The 9th Annual International Day to Stop Police Brutality, Repression & the Criminalization of a Generation is here!
Gather @ 12Noon @ Olympic & Broadway in Downtown LA. March @ 2PM to Parker Center, Temple & Los Angeles.
An occupying army sweeps into a neighborhood, searches all vehicles, harasses and brutalizes children, and arrests residents in massive sweeps. In another neighborhood, squads armed with automatic rifles, backed up by helicopters, march in military formation into the streets and force people onto the ground at gunpoint. A horrified nation watches a videotape of an unarmed civilian being beaten to death. A 19-year old boy is shot for opening a rooftop door; he's in the “wrong place.”
These are NOT scenes and photographs from Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine. These are scenes from Hunters Point (Bay Area), California, where a community is being terrorized by police; from Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project during a police raid on the residents; from Cincinnati, Ohio, where Nathaniel Jones was beaten to death while handcuffed; from New York City, where 19-year old Timothy Stansbury was shot and killed just for opening a door onto the rooftop where he lived.
The epidemic of police brutality had not disappeared in Los Angeles. In June 36 year old Stanley Miller was beat with a metal flashlight by the Compton Police Department. The video tapped footage that was shown all across the country showed Stanley being kicked in the head and hit 11 times after surrendering to the Compton P.D. In July the El Monte Police Department shot young father of three David Viera, to death in his car. The police alleged that David had a weapon and was a gang member. No weapon was ever found in the car.
The Stolen Lives Project's research for the 2nd volume of the book Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement documents an alarming escalation of police violence and murder. This is developing hand-in-hand with an increase in repressive laws, expansion of targeted populations, and the criminalization of dissent, all done under the name of “the war on terrorism.”
The current attacks on Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants – mandatory registration,
“preemptive” arrests, indefinite detentions, secret trials – should be seen for what they are: the latest addition to racial profiling. As the mother of a young black man killed by a North Carolina deputy said, “Just because law enforcement has put some new people on their list doesn’t mean that they have taken anyone off the list.”
In Ashcroft’s America, the very right to protest is under assault. The denial of permits and assembly rights, brutalization of demonstrators, use of wooden bullets, tear gas, and taser guns, and mass arrests without probable cause, took place in many cities last year against anti-war demonstrators and people protesting the FTAA in Miami. Major police drills held in NYC in the days leading up to the RNC tried to send the message that protests would not be tolerated. The PATRIOT Act creates a climate of fear and encourages people to snitch on their neighbors. Attorney Lynne Stewart faces criminal charges for her defense of her client, as the government tries to make an example of her to intimidate other progressive lawyers.
Why should you act on October 22nd?
"Silence is the voice of complicity." The nationwide epidemic of police brutality and repression is hidden from many people who would be outraged if they knew what was happening. Many people have become apprehensive about reprisals for protesting in today’s political climate. We must resist in many different ways to drag this truth out into the light of day. October 22, 2004, the 9th annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation is the day for thousands across the country to speak out and act. Our resistance will give others courage. Check the website www.october22.org for information on events near you. Organize an event in your neighborhood, school or church. Wear black that day in memory of those whose lives have been stolen from them. We must say loudly and clearly, “We don’t want your kind of safety – there ain’t no safety in a police state!” No More Stolen Lives! Fight Back! On October 22nd, Wear Black!
For more info, call (323)969-4689, or email
oct22nd_la@yahoogroups.com