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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the Aug. 8, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Speaking through tears, Berniece Jones told an anti-policeabuse rally July 27: "We need to be angry. We've got to fight back to stop the murder of our young sons."
Jones was speaking at the site where her son Jermaine Vayton died in police custody early on the morning of June 6.
The rally followed a car caravan organized by Concerned Citizens Against Police Abuse. Over 30 members of Vayton's family were among the participants in the caravan, the second organized by CCAPA this year.
Earlier in the week the government released official findings calling Vayton's death "accidental." They stated he broke his neck in a fall from a six-foot-high fence while being chased by police.
CCAPA spokesperson Loretta Renford asked questions that the group is demanding answers to: "Was he thrown from or pushed over the fence? How did he get up and walk to the police car if his neck was broken? When he complained about leg pain, why didn't the police rush him to the hospital?"
Renford also raised several unanswered questions regarding the recent in-custody homicide of Mark Virginia. This local grocery-store manager was beaten to death March 14 after two cops followed him across town.
The two were later exonerated, while another officer, one of several who respond to a call for backup, has been fingered as Virginia's lone killer.
"Is he a sacrificial lamb?" Renford asked of the lone cop. "Why haven't the cops who chased Virginia across town for no good reason also been charged?"
CCAPA also focused on unanswered questions regarding the deaths of Donald Fleming and Kenneth Arnold, two young African Americans who lost their lives in police custody in recent years. The two victims' mothers have been active in every public event held by the CCAPA, and they spoke at the July 27 rally.
Both women expressed solidarity with Berniece Jones and all of Jermaine Vayton's family. They pledged to continue the fight until justice has been done and police abuse stopped.
CCAPA is a community-based organization that has been leading the fight against police brutality in Buffalo for several years. The group is organizing for the formation of a community-controlled citizen's review board.
It has also announced plans to establish a fund to aid families of police-abuse victims. The fund would help pay for independent autopsies and other needs of police-abuse victims' families who have no money.
CCAPA has conducted a series of public speakouts against police brutality, and is planning more speakouts, car caravans and other activities in the future.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)