***** PAN-AFRICAN NEWS WIRE The Pan-African Research and Documentation Center 211 SCB Box 47, Wayne State University Detroit, MI 48202 E-mail: ac6123 at wayne.edu - Sunday, 13 July 2003 - ----- ____________________________________________________________________ BENTON HARBOR DEMONSTRATION DEMANDS END TO POLICE BRUTALITY Activists march from center of rebellion to county courthouse ____________________________________________________________________ By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor Pan-African News Wire BENTON HARBOR, 12 July, 2003, (PANW)--Nearly one month ago the small southwest Michigan city of Benton Harbor was the focus of news reports, workplace and household conversations when the city's predominantly African-American population rose up in a rebellion that was sparked by the murder of Terrance Shurn, a local resident who was chased by neighboring police agencies into the city, where he met his untimely death in a violent crash that residents say was caused by law-enforcement action. The next day after the death of Shurn, people began to torch vacate buildings and challenge the authority of the police who have a long standing reputation for racism, racial profiling and deadly brutality. After three days of reclaiming the streets, politicians, state police and an army of journalists descended on the city to both restore order and to report on the recent outbreak of unrest that alarmed the neighboring white communities as well as the state capital in Lansing. "This is our opportunity to level the playing field but we have to be on point in what we are doing," said Rev. Edward Pinkney of the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers (BANCO) who called for today's demonstration. Rev. Pinkney made a special plea for local churches and their ministers to engage in more serious efforts to solve the monumental problems facing the African-American community in Benton Harbor. These problems include: an astronomical rate of unemployment, constant police harassment and the use of lethal force, a county court system that is prejudicial in its handling of cases involving African-Americans, and a community that is under constant attack by the local political elite and the business interests such as Whirlpool Corporation that play a dominant role in Berrien County. Saturday's demonstration enjoyed the support of many persons from around the mid-west region of the United States and Toronto, Canada. Activists came from the city of Benton Harbor and neighboring St. Joseph and were joined by many others from Detroit, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Minneapolis, Chicago, Hammond, Indiana, etc. The march began at the Benton Harbor City Hall and continued down Main Street across the bridge to neighboring St. Joseph, the seat of Berrien County, where the population is predominantly white and far more affluent than the residents of Benton Harbor. Approximately 300 people took to the streets where they chanted slogans, such as "No Justice, No Peace, No More Racist Police". Police presence was kept at a distance during the demonstration when the people of Benton Harbor and their supporters from around the region had an opportunity to make their voices heard. Ron Scott, of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality addressed the rally after the marchers arrived at the Berrien County Courthouse. "We are here to express our solidarity with the people of Benton Harbor after struggling for the last seven years in Detroit against police brutality." Scott said that "the people will have the power because they are willing to take it." The Detroit activist pledged to continue his support for the people in Benton Harbor. "I want to leave you with hope. I want to leave you with something positive, we have struggled for seven years in Detroit and some people have struggled longer, we have struggled a long, long time and the bottom line is we will be victorious." Another speaker from Detroit representing the National October 22nd Coalition Against Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalizaiton of a Generation, Ms. Arnetta Grable, spoke about the murder of her son, Lamar Wayne Grable by Detroit police in September of 1996. She pointed out that the policeman responsible for the death of her son, Eugene Brown, has been exonerated in the murder. "This police officer has killed three people, and shot nine in a period of five years. And every shooting that he was involved in has been justified. Every beating that he has been involved in has been justified. And I need not tell you that there is no perfect human being walking this earth. Everybody makes mistakes and nobody in right all the time. But that is the system of justice that we are living under especially when it comes to police. When you are the police you are innocent until you are proven guilty. And when you are not you are guilty until proven innocent. And that is what our fight is all about." Fred Hampton, Jr., the son of the late Black Panther Party leader, Fred Hampton, Sr. of Illinois, who was killed by the Chicago police on December 4, 1969 along with Mark Clark, addressed the crowd saying that "in the eyes of the United States government I am a three strike offender: one for being African, two for being the son of deputy chairman Fred Hampton and also Akua Njeri, and three for continuing to fight for the liberation of my people." "I am also what I like to call an 'unleashed political prisoner.' I just finished serving nine years inside those concentration camps and I didn't say no prisons, and didn't say no joints, those are concentration camps." "We have to start being politically correct in using the term police terrorism... . I am a survivor of one of the most brutal acts of terrorism to ever occur on US soil that being the massacre on Monroe when the United States government assassinated deputy chairman Fred and Mark Clark on the west side of Chicago on December 4, 1969." After the conclusion of the rally, the demonstrators marched back across the bridge down Main Street to the City Hall in Benton Harbor. Rev. Pinkney thanked those who traveled from around the region and requested that they return in six weeks for a follow up protest. Later a delegation of people from Detroit toured the areas that were the focus of the rebellion in Benton Harbor on June 17 and 18. Resident spoke about the continued harassment by the police against their communities. In the aftermath of the rebellion, the Governor Jenifer Granholm, established a task force to look into the problems of Benton Harbor and announced that funding would be provided for the creation of 250 summer jobs for youth in the city. However, Rev. Pinkney noted in a recent interview on W-DTR radio in Detroit on the "Open Forum" program that "this is an insult to the people of Benton Harbor, we have 7,000 people here who need jobs, 250 jobs are just the tip of the iceberg," he said. Earlier in the week the police officers from neighboring Berrien Township and the County Sheriff's Department who were involved in the deadly chase that led to the murder of Terrance Shurn, known in the community as 't-shirt', were exonerated by the Berrien County Prosecutor's Office. Yet several African-American men have been charged with participating in the anti-police brutality rebellion and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is these injustices and contradictions that are continuing to fuel the anger of the people in Benton Harbor. Activists pledged to move forward with their protest opposing police brutality and other efforts to replace a number of Berrien County judges who community members have identified as acting in a unjust manner toward members of the African-American community. Pan-African News Wire articles may be broadly forwarded for non-profit educational and research purposes. *****