Hello All, We invite you to join us Saturday in our efforts to publicize some problems with policing in Long Beach and to address possible solutions. Here are a few additions and corrections to the information given in the Downtown Gazette news story copied below. First, all publicity on the event has announced our intent for it to be a peaceful and lawful event. Also, the organizing committee does not include only anarchists. It is a broad-based coalition which calls itself the Long Beach Coalition against Police Abuse--Working Group. People who have died at the hands of the Long Beach police in the last 13-15 months total at least six. Three of these were Black women; two of whom were known to be mentally ill. The protest/organizing event begins at 3 p.m. with a rally at the 14th St. Park. After a march down Pacific Avenue to Lincoln Park, a second rally will be staged. Both rallies will feature entertainers, testimony by families of people slain by Long Beach Police officers and supporters of various justice committees. Proposals for changes in LBPD practices and policies will be put forth by event organizers and solicited from participants through open mike. Follow-up events are scheduled. Tuesday evening representatives from the organizing committee addressed the City Council during open mike about the event. Organizers have been negotiating a permit with the Special Events Officer of Long Beach. As the event's designated co-ordinator of the committee to liason-with-the-LBPD, I have reported to the office of Sergeant Eric Herzog, head of the Intelligence Department of the LBPD, that we are ready to meet with anyone to whom he directs us. Again, please join us. Sharon Cotrell (562-433-7025) --------------------------------------- http://www.gazettes.com/anarchists.html "Anarchists Plan To March Downtown, Protesting Long Beach Police" To protest police brutality — as far back as the May Day march by anarchists in 2001 — a group that has organized several other marches has scheduled a march for this Saturday. This march will start at 3 p.m. at the corner of Pacific and 14th Street, north of downtown. According to the organizers, a combination of anarchists and community acitivists will march from there to the temporary Long Beach Police Department headquarters at Long Beach Boulevard and First Street. This is the latest in a series of protests that have followed the deaths of three people who were being arrested or were in the custody of the Long Beach Police Department. Organizers point to the shooting of Marcella Byrd on Pine Avenue earlier this year. In the Byrd case, police said the woman was making the motion to throw a knife at officers. In the other cases the suspects had ingested large quantities of drugs. All the cases are currently under investigation. Protest organizers have said the deaths point to a pattern of police violence from the LBPD. Promotion pieces for the walk accuse the LBPD of racial profiling, harassment and “targeting and surveillance of political activists.” Representatives of the LBPD have tried to contact protest organizers to help with stopping traffic and other steps to aid a peaceful march, said David Mirander of the LBPD. Those efforts have been rebuffed, adding he hopes the march will be peaceful. To contact the march organizers, call 434-6934. —Kurt Helin