The Manhattan Bridge Takeover
Police violence against Asian Americans grew more pronounced under the Rudolph Giuliani mayoral administration (1994-2001), which brought with it a new regime of control over urban space based on criminologists George L. Kelling and Jason Q. Wilson’s 1982 “broken windows” theory. According to this theory, signs of disorder, like broken windows, created an environment that permitted more serious crimes, necessitating the targeting of disorderly behavior like panhandling, graffiti drawing, and turnstile jumping as a means of staving off the enactment of violent offenses in order to promote a more prosperous quality of life for all city residents [1]. The Quality of Life campaign (QOL), introduced by Giuliani during his 1993 run for mayor, aimed to use the police to clean up the city’s streets and take back public spaces in the wake of two decades of rampant crime, economic downturn, the crack epidemic, and the AIDS crisis [2].
Protests against Giuliani
CAAAV Digital Archive
In reality, “quality of life” crimes were defined by the complaints of the affluent against the poor, homeless, and persons of color, creating a racist and elitist definition of criminal activity employed by the NYPD to delve deeper into communities already under siege from increased police surveillance. The incorporation of the “broken windows” theory into police practice by Giuliani and New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton “gave the NYPD greater discretion to criminalize poor people of color whose very presence was seen as disorderly” [3]. In turn, NYPD officers became emboldened to enact violence against the city’s minority populations including Asian Americans.
The size of the police force also increased significantly, with an additional ten thousand uniformed officers added during Giuliani’s tenure, coinciding with dramatic increases in reports of police abuse. According to a study conducted by the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, 1994 saw a 35% nationwide increase in anti-Asian violence, with the NYPD listed as one of the main contributors to the issue [4]. Nearly 70% of the complaints issued to the Civilian Complaint Review Board in that year involved persons who were pushed, slapped, and assaulted by police officers on routine patrols with no relation to an attempted arrest [5].
Out of the 71 cases of Asian American violence tracked by CAAAV between 1993 and 1995, 34 involved law enforcement as the primary perpetrators and 18 with law enforcement as accomplices [6].
On April 25, 1995, multiracial coalitions from across the city joined forces to protest a host of issues impacting New York’s poor, working-class, and immigrant communities including police violence against Asian Americans and other persons of color. In response to the March 24 shooting of 16-year-old Chinese immigrant Yong Xin Huang by police officer Steven Mizrahi and plans by Giuliani to slash city funding for social services while continuing to bolster the police force, members of CAAAV and The National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights (NCPRR) gridlocked traffic on the Manhattan Bridge during rush hour while holding signs bearing the names of police brutality victims—giving voice to the suffering they had endured. Protesters also wore vests displaying messages calling out Giuliani’s oppressive police practices. CUNY students gathered at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to protest cuts to education, healthcare workers and members of ACT UP advocated for HIV/AIDS treatment and hospital funding at the Queens Midtown Tunnel, and homeless advocates for housing and employment improvements took control of the Brooklyn Bridge [7].
CAAAV and NCPRR taking over the Manhattan Bridge on April 25
CAAAV Digital Archive
At its core, the April 25 protest called for the defunding of the police and the redistribution of resources to public programs designed to create safe communities such as housing, healthcare, employment, education, and social services. A direct challenge was made to Giuliani and Bratton’s Quality of Life campaign by demonstrating that additional police presence would not improve the lives of New York’s most vulnerable residents. The protest also demonstrated that the struggle for justice in one arena depended on the success of surrounding initiatives, exemplifying the insightful words of Audre Lorde:
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives” [8].
Protester after the Manhattan Bridge Takeover
CAAAV Digital Archive
By the end of the protest, 185 peaceful participants were arrested under disorderly conduct charges, 25 of whom had participated in the Manhattan Bridge takeover. Though the protest only lasted half an hour, it managed to garner significant attention from the media and the thousands of commuters who were impacted. A second demonstration to protest the arrests and demand the indictment of Mizrahi followed at Police Plaza and the Chinatown 5th Precinct [9].
Demonstration after arrests at Manhattan Bridge Takeover
CAAAV Digital Archive
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[1] Vivian Truong, “From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City: The Policing of Asian Immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, 1987-1995,” Journal of Asian American Studies, February 2020, 71.
[2] Williams Cole, “Against the Giuliani Legacy,” The Brooklyn Rail: Critical Perspectives on Arts, Politics, and Culture, May/June 2001. https://brooklynrail.org/2001/05/local/against-the-giuliani-legacy-part-one/.
[3] Truong, “From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City: The Policing of Asian Immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, 1987-1995,” 71.
[4] Kenneth B. Noble, “Attacks Against Asian-Americans On the Rise, Especially in California,” New York Times, December 13, 1995. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/13/us/attacks-against-asian-americans-on-the-rise-especially-in-california.html.
[5] CAAAV, “Brutality and Corruption—Business as Usual,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Winter 1996, 4.
[6] CAAAV, “Police Brutality in Asian American Communities,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Winter 1996, 3.
[7] Hongdeng Gao, “Anti-Asian Violence And Acts Of Community Care From The 1980s To The Present: An Interview with Vivian Truong,” The Gotham Center For New York City History, February 1, 2022. https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/anti-asian-violence-and-acts-of-community-care.
[8] Ibid.
[9] CAAAV, “Cop Bullet Ends Teen’s Life,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Spring 1995, 2.