More than 350 Bushwick residents gathered last night to protest the recent mass arrest of 32 teenagers. The students were en route to a wake and charged with being disorderly, something the teens deny.
REPORTER: Police say the teen being mourned was a gang leader and that many of those arrested wore shirts with his image. Councilman Charles Barron says just because they wore the shirts, doesn’t mean they’re gang members.
BARRON: I’ve been to several funerals in East New York. It is common practice you get a shirt memorializing the person that was deceased. That’s what young people do. It is no crime. They’re not promoting no violence. That was their loved one.
REPORTER: Barron wants all charges against the teens to be dropped. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says his office conducted a review of police actions and stands behind the NYPD.
The full version of this article was published and appears on the WNYC website.