text of leaflet which oct22 distributed at April20 events
This is the text of the leaflet which was distributed by Oct. 22 people on April 20th in Washington, D.C. (and possibly also in SF, if they got it in time)
POLICE BRUTALITY DID NOT DIE ON SEPT. 11TH!
The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation joins with people marching on April 20th. In the midst of the protests against the U.S. war maneuvers and the U.S./Israel attacks on Palestine, we also raise the slogan: "Police Brutality Did not Die on September 11th! Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation" and call on all people of good will to join in the fight to stop this rapidly developing repressive agenda. This is now more important than ever.
Today in the name of "national security," the authorities are gutting civil liberties and human rights. In the name of looking after our safety they are bringing back widely discredited practices like racial profiling and targeting immigrants based on their religion and their national origin. More than 1500 Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrants have been rounded up, detained or disappeared. Thousands more have been subjected to so-called "voluntary" interrogation. (Anyone who tried to decline to participate in this question found out how voluntary it really was.). In NY, attorney Lynne Stewart was arrested for being too vigorous in defending her client! Violations of civil rights are becoming routine.
Racial profiling, which even George Bush had to say was wrong when he was running for president, is now back with a vengeance and defended and enshrined from the highest offices. Racial profiling was wrong then and it's still wrong, whether it is aimed at stopping Black and Latino people on the New Jersey turnpike, or Arab-Americans in airports and other places nationwide. In the book, Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement , we have documented many deaths of innocent, unarmed people that started out with police making racial profiling stops.
Since Sept 11th we have been told that we are all in this together and that we should view the cops as heroes who should be above criticism. If we're in this together, why has the nationwide epidemic of police brutality and police murder continued without let up?
The green light which has been handed to law enforcement agents has already resulted in much more brutality and harassment. On December 8th, 2001, in Philadelphia, police attacked a peaceful march for Mumia Abu Jamal and injured many people. In Seattle, six people have been killed by police in the last 2 months. The cop who killed Timothy Thomas in Cincinnatti last April was found "not guilty" just a month after Sept 11th.
The authorities are using this talk of cops as heroes to deflect our attention away from continuing police brutality and to justify exonerating cops involved in brutalizing people or helping to cover up that brutality. Just recently, the federal court in NYC cut loose 3 cops involved in the torture or the coverup of the torture of Abner Louima , even though the judges knew these cops impeded the investigation in this case! This is a slap in the face to all who struggled for justice, all the families who have lost loved ones to police murder. This is a flagrant attempt by the authorities to take advantage of the current situation, to try to undo the exposure of their crimes, and derail and deflate the anger of the people. They hope that we will forget when people took to the streets against the torture of Abner Louima, the murder of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, the widespread scandals in the LA police department and the Detroit Police Department. They are hoping that we can't remember the uprising in Cincinnatti in April 2001 against the murder of Timothy Thomas. They wave Sept. llth like a flag, and hope that it erases all memory.
But we remember the over 2,000 cases of murder by law enforcement agents during the decade of the 1990s documented in the Stolen Lives book. And in this current political climate, we think it's more important than ever to expose their crimes, and keep them from adding more stolen lives to the list.
Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation! Wear black on October 22, 2002!
Website: http://www.october22.org email: office at october22.org To join October 22nd Coalition or to get materials and information, Call 1-888- No Brutality or contact a local area near you: (list the areas and phone numbers, email addresses) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER
211 SCB BOX 47, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
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