>International Action Center
>
>July 26, 2000
>PRESS RELEASE
>Attention: Assignment Editor
>Press contact: Sarah Sloan (212) 633-6646
>
>POLICE AND GOVERNMENT ILLEGALLY CARRIED OUT
>MASS ARRESTS AGAINST PROTESTERS IN WASHINGTON
>DC APRIL 15-17 ACCORDING TO CIVIL LAW SUIT
>
>CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT TO BE FILED THURSDAY, JULY
>27 IN WASHINGTON DC
>
>Statement by Larry Holmes and Brian Becker for July 27 Washington
>DC press conference announcing the filing of a class action lawsuit.
>The press conference location and time: 300 Constitution Ave. NW at
>2:30 pm, July 27.
>
>"The International Action Center, as a named plaintiff in this historic
>class action law suit, wants to express our gratitude to the broad
>coalition of attorneys and activists who have come together to
>challenge the dangerous and far reaching conspiracy by government
>and police forces to violate the First and Fourth Amendment of the
>Constitution as was in evidence during the weekend of protests in
>Washington DC April 15-17.
>
>"The outcome of this suit has far reaching implications.  We believe
>that the government and the police have embarked on a strategy of
>repression to stop, crush or marginalize the burgeoning progressive
>movement that gained world attention in the protests against the
>WTO in Seattle last year.
>
>"The police and government are utilizing the tactics of preventive
>detention, office break-ins, police spying of protest organizers, denial
>of protest permits and other methods to obstruct or invalidate the
>constitutionally-protected right of free speech and assembly.
>
>"In our case, we were arrested along with 678 other individuals on
>Saturday, April 15, in a protest starting at the Justice Department.
>We were protesting against the rise of what we believe is a Prison-
>Industrial Complex in the United States and in opposition to the
>continued incarceration and planned execution of famed African
>American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.  We were not engaged in civil
>disobedience.  We were violating no law when we were trapped by a
>premeditated police action to seal the area and then arrest all those
>who were corralled in the zone.  Among those arrested at our
>demonstration were shoppers, tourists, passers-by, a Pulitzer Prize
>winning photographer, other reporters, a visiting park ranger and
>others.  All of us were the victims of preventive detention.
>
>"The goal of the police action was not to stop an illegal activity.  It
>was to sweep the streets of Washington DC of demonstrators and
>potential demonstrators so that the conference of the IMF, World
>Bank and banking establishment could proceed smoothly.  The police
>and government functioned as the gendarme for the banks, the
>corporations and the agents of capitalist globalization.  We were held
>for up to 36 hours, handcuffed in school buses, remote police
>detention centers, the basements of parking garages, and in holding
>pens.
>
>"This lawsuit should be a signal to the government and police in
>Philadelphia and Los Angeles (the sites of the upcoming Republican
>and Democratic Conventions) that they will be held accountable if
>they engage in illegal actions aimed at repressing those who plan to
>demonstrate against the Prison-Industrial Complex, racism and for
>freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal."
>
>International Action Center
>39 West 14th Street, Room 206
>New York, NY 10011
>email: iacenter@iacenter.org
>web: www.iacenter.org
>CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE www.mumia2000.org
>phone: 212 633-6646
>fax:   212 633-2889

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