El Grito de Sunset Park
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 El Grito de Sunset Park gathering in 2016 | |
| Formation | c. 2002 |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| Location | |
| Website | elgritodesunsetpark |
El Grito de Sunset Park is a Puerto Rican activist organization in Brooklyn[1][2] that has been described as a police watchdog.[3]
One of the founders of El Grito de Sunset Park is Dennis Flores, a "cop watcher" who began documenting the activities of the New York City Police Department in 1995.[2][4][5] He has been arrested more than 70 times for his activities.[4] Flores and others founded El Grito de Sunset Park in 2002, before filming police activities was common.[5] According to Flores, the organization was founded with a $270,000 settlement he received after the police attacked him in 2002.[6] The group became a 501(c)(3) organization in 2015.[7]
The organization has roots in the primarily Puerto Rican neighborhood of Sunset Park in Brooklyn. The name "El Grito" means "the cry" or "the call" in Spanish, and is a reference to the independence movements El Grito de Lares in Puerto Rico and El Grito de Dolores in Mexico.[8] El Grito de Sunset Park has ties to the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican radical group.[1] The group's founders were influenced by social movements in Latin America; Flores witnessed organizing efforts in the Mexican city of Oaxaca in 2006 and 2007, while Jason Del Aguila, also a cofounder, worked for some time in Guatemala and El Salvador.[9]