Emergency Rally Condemns Timothy Caughman’s Murder by a White Supremacist

“This kind of hatred, his blood is on the president’s hands”

March 27, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Photo: revcom.us

An emergency rally was held at New York City’s Union Square Friday night to condemn the murder of Timothy Caughman by a white supremacist. Hundreds came on short notice; the feelings of distress and anger were palpable. Dozens held signs with Timothy Caughman’s image which had been made for the demonstration. There was a short rally, with speakers condemning this white racist hate crime and pointing to the White House and the encouragement being given to these white supremacists. Most had to pause to hold back tears. One of the first speakers talked about the tremendous injustice that’s been done. And he contrasted it with the outrage in 2014 when a Black man drove to Brooklyn and killed two officers. “There was a lot of outrage; how it was a terrorist attack.... The same outcry for those officers needs to be given to Timothy Caughman. We’re out here to let the government, elected officials and anyone else know that we will not tolerate another second, another minute of white supremacists, of terrorists all over this country killing Black men.”
Another speaker said the reason the murderer did this was because of the tone that has been set in this country. “Donald Trump has set a tone of white supremacy and nationalism. He says he’s going to make America great again—but for who?” The speaker said the killer chose New York City because of the tone the NYPD sets up here; of unaccountability. And he continued:

White folks now have been emboldened to target folks that look like me. Our American system is to blame. It is the New York Post that went into his history to demonize him again. Publicly lynching this Black man. Not only was he murdered in the street, but he was murdered again in the media.

At the end of the rally people walked and chanted up Broadway to the spot in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen where the murder took place, and held a moment of silence.
Along the way people told why they had come. A young woman said, “I’m out here because it’s movingly disgusting what that man did. And nobody seems to think this is a big deal.” A younger man said he’d been out protesting since Trump’s election, “as often as possible.” Did he see a connection between what Trump represents, and this murder? “Absolutely. Absolutely. This kind of hatred, his blood is on the president’s hands, on Bannon’s hands, Stephen Miller’s hands, and on the hands of the Republican Party that put these people in power.”
And an American woman, who was in New York for 10 days before returning to Mexico where she lives, came to the rally and walked nearly the whole march. When she began to describe how she felt about Timothy Caughman’s murder, she began to cry. “It really hurt me, deep down, in my soul. There’s a totally racist, fascist narrative going on in America right now.”
She said “I had a choice; to go shopping tonight, or come to the march. And I stepped out the door and said—March! There was no other option.” She continued, “I was at the women’s March in DC. in January, and there’s no going back from there.”