schools. "Kids without any opprotunities think they're joining a video game war," he sighed. A middle aged African-American woman named Pat marched down Flatbush with the picture of a dead soldier on her t-shirt. She has two cousins in the military, she said, and felt that other people needed to learn about the waus that the military tricked young people of color into joining. "I want my cousins home," she said. Another Brooklyn resident, Colette, who joined the march after it left the library, agreed. "People in the middle states of this country need to get a clue about what's going on the world," she said. Passerby in the liberal Park Slope neighborhood where the march began were supportive of the protesters. Many cars on Flatbush honked as they passed the march. A parade of black and American-flag draped coffins led the way down Flatbush. Jenna Hunt of 1000 coffins explained the powerful symbolism: "I think the coffins give people a visceral response," she said. "They have power to access the heart and break through mental barriers." At the military recruiting center, protesters were herded into the ubiquitous protest pens across the street from the military offices. A few dozen protesters corss the street, blocked the doors, and were promptly arrested by a squad of plastic handcuff toting cops. The press was deliberately excluded from taking pictures of the C.D. by an officers on the scene, causing one Newsday photographer to start shouting at members of the NYPD. Once the crowd had dispersed, a young Marine Private, named Shaun, stared out the window of the recruiting center. The protest didn't affect him, he observed quietly. "They've got freedom of speech," he said. Shaun said he had been a marine for a year, and has yet to go to Iraq.
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