CCNY student activist Igwe Williams arrested

Igwe Williams Photo: Mia Cruz

On the night of Feb. 20, a police action rattled Harlem, N.Y. Civilians were arrested with no obvious motive. One key student in the struggle around the Morales/Shakur Center at CCNY, Igwe Williams, noticed this. Being a concerned member of the community, he then pulled out his camera phone and began to film the police. Police noticed and then approached him. Williams proceeded to tell police that he was a legal observer. That did not stop the officers from arresting him, leaving him in jail overnight, injuring his arms and confiscating his phone and keys for 24 hours.

There is a direct irony when a person fighting against police brutality, against gentrification and against police states, gets arrested on a campus where people have died for freedom. This is no coincidence, this is not abnormal. This is the U.S.’s apartheid process of dividing and conquering. Divide the movement, convict the movement and end the movement.

But we cannot let the movement die. Help us pack the courtroom on April 30 for Igwe Williams. These trumped-up charges could add up to a year in prison. We will no longer stand for the imprisonment of our freedom fighters!

Stay posted on updates concerning Igwe Williams and the struggle at CCNY at www.FIST.cc or at www.myspace.com/fist_youth.

—Mia Cruz, FIST
fist@workers.org