CHOWCHILLA, CALIF.
Women prisoners hear militant message
On July 15, more than 100 Bay Area activists protested at
the women's prison in Chowchilla, Calif. The demon stration
was coordinated by the California Coalition for Women
Prisoners and California Prison Focus.
Participants demanded human rights for all prisoners and
abolition of the death penalty. The women inside the prison
could hear the loud messages of solidarity by protesters and
rally speakers.
One of the rally speakers was Gloria La Riva from the
International Action Center. She talked about the valiant
struggle waged in an attempt to save the life of death-row
prisoner Shaka Sankofa, who was executed by Texas Gov. George
W. Bush.
La Riva invited everyone to participate in the upcoming
protest to save the life of political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal on Aug. 13 at the Democratic National Convention in
Los Angeles.
--Alicia
Jrapko
Cops and prosecutors are furious about juries in the
Bronx. Lately, according to an article in the July 11 New
York Daily News, Bronx juries are taking a much closer look
at evidence in criminal proceedings. And based on an apparent
mistrust of the police, they are refusing to convict in about
50 percent of cases.
This mistrust of the cops has been dubbed the "Amadou
Diallo factor." Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African
immigrant, was killed when plainclothes cops fired 41
bullets, hitting him 19 times as he stood in front of his
Bronx apartment building.
The population of the Bronx is 42 percent Black and 48
percent Latino--communities well schooled in matters of
police racism, brutality and frame-ups. For that reason, even
before the Diallo case, defense attorneys opted for juries in
the Bronx instead of plea-bargaining.
Conversely, killer cops have avoided jury trials there.
Officer Michael Meyer shot a man who tried to wash his car
windshield for pocket change. Officer Francis Livoti choked
Anthony Baez to death after the young man's football bumped
his police cruiser. Both cops chose bench trials in order to
avoid a Bronx jury.
And the cops who killed Diallo were given a change of
venue after they faced a trial in the Bronx that would have
been conducted by an African American woman judge. After the
venue changed to Albany a white male judge presided over the
acquittal the cops.
It's clear that even before the mass protests over the
Diallo case racist cops and prosecutors were aware that they
would be less able to railroad oppressed youth to jail in
this multinational and working-class borough.
The whole world was watching
But the protests after the Diallo case exposed a whole new
level of oppression that the New York Police Department
carries out against Black and Latin youths. The murder
sparked huge protests, and the case came to symbolize
brutality and racism under the pro-cop Giuliani
administration.
In particular, the use of fascist tactics by special
"street crimes units" fell under media scrutiny. These mostly
white units carry out apartheid-style stop-and-search tactics
that result in disproportionate arrests of young men of
color.
For example, in the borough of Staten Island the
population is only 9.5 percent Black. Yet 51 percent of those
arrested in 1998 were Black.
The New York Times reported last Aug. 23 that in the city
as a whole, "50 people a day are arrested, fingerprinted and
jailed, then released after prosecutors have rejected the
charges against them, often after those arrested have spent
hours or overnight in packed holding cells."
The people of the Bronx are under the boot heel of this
racist occupying army of police. So juries in Bronx
courtrooms are obviously very skeptical about police
"justification" for arrests of young Black and Latino men.
This has been dramatically demonstrated by the high rate of
acquittals.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS
:: SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page