From: "Marpessa Kupendua" To: Subject: [Y4M] !*Protest Vicious Police Attacks Nationwide! Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 19:49:17 -0400 THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN! ================================= From: Michael Novick Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 6:32 PM There are two important events coming up in the struggle against police abuse in Los Angeles. Your participation and that of people you know, friends, family members or clients who have been victimized by police abuse or racial profiling, is vital to move ahead the struggle against police brutality and racism. The first event is happening this Saturday, July 22, at 10:00 AM, the Coalition for Police Accountability, including the ACLU, SCLC, Center for Women in Policing, CARECEN, CHIRLA, Coalition Against Police Abuse and numerous other organizations, is sponsoring a Speak Out!/Teach-In Against Police Abuse at Faith United Methodist Church, 1713 W. 108th Street in Los Angeles, just west of Western Ave. Journalist Larry Aubrey of the L.A. Sentinel is hosting, and panelists include Robin Toma, Javier Rodriguez and a representative of the COPWATCH organization from Northern California, speaking about their campaign of street videos and vigilance to deter police brutality. Lunch will be served by Food Not Bombs, and there will be a speak-out of community residents about experiences of police brutality. Participants will break out into action groups to plan organizing around solutions to this long-standing problem in Los Angeles. Two weeks from now, on Saturday, August 5, the Coalition for Police Accountability will be hosting a second Speak Out!/Teach-In event at CARECEN, the Central American Resource Center, at 2845 W. Seventh St., just west of Hoover, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. A short morning panel will address the question of why police abuse has been such an intractable and persistent problem in L.A. A second panel, including grassroots activists such as Michael Zinzun of CAPA, and Frank Trujilo of the Criminal Justice Consortium, will put forward proposed solutions. There will also be a community speak out by survivors of police brutality and family members of those who lost their lives at the hands of law enforce- ment officers. This meeting will also break out into action oriented groups to plan further organizing, such as lobbying, building neighborhood assemblies or COPWATCH projects, and other campaigns for concrete measures we can take to deal with the problem. It is vital that you come and participate and help make these events a success. We are nearing the first anniversary of the disclosures of widespread wrong- doing by police at the LAPD Rampart Division, and little has been done to correct the problems in any fundamental way. It is past time for the voice of the community to be heard. Please help mobilize your own membership, your clients, and community residents to seize the opportunity of these Speak Out!/Teach-In events to get involved in finding solutions, in pressuring elected and appointed officials and agencies to develop effective means of community oversight and police accountability. Let me mention also that there is a day of protest dedicated to Justice issues during the Democratic Convention here in Los Angeles on August 16. There will be a March for Justice on that date, and a free speech rally against police brutality, mass incarceration and the death penalty, and to free all political prisoners. The ad-hoc coalition planning the march and rally meets Monday evenings at 6:30 pm at the United Methodist Church office building, 1010 S. Flower Street in downtown L.A. in Room B. For more information, you can call me at 310-495-0299, or reply to this message at . Please help spread the word about these important events! --Michael Novick ========================================> From: Donna Wallach Please distribute widely! MASS RALLY Demonstrate Against Corruption & Injustice in the In-Justice System STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, HARASSMENT & RACIAL PROFILING DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY & EQUAL JUSTICE FROM THE COURTS WHEN: SATURDAY, JULY 22nd * 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM WHERE: ST. JAMES PARK, DOWNTOWN SAN JOSE St. James Park stage near St. John & 2nd Street Downtown (near St. James Park Light Rail stop) WHAT: SPEAKERS * ENTERTAINMENT * SPOKEN WORD * STOLEN LIVES WALL * INFORMATION TABLES Bring your signs, your friends, your family, your mind, your information, and your voice FEATURING: GRITO SERPENTINO San José's sensational new Chicano music band, live! PROPHETS OF RAGE Politically conscious hip hop Presented by: Citizen Tribunal San José, co-sponsors: Western Regional Alliance Against Police Brutality, San Jose Peace Center, LACES, Latinos por La Gente, Community Homeless Alliance, Food Not Bombs, October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and Criminization of a Generation, C.E.P.A., P.U.E.B.L.O., Comité por un Puerto Rico Libre, Santa Cruz Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Political Prisoners, etc. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Citizen Tribunal (408) 536-0887 (408) 295-2842 (Bilingual) (408) 562-2556 CitizenTri@aol.com StopPoliceBrutality@yahoo.com reality7@earthlink.net ====================================> From: Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 11:20 AM Stop Police Brutality in the African Community! Justice for Thomas Jones! Free Fred Hampton's Son Now! Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Demonstration--Monday July 24th @ 4:30 Clothes Pin 15th and Market People's Tribunal Put the Police and City of Phila. on Trial! Wed July 26th @ 7:30pm Unitarian Church 2125 Chestnut St. Phila. *Not One More Black Life! *The Assault on Thomas Jones is an attack on the whole black community!--Touch One, Touch All! *End the public policy of police containment and occupation of the African community! *Join the movement for social justice and economic development for the African community! Come and testify about the attack on Thomas Jones or other cases of police brutality. Testimonies will be heard by the People's Commission to Review Police Misconduct formed and led by the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement. Sponsored by National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM) 215-724-3535 or 215-546-9616 Please pass this information on to all your friends and contacts. ==============================> From: Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 1:27 AM PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY TO EVERYONE!!! International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) and other organizations to will hold a press conference Saturday, July 29, 2000, 12:00PM noon at Broad & Spring Garden streets in Philadelphia PA. in front of the FOP building. There will be an anti-police brutality demonstration staged also. The press conference/demonstration is called against the recent nationally televised beating/kicking of Mr. Jones and the killing of a homeless man in the 33rd Street Station in Philadelphia, PA and to bring focus/visibility on other recent cases of police brutality and their demand of justice. ICFFMAJ invite organizations, activists and all concerned to take a stand against police brutality. Families of victims of police brutality not only have to deal with the tragic loss of a loved one; but have to wage war with meager donations to seek/demand justice. The FOP and Police Benevolent Associations stand with cops (most of these cops are clearly guilty and have more than one occurrence of brutality) financially and getting the guilty cops off and fighting appeal after appeal draining families of police brutality further. The "so called city of brotherly love" has historically had an epidemic of police brutality. The book 25 Years On the MOVE and the newspaper First Day illustrate accurately. Philadelphia cops a decade or more beat/kicked Delbert Africa, stomped on pregnant MOVE women, and brutalized/killed MOVE children and babies. ONA MOVE!!! TAKE A STAND AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY AND DEMAND POLICE BRUTALITY END! For information please contact 215/476-5416 or 215/476-8812 with a fax number of 215/476-6610 and an e-mail of ICFFMAJ@AOL.COM See you at the press conference/demostration next Saturday. Take a stand and demand justice against police brutality for those that paid a tremendous price. ============================================================= From: Mark Clement Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 8:01 AM Cops To Be Disciplined Over Shirts PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A narcotics officer who hired a company to make T-shirts joking about the rough arrest of a carjacking suspect will be disciplined along with two police captains, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. Police Commissioner John Timoney plans to move the narcotics officer, Kenyatta Lee, to a desk job where he will take complaints about small crimes, the newspaper reported, citing department commanders. The captains will be transferred to the night shift because they failed to stop the T-shirt sales. The July 12 arrest of Thomas Jones, which was videotaped by a television station helicopter and broadcast across the country, has been cited by some as an example of police brutality. ''Welcome, America'' was printed on the back of the shirts in bright blue, two-inch-high letters. A black-and-white picture shows a swarm of officers surrounding and beating Jones. On front of the shirts is an image of a badge which refers to the Philadelphia Police Department and the upcoming Republican National Convention. Police said Lee sold the shirts to other officers for $10. Lee has reportedly apologized to department officials for the shirts, which angered Timoney and black community leaders. Lee could not be reached by the newspaper for comment. AP-NY-07-21-00 0553EDT<  =====================================> EXCERPT From Philly Inquirer - Wednesday, July 19, 2000 For the second time in a week, police face inquiries over use of force As in the Jones arrest, officials yesterday were looking into whether excessive force was used to subdue a suspect at 30th Street Station. By Elisa Ung, Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. and Saba Bireda INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS A man brandishing a metal chair was shot and killed by an Amtrak police officer yesterday morning at 30th Street Station after the man attacked another officer with the chair, officials and witnesses said. Robert Brown, 45, shot in the abdomen, fell in front of the McDonald's restaurant in the concourse of the busy rail station. Brown, believed to have been living at the station, died at Hahnemann University Hospital. Amtrak Police Officer Dennis Kelly, an 11 1/2-year veteran of the force, fired one shot as Brown assaulted Lt. Walter Wahler shortly before 11 a.m., officials said. It was the second law- enforcement shooting in the city within a week, coming six days after the violent arrest of carjacking suspect Thomas Jones by Philadelphia police. That arrest, captured live on television, has sparked tensions just before the start of the Republican National Convention in the city. On the videotape, some officers are seen kicking and hitting Jones. As in the Jones arrest, officials yesterday were looking into whether excessive force was used to subdue a suspect. Amtrak officials said surveillance cameras might have picked up yesterday's 10:45 a.m. shooting. The Philadelphia Police Department's Homicide Division, which is leading the investigation, was evaluating the tapes late yesterday. Amtrak will also conduct an internal probe. It will be up to the District Attorney's Office to determine what charges, if any, will be filed against Kelly. Amtrak officers are issued expandable batons and pepper spray in addition to their firearms, said Rick Remington, an Amtrak spokesman in Philadelphia. When force is needed to arrest a suspect, a gun is considered the last resort. Remington could not say whether Kelly was carrying a baton or spray with him yesterday. Officials said Kelly, 38, and Wahler, 53, who has been with the force two decades, had been called to investigate a report of a disorderly person roaming the station. According to eyewitnesses, the incident started when Brown began threatening people inside a pizza stand, Mamma Ilardo's, inside the station. The manager of that stand called for help. Dania Moussa, 21, a clerk at the World of Electronics cart in the station's main room, said she saw Brown yelling loudly through the concourse. "I thought he was just joking around," she said. Moussa said she realized the situation was serious when Amtrak police began to follow the man through the station. One officer took out a baton. Amenah Harris, the owner of the nearby Fashion Boutique, saw Brown run away from police toward the McDonald's area, yelling and jumping over chairs. Then, Harris said, she saw the two Amtrak officers call for backup assistance. Witnesses said the officers followed Brown through the station until he stopped behind the Bucks County Coffee Co. stand, in front of the McDonald's restaurant. That's when he picked up a chair, according to Taisha Bryant, a clerk at the coffee stand. When the Amtrak police ordered Brown to leave, she said, he screamed: " 'I'll leave when I get ready,' " taunting the officers. " 'Shoot, shoot, I don't care!' " Juanita Whitney, 26, also a clerk at the coffee stand, said the officers were begging the suspect: " 'Don't do it, put it down.' " Witness Glenda Langley, 42, said one officer shouted: " 'Don't make me shoot you!' " Witnesses said Brown then raised the chair over his head and lunged at Wahler. That's when Kelly drew his .40-caliber Glock pistol, firing once, while crowds of people looked on close by, witnesses and Amtrak officials said. Brown landed face-down in front of McDonald's. "We all screamed," Langley said. "Everyone screamed, 'You didn't have to shoot him!' " Amtrak Police Chief Ron Frazier said Brown was given first aid at the scene and then taken to Hahnemann, where he died. (End excerpt) ====================================> Pan-African News Wire, Weekly Dispatch, Tuesday 18 July 2000 One Thousand Rally At Detroit's Federal District Court For Finley Man was killed on June 22 by security guards at suburban mall By Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Correspondent DETROIT, 17 July (PANW)--Yesterday's noon rally in downtown Detroit at the Federal Court House steps represented a continuation of public outrage over the murder of an African-American resulting from the actions of private security guards at the Fairlane Mall on June 22 in Dearborn. Frederick Finley, 32, came to the defense of his 11-year-old daughter who was accused of shoplifting a braclet from the Lord & Taylor retail outlet last month. A struggle ensued leaving the African-American dead after being choked with the knee of a private security agent who was working the part-time job in addition to being a Detroit Firefighter. One security guard has been indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges in the case. People who frequent the suburban mall in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit with a history of racism towards Blacks, report a decline in customers who are shopping there in the aftermath of the murder of Mr. Finley. On Monday, local Civil Rights leaders and those from around the United States, attended the demonstration in downtown Detroit. Activists in attendance included: Martin Luther King III, Dick Gregory, Dr. Claude Young, Horace Sheffield III, Rev. Wendell Anthony, etc. A previous mass demonstration held in the parking lot of Lord & Taylor department store where Finley was murdered, drew 10,000 people on July 5. The leadership group had meet with Federal authorities prior to the opening of the rally on yesterday, where they pressed for the prosecution of the security guards involved in Finley's death on civil rights violation charges. * (end ... ?) Stop the execution! New trial for Mumia! Youth & Students for Mumia http://www.mumia2000.org To subscribe or unsubscribe email: youth-4-mumia-owner@egroups.com