International Day Against Police Brutality: up-date of activities!

The International Day Against Police Brutality, March 15, 2002:

Inventory of local and international participation

Here is an updated inventory of activities, which are being organized here, and abroad in the context of the sixth International Day Against Police Brutality. One thing to emphasize: the participation in Quebec and in Canada has never been so large and diverse, which is very encouraging.

Please note that this list is very incomplete since we are waiting for more groups and details concerning certain activities and other information. An up-date of the inventory of participation in the International Day Against Police Brutality will be available as soon as possible. Also note that all the activities mentioned below are planned to take place during the day of March 15 2002, unless otherwise specified.

QUEBEC AND CANADA

In Montreal the International Day Against Police Brutality has given rise to more interest than ever. The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality is organizing a demonstration, which its starting point is Berri Square, at 5:00p.m. For more information on COBP and the International Day Against Police Brutality, take a look at the collective's web site at www.tao.ca/~cobp/index.html

Different activists from different organizations will participate by giving speeches, such as an activist from Kabataang (which means "youth" in the Filipino language) from a group coming from the Filipino community from Ce-des-Neiges neighbourhood as well as a member from the group Black Youth in Action who had recently denounced a case of brutality at the metro Villa Maria. (to know more, chekc out their web site at: www.byia.org). There will also be a speaker from the CLAC who will speak about police brutality in the anti-globalization movement (to know more about the CLAC: www.tao.ca/~clac/). The Association pour la Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante-ASSÉ (The Association for Student Solidarity and Syndicalism) will also takes part of the support for International Day Against Police Brutality and a speech will be made by one of its members. (To know more about the ASSÉ, visit their web site at: http://www.asse-solidarite.qc.ca/)

Also the hip-hop group Genocyde and the rapper Patrick Joseph will be performing to the participants at the demonstration. Dozens of people will be coming via bus from Drummondville to participate in COBP's demonstration

At the same time as COBP's demo, MAJ - Mouvement Action Justice (Justice Action Movement) will be holding a torch march which will go to the police station Centre-Opérationnel Sud - C-O Sud (South Operational Centre) to denounce the suspicious death of Michael Kibbe, in February 2001, at the exterior of C-O Sud.

Other activities that have taken place in Montreal earlier this month. On March 2, activists from the CLAC - Convergence des Luttes Anticapitalistes (Anti-Capitalist Convergence) and COBP organized a day of workshops against repression under the theme "Operation Solidarity" at the Comité Social Centre-Sud. On March 9, the Montreal section of RASH (Red and Anarchists Skinheads) organized a benefit night for COBP at Café Chaos with Les Esclaves Salariés (ex-Provos), The Last Rocker and Class Assassins.

In Quebec City the local section of NEFAC (North Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists) are organizing a show with Protestars, les Détraqués and Stéphane Robitaille, to take place at the Échourie. In Sherbrooke a demonstration is being organized. In the region of Trois-Rivières, at the Cap-au-Café, a show was also organized in support of the International Day Against Police Brutality, last March 9. At the College of Outaouais, there will be a presentation of films about police brutality. In the same region, on March 11, COBP will offer a presentation on police brutality to students at the college Saint-Alexandre.

In English Canada, activities are planned in four cities. In Calgary, Alberta, a demonstration against police brutality and harassment is organized by the Calgary Coalition for Social Justice in solidarity with and endorsed by the Alberta Coalition Against Poverty and the Latin American Community Association (LACA). The march will end in front of the Calgary Police Headquarters.

Moreover, we would like to add information available on the web site of LACA, which displeased so much the Calgary police that they threatened to sue them for slander, in particularly concerning the dossier on the case of Juan Melendez, savagely brutalized by the police on August 17, 2000. You can check it out at: http://www.stormpages.com/laca

In Vancouver, four events are organized for the International Day Against Police Brutality! First, on March 10, an evening under the theme of police harassment and brutality was held at the Black Star Cafe. Then the BCLAC (British Columbia Latin American Congress) will discuss during an annual public assembly the cases of two young Latinos victims of police violence in front of their mother. The complainants will attend the meeting. On March 14, a community forum where the Vancouver-style "community" police will be criticed. At the St. John’s United Church, followed up the next day with a demonstrations against police harassment and brutality.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, a popular celebration will be organized, to celebrate the vast diversity of community resources and networks that exist that provide and support sectors of the population that pay the enormous price of realities in the capitalist economy. This event will include free food and animation, putting the accent on what we do instead of limiting ourselves to only to opposing police brutality.

In Toronto a demo is organized by Anti-Racist Action (ARA), the Committee to Stop Targeted Policing, the June 15 Defence Committee, the Stop the Choppers, and the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition. The demonstrators will demand a retreat of the du Safe Street Act (a law that persecutes the homeless), an coroner's investigation into the assassination by Ontario Provincial Police of activist Dudley (killed in Sept. 1995) and the stopping of purchase of helicopters. The demo will end in front of the Coroner's office and will be followed up with a meeting to discuss the alarming increase of resources consecrated to the local police force ( millions more for just this year).

Also in Toronto, the Freyheyt Collective from the NEFAC will be distributing leaflets in the working class neighbourhood of Parkdale. The Collective will hand out information on rights in situations of arrest as well as information on the International Day Against Police Brutality from an anarchist perspective on the police.

To finish, Jared O'Neill, an activist in Ottawa contacted us to announce that he will be doing a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with the International Day Against Police Brutality starting from 11.59p.m. at the foot of the Human Rights monument! Jared plans to solicit funds from pedestrians for COBP during his militant fast.

USA

In the United States, two anarchist federations are officially supporting March 15, 2002. The first of these is the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) Federation, which works in support of prisoners, and which has reprinted the call for an International Day against Police Brutality in English and Spanish on the home page of its web site (www.anarchistblackcross.org).

Secondly, there is the North American Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC), which includes in its ranks member groups and sympathizers in Quebec (http://flag.blackened.net./nefac). In Boston, NEFAC’s Sabate Anarchist Collective will be presenting a lecture and discussion evening at the Lucy Parsons Center featuring a former organizer of Boston Copwatch and an activist associated with the Criminal Justice Program.

On March 16, 2002, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Southwest Michigan Coalition against Racism and Police Brutality will be staging an event entitled “Forum on Racism and New Anti-Terrorist Policies." The group Massachusetts Police Brutality is also planning to organize something to take place around March 15 (www.massbrutality.org).

In Cincinnati, the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, which includes civil rights, worker and religious groups, and which has called for a boycott of the city, has reprinted on its web site the call for an International Day against Police Brutality (http://www.cincyboycott.org/index.html). A public meeting will be held on March 16 in the Methodist United Church to discuss the threat of legal proceedings being initiated by the Cincinnati Arts Association.

In St-Anton, Vermont local high-school students have plastered their town with anti-police brutality posters which also announce the IDAPB and on March 15, they will go on community radio to do a program on Police Brutality.

EUROPE

In Brussels, Belgium, the Collectif de Résistance aux Centres fermés et aux Expulsions (Collective Resistance to detention centres and deportations) who support undocumented immigrants will demonstrated in front of the prison at St-Gilles, by protesting against the brutalities commited towards people demanding refugee status during their deportation. The Collective will especially denounce the case of Rafik Miloudi, a young Algerian refugee claimant who they have tried to deport 9 times, 5 time by violent means, and who has been so manhandled by the " " that a doctor had to put 41 stitches in his back and his hands.

In Austria, all sorts of activities are foreseen in various cities. In Upper Austria, in the City of Linz there will be a demo and a video projection. A demo against police brutality will also take place in the City of Bregenz (Vorarlberg), and in the evening there will be a concert with Apatia No, Lecsa Punk, and S.W.A.T. For more information, check out this web site: http://www.kvsaegefisch.at .

In the capital of Vienna, the question of police brutality will be discussed on the airwaves of Free Orange Radio (http://www.orange.or.at), from 7:30 to 8p.m.. An action of Street Theatre is planned for March 18, in Korneuburg, which is closed to Vienna, in front of the CourtHouse where a trial is taking place against three police officers implicated in the assassination of Marcus Omofuma. Marcus dies during his deportation from Austria on May 1, 1999. The trial has strong political overtones since the Minister of the Interior at the time will be called to testify the same day. To know more on the trial, visit the web site: http://www.no-racism.net/racismkills/index_en.htm

In Moscow, Russia, the group Action Autonome will organize a demo in support of political prisoner Evgeni Novozhilov, who is held in a mental institution under bogus charges. In Spain, the Central anarcho-syndicale CNT -Confederación Nacional del Trabajo -(National Confederation of Workers) offer us their support (web site: http://www.cnt.es/home.php)

In France, many events will be held. In Nantes, in the afternoon of March 16, a rally against violence perpetrated by security police will take place at Place du Commerce. This event is co-sponsored the Fédération Anarchiste (FA), the Groupe Accueil Service Promotion des Immigré-es (GASPROM- a welcoming committee and service for immigrants), the Libertaires Unitaires Nantes Estuaire (LUNE-United Libertarians of Nantes Estuaire), and SCALP (Scalp is an anti-racist/anti-fascist network of groups, this section is totally Anti-Le Pen).

In the South of France, in the district of Gard, a collective which supports persons brutalized and charged during the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, in July 2001, is organizing an action. They will circulate information, stimulate debate, and ask questions about what happened in Genoa and of course make themselves known to victims of police violence that they are not alone. Note: the trial for the people charged in Genoa will begin shortly.

Still in France, one of the web designers of a new web site denouncing the police's compiling data on the population and is making a call-out to everyone to make their rights know to them and told us that they support our efforts. To consult the web site, check out the following address: http://renseignementsgeneraux.net

Other activities are also scheduled in Bern, Switzerland. In London, England, the support group for prisoners and victims of police violence, Miscarriages of Justice UK (MOJUK) is also joining forces for the International Day Against Police Brutality. (Web site: http://www.mojuk.org.uk/)



SOUTH AMERICA

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, several artists' collectives and human rights groups will organize different actions against police brutality. In Colombia, there will be all sorts for events in four cities: Cali, Pereira, Bogota and Medellin, which include a large demonstration with a show, the theme being notably around the repression against Indigenous peoples, on March 16. In Brazil, there will be an event to discuss police brutality, which will include debates and a photo exhibit.

OCEANIA

In New Zealand, a Maori benefit concert for Steven Wallace was held at the University of Victoria in Wellington on March 7th. Steven Wallace was shot four times and killed by constable Abbot on April 30th 2000, the police preventing bystanders from coming to his aid as he was bleeding to death on the sidewalk. The internal police investigation cleared the murdering cop of any wrongdoing and a private complaint filed by Steven's father was rejected by the court on February 22nd 2002. For more information, visit the web site http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/indig.htm