Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City

Bearing Witness

271 When does the intensity of an isolated occurrence ripple throughout a community to the point where a collective outcry seems the only resort? Activism is often rooted in empathy. In Witness: Perspectives on Police Violence, a multimedia visual art installation, we have created a space to listen to the voices of those who have directly experienced police violence. Central to the artwork are testimonies of victims of police violence, their surviving family members, police officers, and advocates working on the front line of this volatile issue. Originally installed in the sanctuary of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, Witness uses a variety of media, including audio, video, text, and photography. Our advocacy lies in creating an emotional awareness that seemingly isolated incidents of police brutality are in reality pervasive, shared experiences. We strive to counteract the tendency of the press to squeeze the witness accounts into sound bites and focus on only the most extreme cases. The creation of a Media Wall and photographs of emptied streetscapes marked indelibly by police violence are among the ways in which Witness memorializes tragic events that so quickly fade from the public eye. We believe that art can spark civic dialogue. We have chosen to create work outside the sanctioned spaces of museums and galleries to encourage community participation as a means of effecting social change. The installation of Witness in the cathedral is only part of a larger project that also involved installing the call boxes during a twenty-day citywide tour at locations where police violence has taken place and at courthouses and civic buildings that determine police accountability (to view interaction, log onto WitnessCallBox.org). The day-long installations of the call boxes provided interaction and exchange among government officials, community activists, and other concerned individuals, proving that artwork can become an impetus for action. Bearing Witness Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry 272 David Baez Brother of Anthony Baez. Anthony was choked to death on December 22, 1994, at age 29. “Well, basically, we were getting ready to leave the next morning back to Florida for a little vacation, and we were playing football outside, in front of our home. And, um, one of the footballs accidentally hit the police car. We apologized . Everything was all right. And the cops said, you know, don't worry about it. We continued playing, and the ball bounced and hit the police car again. And that was when Officer Francis Livoti got out of the police car. He told us, cursing, you know, get the f--- out of here, you don't belong here. And we tried to explain to him that we live right where we were playing. So what happened after that was, we tried to play the football game a little bit more up the street. As soon as we started the first play, Livoti jumps out the car and says, didn't I tell you, you know, cursing, to get the f--- out of here. As soon as we tried to explain to him, he just jumped on me… 273 “He jumped on me, slammed me on top of my brother's car, put the cuffs on me, started pulling the cuffs forward and back, cutting my wrists, slams me inside of the police car, and goes back toward where my brothers were at. And he said, do you want to fight? Who's the leader here? And my, my other brother Raymond was telling Livoti, nobody's a leader here, we're just brothers playing football. Livoti kept, kept trying to make a fight with one of us. So what happened was Livoti went toward my brother Tony and he then told Tony that if he has anything to say, then he's going to get arrested too. So my brother Tony ended up saying that he was a security officer in Florida; he knew his rights. As soon as he said that, Livoti just jumped right on my brother Tony and killed him with a chokehold. And we've been fighting for justice ever since… David Baez 274 “I have had a number of police misconduct cases, but nothing ever prepared me for my experience in the Baez case. I can tell you without any reservation that this is a case that points to everything that was wrong with the NYPD– everything that was wrong at the highest level...