Teachers union chief who was arrested at Eric Garner protest slams 'bias and racism'
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and former head of the New York United Federation of Teachers, was arrested with rabbis and several others in December. She asserted that ‘police are not the enemy’ during a court appearance Monday.
You could call it a teachable moment.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and former head of the New York United Federation of Teachers, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday morning for her December arrest at an upper West Side protest over the death of Eric Garner.
“Police are not the enemy,” Weingarten told the Daily News while she waited for her case to be called. “Police are our first responders. Bias and racism is (the enemy).”
Weingarten received an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. If she is not arrested in the next six months, her case will be dismissed.
She was arrested with four rabbis and several other participants who sat down in the middle of Broadway to protest a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who put Garner in a prohibited chokehold last year.
Weingarten and the others had gathered outside an Upper West Side synagogue and had said Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning for the dead.
They followed the prayer by sitting down in the middle of the street. Weingarten and the others were arrested and charged with civil disobedience.
“We need to work to make sure the law treats everyone equally. That means communities and police feel safe and police feel safe,” she said.
“Civil disobedience, where people understand the ramifications of their actions in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., is to try to make the system more fair and more equitable.”Teachers union chief busted at Garner protest slams ‘racism’ - NY Daily News: