In Miami, a Street Artist Dies at the Hands of Police

Does the name Michael Stewart mean anything to you? No? Let me refresh your memory.

Thirty years ago, Michael Stewart’s name was known as well as Michael Brown’s and Eric Garner’s are today, and for much the same reason. Stewart, a 25-year-old New York artist and model, was arrested one early morning in 1983 for writing graffiti in the First Avenue station of the L train. He was a black man. According to several eyewitness accounts, the arrest, by an all-white group of cops, turned violent. As he was wrestled into a police van in Union Square, students at the nearby Parsons School of Art heard him crying out, “Oh, my God, someone help me! What did I do?” Less than an hour later, he was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in a comatose state, his body hogtied by the police. Thirteen days later, he was dead.