Friedman symposium focuses on police brutality

“I’m here because it’s really relevant right now – policing New York City – and everything that’s been going on with Bloomberg and Ray Kelly […] it’s important,” said Sivers.

The History department’s faculty was also in attendance, including Professor Ervand Abrahamian, “I thought the panel was brilliant,” he said.

“Having lived through the period in the city, it was useful for me to get analytical perspectives both from historians and policy makers,” said Abrahamian. “I am sure students would have been struck by how the city has changed in some respects but remains the same in others.”

Ultimately, what Taylor hopes students learned from the symposium is the other side of the controversial former mayor’s story.

“Students receive another version of what was going on in New York City in the 1960s and early 1970s. They [have been] told by their professors, the corporate media, and political conservatives that Lindsay is the one blamed for the financial crisis that hit New York in the mid 1970s.  He is also blamed for the growing racial tension in the city,” said Taylor.

He concluded, “The students learned that Lindsay attempted to do the right thing and address police abuse of citizens. He did not do it for political gains but because he believed that people who had little political power should be protected by the law and should also have a voice in government.”