Syracuse, NY -- Two hundred people marched up State Street in Syracuse this afternoon to call for changes in the way inmates are treated at the Onondaga County Justice Center. “We need jobs, not police. Justice for Chuniece,” some yelled. “No more jails, we need schools. Justice for Raul,” shouted others. “Same struggle, same fight. Black, Latino and white,” more...
Syracuse, NY -- Two hundred people marched up State Street in Syracuse this afternoon to call for changes in the way inmates are treated at the Onondaga County Justice Center.
“We need jobs, not police. Justice for Chuniece,” some yelled.
“No more jails, we need schools. Justice for Raul,” shouted others.
“Same struggle, same fight. Black, Latino and white,” more called.
Their chants echoed off the Syracuse police station, the justice center and the Onondaga County office building.
A coalition of groups called on Syracuse city and Onondaga county officials to clean up problems at the justice center where Chuniece Patterson died of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy in November and Raul Pinet Jr. died in August after being restrained.
Both cases are under investigation by the Onondaga County’s District Attorney’s Office.
Marchers walked two miles from Kirk Park through the city’s streets to rally in the plaza in front of the justice center.
“We know these are not quote natural deaths unquote as (Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin) Walsh likes to call them or the misconduct of a few bad nurses and officers,” Ashley Sauers, an organizer with the Answer Coalition, told the crowd.
“We say the whole system is infected with this negligent and inhumane attitude towards incarcerated people and we refuse to be silent while people’s basic human rights are violated,” she said.
“We are here to say loud and clear to Kevin Walsh and everyone in this so-called justice center: No more victims. No more deaths,” Sauers said.
Ten community organizers then spoke about abuses they said occurred at the center.
They told stories of disabled inmates denied wheelchairs, others denied medication prescribed to stop seizures and people waiting months to see attorneys. And they told people to remember the politicians who were not at the rally when they go to vote in the local elections in the fall.
“We are here, united, to say ‘No more’,” said Pastor Percy Bivins of the Lighthouse of Love Ministries. Patterson was a member of his congregation.
Sally Johnston of Disabled in Action of Greater Syracuse told the crowd to remind Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Sheriff Walsh and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner “we’re watching what’s going on here and we’re not going away until it’s right.”
Prisoners rights advocate Kathleen Rumpf told the crowd to turn around, face the justice center and yell “We love you. We’re here,” to the inmates.
People yelled, peering up at the center’s windows trying to catch a glimpse of any inmates who might be there.
This is the third time Hazel Bivins, First Lady of Lighthouse of Love Ministries, has marched on the justice center.
The marches have grown from 50 people to the 200 who attended Saturday afternoon’s rally, she said.
Bivins said she would have joined the rally even if she had not known Patterson. “It has nothing to do with their race or ethnicity; it’s the injustice that’s here,” she said.