Showing posts with label Mark Carson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Carson. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Christine Quinn's History Of Using Hate Crimes For Political Gain

Christine Quinn Only Politician Named On Mark Carson Vigil - May 20 2013

From The Village Voice :

"... the prospect of Quinn's active participation in the march provoked a sort of counter-protest by a small contingent of activists who are unimpressed with Quinn's record. As the main rally moved south on Greenwich Avenue, marchers passed a tiny contingent of activists holding up a sign on the island intersection at Seventh Avenue. 'We need a hospital, we don't need condos,' it read. The side-vigil raised the question of why Carson was taken to Beth Israel, on First Avenue, and whether he could have been saved if he was treated nearby. The handful of activists standing in the shadow of the building that used to be St. Vincent's Hospital, now being converted into 350 luxury condo units, criticized Quinn for signing off on the zoning change that made this development possible, even though the City Council speaker's brand had been stamped all over the larger march itself."

Did New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn cancel her planned political exploitation of Monday night's Mark Carson vigil, after The Village Voice and Michael Petrelis exposed these concerns ?

Speaker Quinn has a history of exploiting tragedy for political gain.

Earlier this year, after former mayor Ed Koch passed away, Speaker Quinn's campaign staff were trying to figure out how to exploit Mayor Koch's endorsement of Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign, even after he had died -- and he was no longer around to approve of the campaign's messaging.

And in 1998, while she was in her first political campaign to be elected to the City Council, Ms. Quinn was using a spike in bias crimes against the LGBT community as an excuse to call for canceling that year's annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

SIDEBAR : Please watch this video, which I just discovered this morning, which explains why it might be more accurate to describe the discrimination against the LGBTQ community as "heterosexual-supremacy" instead of using the term "homophobia."

Monday, May 20, 2013

Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson At St. Vincent's Hospital

Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson

Mark Carson was shot and killed in a hate crime over the weekend in New York City. He was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Medical Center, where he was taken by ambulance.

Since the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital in 2010, all of Lower Manhattan has been without a Level I Trauma Center.

Join us on Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. for a silent vigil for Mr. Carson, and for all the other patients in medical emergencies, who have nowhere nearby to go after the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

Date : Monday, May 20, 2013
Time : 5:30 - 6 pm
Place : In front of the old St. Vincent's Hospital, 7th Avenue South, between West 11th and West 12th Streets.

Please bring candles. RSVP on Facebook : Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson At St. Vincent's

We Mourn the Senseless Death of Mark Carson by Connaissable

Related : Adam Feldman organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson : Reflections by Dan Fishback

"Long-time activist and Stonewall vet Jim Fouratt pointed out something that SHOULD be obvious, but which hadn’t occurred to me — that there used to be a hospital TWO BLOCKS from that corner, but in the wake of St. Vincent’s closing, Mark had to be rushed to Beth Israel all the way across town. Perhaps, in the distance between these hospitals, Mark’s life could have been saved. In that sense, the politicians that allowed St. Vincents to be converted to a luxury condo high rise — politicians like lesbian mayoral candidate Christine Quinn — may have gay blood on their hands. Jim helped us understand how depriving a gay neighborhood of a hospital is inherently homophobic and violent."

"And while I’m sure individual NYPD officers were polite in the lead-up to this vigil, we cannot forget that the NYPD ritually harasses trans people and people of color in this city ! Trans women are arrested simply for walking down the street! So when we talk about how queer people need to be 'safe,' we have to ask ourselves what 'safety' really means — because the NYPD does not makes us safe ! It harasses and imprisons us ! We must reckon with these connections — that Mark Carson’s death is an extension of the violence that oppresses so many others, from the institutional violence of governments to the random violence of a crazy guy with a gun. …"

Dan Fishback, the author of this post, added : "I wish I had specifically named the Stop & Frisk policy that makes queers and people of color vulnerable to police harassment. I wish I had called out Christine Quinn for supporting this policy."

Link : Adam Feldman organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson : Reflections by Dan Fishback

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Could the life of Mark Carson been saved if St. Vincent's was still open ?

Focus On Health : Anti-Gay Bias Killing : No St. Vincent's Hospital For Victim

The bias murder of Mark Carson is tragic and must rightly be condemned. But residents in all areas in New York City, including the Lower West Side of Manhattan, which were once served by the ten hospitals that have closed since 2006 -- when Christine Quinn became Speaker of the City Council -- deserve answers, too.

Could Mr. Carson's life had been saved, if, two blocks away from the scene of his violent attack, St. Vincent's Hospital was still open ?

How many lives have been lost, because of the collapse of so many full-service hospitals in New York City ?

How much worse has the Average Ambulance ER Turnaround Time become as a result of the closing of ten full-service hospitals in New York City ?

Why don't more politicians support a single-payer healthcare system, so that all hospitals could be funded to fully meet the healthcare needs of their patients ?