The PSAL Championship game between Coney Island rivals Lincoln and Grady

At three o clock Sunday afternoon the intersection of 8th Avenue and 34th Street suddenly became thick with young black people. The usual mix of tourists and shoppers milling around were brought to a standstill by the strange phenomenon. It was surreal.

The source of the homogeneous density was Madison Square Garden two blocks to the south where a steady stream of teenagers flowed out amid hundreds of cops trying to keep order and maintain the flow of traffic. When I asked a cop what’s going on he replied “high school basketball” and kept on policing.

I then asked a young man, what schools were involved in the game and he replied “the game is over.” But who were the schools? I repeated. Just then, another young man in the group smiled broadly at me and said “get the fuck out of here.” The look on his face sent a chill up my spine but it did not prevent me from saying "that’s not very nice." No one in the group showed any disapproval whatsoever of his unnecessary hostility.

As I moved away, a couple of white bystanders whispered to me “they are nothing but animals”. And to think, Martin Luther King marched for this madness. I was thankful for what I initially thought was too much police presence.