Apartheid. USA 1988

December 22, 1987:

Hours before the verdict in the Howard Beach trial came in last night, defense lawyers asked for a mistrial because of reports that a television news producer, saying he was acting as the agent for the jury forewoman, had sought to sell her story to three newspapers. But Justice Thomas A Demakos of the State Supreme Court in Queens denied the mistrial motion.^188.

In the meantime, with surgical precision, a protest against racism by several hundred people severed critical subway and bridge links between Brooklyn and Manhattan late yesterday afternoon. The protest disrupted the home-bound rush of hundreds of thousands of commuters and holiday

188. The New York Times, from a report by Joseph P Fried

[p. 150]

shoppers. Defying a judicial order and mounting one of the most disruptive actions in years, the demonstrators blocked east-bound traffic on the Brooklyn bridge and halted service on eight heavily travelled subway lines by pulling emergency cords, holding train doors open and then leaping onto the subway tracks at key stations. ‘No justice, no peace’, the predominantly black demonstrators chanted as they rallied at the Brooklyn Civic Centre and marched on their objectives. At least 65 people, including three leaders of the protest, were arrested, most of them for disorderly conduct. There were no injuries in what was a disruptive but essentially non-violent protest.^189.

189. The New York Times, from a report by Robert D McFadden