NEW YORK — Hundreds of mostly French-speaking New Yorkers held pens aloft at a rally Saturday to insist on freedom of expression while mourning victims of a Islamic terrorist attack targeting a Paris satirical publication.
The demonstrators braved subfreezing temperatures in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, where a leather-clad pole dancer gyrated in a deliberately provocative improvisation meant to reflect the kind of over-the-top cartoons published in the magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The dancer’s live soundtrack came from a concert grand piano hauled into the square for the occasion as she twirled under a sign that read “Je suis Charlie,” French for “I am Charlie.”
The phrase has emerged as a global rallying cry since two gunmen with assault rifles killed 12 people Wednesday at the Paris headquarters of the magazine. New York organizers said they were showing solidarity with the French after three days of violence that, all told, left 20 dead, including three gunmen.
Olivier Souchard, a French-born New York resident who brought his family and friends to Saturday’s rally, explained the fierce support for freedom of expression that drove Charlie Hebdo’s images of the prophet Muhammad.
“What we are afraid of is less freedom for more security, it’s muzzling,” Souchard said.
