[Dryerase] Madison Insurgent - Nov/Dec articles - story #6

[the madison insurgent]

Beating down police brutality
by Nathan Moore and Andrea MK

On October 11, San Francisco police were called to
Thurgood Marshall Academic High School to stop a fight
between three African American and 10 Asian Americans
teenagers.
“The police immediately came toward the African
Americans and started hitting us with billy clubs and
handcuffing innocent people who were not even involved
in anything, simply trying to go to their classes,”
writes Jamie Redmond, a student at TMAHS. “They
slammed students up against lockers, put guns to
students’ heads, and handcuffed innocent people.”
“A teacher of ours named Mr. Peebles … was telling the
cops to ‘let ‘em go, you’re hurting them,’” says Jeff,
a TMAHS 12th grader. “They told Mr. Peebles to leave
or they’ll take him to jail. He said that he didn’t
care, left, went upstairs, got a camera, and started
videotaping all the police beating up the kids. After
that, the cops took the videotape, handcuffed [Mr.
Peebles] and took him to jail.”
Accounts of that morning differ in details.
Explanations of why it happened are even more
disparate. But most people agree on one thing: the
police used too much force. 
Police brutality is one of the most widespread
problems in the United States. The Coalition to Stop
Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization
of a Generation reports that police excessive force or
misconduct killed more than 140 people in the last
year alone.
A 16-year old black male beaten by police in Los
Angeles. White officers acquitted after shooting black
people in Cincinnati. The infamous shooting of Amadou
Diallo in New York. Similar scenarios in Atlanta,
Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans, St. Louis,
and Washington, D.C. And the most extreme instance of
police brutality in the United States – the 1985
firebombing of the MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia.
This article could easily become a litany of police
abuses. In fact, we could fill the pages of this paper
and still not be finished. In a sense, that’s part of
the problem – there are so many cases of police
brutality that many have become desensitized to them.
Some decry these abuses, while others argue that
certain force is excusable. But it seems those on both
sides have gotten used to police brutality as an
institution. It is our reality today.
The Coalition to Stop Police Brutality wants to bring
that to an end. Organizers of annual demonstrations on
October 22, they have successfully united local
anti-brutality groups with families of brutality
victims. The group coordinated nationwide protests in
a dozen cities this year. Their aim is to refocus
attention on police brutality—an issue that has been
marginalized almost as much as its victims, largely
young black and Latino men.
They are fighting an uphill battle. Between media
“whitewashing” of instances of police violence, and
corruption on municipal “Civilian” Review Boards,
there seem to be few outlets left for anti-police
brutality groups to radically change things or even
publicize events. Inside the system, police brutality
has seemingly become entirely established as part of
state tradition.
The O22 annual protests then, serve a critical role.
They are, one hopes, the beginnings of a truly mass
movement against state violence and the systems that
legitimate it.
At the O22 funeral procession in St. Louis, Rena
Johnson, whose son was shot five times by St. Louis
police, spoke. “It is very important that we all stick
together, and not just come together when we’re angry.
We have to fight every day, because they are killing
our babies left and right and nothing is being done.
It’s time to stand up and say enough is enough.”
Many O22 groups are calling for Civilian Oversight
Review Boards, to which police departments are
accountable. If passed, a bill in the St. Louis City
Council will create a group that would receive and
investigate civilian complaints against police
officers. The Board would have access to all police
records and would also have the power to report
findings and recommend disciplinary action and policy
changes.
One hopes that Civilian Review Boards can address some
of the problems of police brutality. On a base level,
though, O22 groups and anti-state violence actions
show us what we must do to fight a brutal police
force. We must first seriously and concertedly
acknowledge victims of police violence, then work to
aid them. We must monitor the police on our streets
through groups such as CopWatch. We must support our
imprisoned peers, often victims of racist laws and the
so-called War on Drugs. By acknowledging the
injustices operating presently, we can organize to
fight this manifestations of state power.
Nathan Moore can be contacted at nathan at wvejc.org.

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