It was 60 degrees this morning so I decided to do some of my work in City Hall Park. The park was relatively empty.
I was reading my magazines and enjoying the outdoors when I began to hear this loud screaming. Living in NYC, you get used to this kind of sound, so I continued on with my reading, but the screaming didn’t stop and it became very loud at times. The screaming was full of anguish and pain, and I turned around and off in the distance I saw this black man in a blue nylon jacket walking back and forth, at the gate facing City Hall, waving his fist at the people standing out in front of City Hall.
The sounds emanating from him almost made me want to go over to speak to him to see what had happened to him, but I got scared and I didn’t really have confidence that I could handle the situation.
So I went back to my reading, still hearing this constant cry of anguish in the background. I finally got up to go, and I turned around and watched this man walking back and forth, once again shaking his fist towards the direction of City Hall. Again I was tempted to go over to him to try to comfort him.
I then walked out of the park to go back up to my office. I was very upset about the man in the park, and then I turned on the TV and the news came on. Over the weekend, some man had been shot 50 times, along with his 2 friends, coming out of bar after celebrating this man’s wedding which was to occur the next day. The groom died and the 2 friends survived.
There was a press conference being called at City Hall and Al Sharpton and some other clergy were attending the press conference. I said a prayer for the man in the park and all of us who are affected by this unacceptable behavior by the police.
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