[Dryerase] AGR Asheville police brutality

[Shawn G]

Asheville Global Report
WWW.AGRNews.org

Reprinting permitted for non-profit use and to the members of the Dryerase 
news wire.

Asheville residents hold forum against police brutality

By Shawn Gaynor

Asheville, NC, Nov. 20(AGR)—Roughly 50 concerned citizens gathered last 
Saturday at the Stephen’s Lee community center to share their concerns over 
the national epidemic of police brutality.  The forum, hosted by Abdul 
Hassan, father of Youth Corrections Officer Ismael Hassan, who, along with 
former Asheville Police  Department (APD) officer Khalid Saadiq have accused 
the APD of police brutality during an encounter on the night of Sunday, July 
21.(see www.agrnews.org/issues/186/index.html).
The incident was caught on video, and is raising questions about how the APD 
conducts its work.
“This young man is an upstanding citizen in our community.  In my opinion in 
our community, the African American community, he is one of our finest,” 
said William Wynd, a lifetime citizen of Asheville, who spoke of the 
incident that took place involving Ismael Hassan’s case.
“I was informed about the incident the day after and I could hardly believe 
it that Ishmael had been involved in something like this…. It stirred up 
memories inside of me I thought had been long forgotten.”
Wynd, a devout Christian, recalled a troubled youth of petty crime, during 
which, in two separate incidents, he was shot, and run over by a squad car 
fleeing from police. He was 16 years old at the time.
Community activist Mickey Mahaffey spoke about finding closed ears within 
the city’s processes and urged residents to call City Manager Jim Westbrook 
and report any police abuses directly to him.
“With in the next few weeks the homeland security bill will be enacted, 
which means a lot of money will pour into the Asheville Police Department,” 
said Mahaffey. “I’ve already seen in the streets in the last few days rookie 
cops I have not seen before, and we know what that leads to.”
Wynd, who also had concerns about rookie officers, said, “In America where 
is the basic training camp for young, inexperienced police officers?  Is it 
Biltmore forest, is it Beaver Lake?  I submit to you the only place they can 
get police experiance is to come down to a community that is not going to 
say anything about it, that’s not going to question if it is right or wrong, 
or whether they used too much force or whether or not a person was innocent 
or not, and who cartes. They’re black, they’re poor.”
Jesse Barber, whose son was killed by police in Guilford County North 
Carolina earlier this year, traveled several hours to attend the forum.
“My son Gilbert Barber was 22 years old and was involved in a single car 
accident in a white neighborhood and needed some help.  He was yelling and 
hollering.  It was four o’clock in the morning.  This deputy who ended up 
killing my son had only been on the seen 123 seconds and my son was dead, 
even though he says he gave my son every chance in the world.”
“When the police do things, I don’t care what they do, they can kill you, 
they can beat you, and they always find it justified… and most of the times 
they are recognized as heroes because they’re gangs.”
Scott Trent, with the October 22nd coalition, who has helped the Barber 
family in the wake of their loss, spoke about the change in the climate 
surrounding police brutality nationally. “This is happening in every city… 
every little town you can think of, deaths at the hand of police is off the 
charts since Sept 11th. We’re talking about a situation after Sept 11th 
where everyone suppose to fall in line. Everyone’s is supposed to say the 
police are our heroes, our protector, they are the ones that are going to be 
on the front lines against the bad people who are trying to come get us. 
Well what about when you have to ask a question, like what the hell happened 
in this situation? Why did this have to go down like this, that a seriously 
injured young man who needed an ambulance instead got a cowboy cop come out 
and go quick on his gun and shoot the kid to death? When can we ask that 
kind of question?”
There are no comprehensive national statistics kept on police brutality, and 
concerns are growing.
According to Human Rights Watch, a group that tracks human rights abuses 
world wide, “The excessive use of force by police officers [in the United 
States], including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal choking, 
and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to 
accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights 
violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses.
Abdul Hassan said of the problem, “We got to stand up, we can’t just keep 
sitting down waiting for something to happen, for that piece of pie to fall 
out of the sky. We have to let the police department know that we’re not 
taking it any more.  We’re not going to sit down when you keep beating up my 
children, you keep beating up my brothers and sisters, I don’t care what 
color they are, or where they’re from, or whether they are rich or poor, we 
are people and we want to be treated like people.”
A 1999 Amnesty International report on police abuses in the United States 
asserts, “racial and ethnic minorities were disproportionately the victims 
of police misconduct, including false arrest and harassment as well as 
verbal and physical abuse.”



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