Jury acquits bus driver who protested racism
By Beverly Hiestand
Buffalo, N.Y.
A Buffalo, N.Y., bus driver who was arrested and suspended
from her job for speaking out while police brutalized a
teenaged girl has been vindicated.
On Nov. 5, Elizabeth Taylor Oliver, an African American bus
driver for the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority, was
acquitted of obstructing governmental administration,
harassment, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. It took
only one hour for a City Court jury to decide the case. The
decision was celebrated by many here who had supported her.
Oliver, who has four young children of her own, had been
arrested on Oct. 6, 2003, for coming to the aid of a
14-year-old high school student at a city transit station.
Court testimony revealed that the student had done nothing more
than express her right to sit in the transit station after the
police told her to leave. Four officers--three of them men, one
of whom weighed over 200 pounds--grabbed her, pinned her to the
ground with a knee in her back, and then dragged her by an arm
and leg to a police car.
Oliver got off her bus and asked the police why they had to
be so brutal to this slight, young female student. The police
then attacked Oliver and arrested her. NFTA officials
immediately suspended her from her job without pay.
Cases of police brutality are not unusual in Buffalo. Many
are reported; more go unreported for fear of retaliation by
police. However, what followed this incident made a difference
not only for this particular victim but for the whole
community.
A feature article about the incident in an African American
newspaper, The Challenger, brought the accusations into the
light for all to see. Word began to spread. People were
horrified at such injustice. Soon after, anti-racist activists
came together to form Citizens Against Police Abuse and
Racism.
Young and older, Black and white, gay and straight,
representatives from the anti-war movement and other community
organizations--all began protesting at the NFTA headquarters.
This attracted the attention of the commercial media, bringing
awareness of the incident into more and more homes. The numbers
attending the protests grew.
On Jan. 17, during the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s birthday, over 100 protesters rallied in 20-degree
weather in front of the transit station where the abuse had
occurred. They then marched two miles across town to hold a
rally defined by a banner reading: "In the spirit of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., stop racism, stop police brutality."
Oliver, acknowledging the strength she gained from the
community mobilization, announced that she was refusing a plea
bargain that would have left her legally guilty. Instead, she
was going to fight the charges.
Her struggle was further aided by supporters who helped her
find better legal representation and raised funds--both to pay
legal fees and help replace her lost wages, which had been a
real hardship for her family.
Oliver's lawyer advised the jury that this was not a case of
racism but one of misconduct by the transit police. However,
Loretta Renford disagrees. Renford is an African American
activist, founding member of Concerned Citizens Against Police
Abuse, and a commissioner on the Commission on Citizen Rights
and Com munity Relations. For years she has received,
investigated and filed charges of police abuse in Western New
York, and organized protests. She told Workers World, "We
should never forget that racism and police brutality are
heavily connected."
In fact, violent racist acts are happening not only in the
war zones of the world but also right here at home. This time
people of many ethnic backgrounds came together and stood up.
And it made all the difference.
Reprinted from the Nov. 18, 2004, 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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