Eyewitness statement
'Police staged a riot'
The following is excerpted from a statement from one of
the protesters arrested Dec. 8 at the march in support of Mumia
Abu-Jamal in Philadelphia.
My name is Tristan Ahtone from the American Indian Movement.
On Dec. 8 I attended the demonstration marking the 20th
anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal's wrongful arrest. During the
demonstration, police staged a riot against the protesters and
I and eight others were arrested for participating in the
defense of the people targeted for exercising their
constitutional right to free speech.
The peaceful march and ensuing riot began when police
targeted marchers for unknown reasons. I was marching at the
front of the demonstration when I saw police running from the
front of the street toward the back of the march. I began
running with them to find out what had happened to mobilize
against the police who were attacking and beating the
people.
Upon my arrival at the scene of the first arrest, the police
already had one man on the ground at gunpoint, and protesters
had encircled the police yelling, "Shame" and, "Let him go."
Very quickly afterward the police had grouped together and had
begun their attempt to disperse protesters by pushing, shoving
and threatening.
I was at the front lines when the police began to shove a
reporter from the Philadelphia independent media. When they
began to gang up on him I jumped into the group of police to
stop them. Shortly thereafter my face was pushed into the
concrete and four to five cops held me down, handcuffed me, and
then used their nightsticks to lift me off the ground and take
me from the scene.
Once they took me to the [police] wagon I realized that the
police had planned to incite a riot when I saw rows of police
cars, vans and bikes already parked and blocking the streets.
This was within minutes of the first person being arrested.
There were two people in the police van already, and the
rest of the arrested freedom fighters trickled in a few minutes
later. One of those arrested was a priest who had a heart
condition and had to be taken out of the van to a hospital when
he began to have signs of a heart attack. [Of] the two women
arrested [one] suffered a dislocated jaw and [one suffered] a
broken tailbone.
Hours later I was finally read my rights and charged with
the crime of inciting a riot. While sitting in the cell I
overheard the police talking about rounding up and arresting
more people that were connected with protest; the only name I
heard was Pam Africa. A few hours afterward I was told charges
were dropped and I would be free to go.
The priest was let go without charges also, and the rest had
charges ranging from inciting a riot to assaulting a woman.
Those men and women ... did nothing more than stand up for what
they believed in and voice what they had to say; unfortunately
they have become victims of police brutality, known all too
well by the people of Philadelphia. They have now joined the
ranks of hundreds of other political prisoners within the "free
wall" of a country built on stolen lands, the attempted
genocide of my people, and the backs of African slave labor,
known as Amerikkka.
Reprinted from the Dec. 20, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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