Attack on Atlanta's Malcolm X Center
By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
On the evening of Sept. 11, some 15 police cars swarmed into
the parking lot of the Malcolm X Community Center for
Self-Determination off busy Candler Road in metro Atlanta.
DeKalb County police stopped Rasheed Allah as he was taking
his son, 14-year-old sister and another youth to the center for
a New Afrikan Scouts meeting. As leaders of the center came out
to protest Rasheed's detention and the body search of the young
girl by a male police officer, four were arrested.
A woman shopper at a grocery store next
door was also slammed to the ground and arrested for objecting
to the treatment of the 14-year-old girl.
According to Dr. Makungu Akinyela, the children and youths
at the center began chanting, "Racist cops, out of our
community" and "Black people united will never be defeated." As
a crowd of bystanders grew to more than 100, the police were
forced to
retreat.
The protesters followed the police to their station house
several blocks away and set up a demonstration. The four center
staff members as well as the woman from the community were
released within hours. Brother Rasheed was released the
following day.
On Sept. 12, about 200 men, women and children demonstrated
at the Candler Road police station to denounce the previous
night's attack on the community center. They chanted "No
justice, no peace" and carried signs reading "Stop racist
police" and "These are our streets." Passing motorists honked
their horns and raised their fists in support. Leaflets were
eagerly taken by pedestrians and drivers.
Dr. Akinyela charged the police with conducting a racist
terror campaign against communities of color. "We plan to begin
a people's patrol of the police to keep the pressure up and
expose the viciousness of DeKalb County Police Department," she
said in a press statement.
For more information, readers can contact the Malcolm X
Center at (404) 288-9880.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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