SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
Students fight police brutality
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
Springfield, Mass.
The vicious beating of an African American school principal
by four white cops has ignited anger in this city's oppressed
communities.
Students from Springfield Technical Community College held
an anti-police-brutality march and demonstration Nov. 20
because they are "so outraged at what happened to Mr. Greer,"
said Andrea Walker, chair of the newly formed Urban Awareness
Group at STCC. This is a group primarily of African American
students dedicated to promoting anti-racist social and
political awareness. The protest was the group's first public
action.
According to Douglas Greer, principal of Robert M. Hughes
Academy Charter School, he was viciously beaten by four white
cops Nov. 4. Greer, who has diabetes, drove his car into a
South End gas station after feeling ill. A worker at the gas
station called police after he failed to rouse Greer, who had
lapsed into the early stages of a diabetic seizure.
When the police arrived, according to eyewitnesses, they
smashed Greer's window, dragged him through it and beat him
unconscious on the pavement. Greer said he repeatedly attempted
to tell the cops about his medical condition, but the four
officers accused him of being "on drugs" and used this as an
excuse to beat him.
Greer needed 18 stitches to close lacerations in his head.
The police report on the incident claims Greer became violent
and they had to use pepper spray. They also claim that while
police were subduing Greer, he smashed his own head on the
pavement. This, say various eyewitnesses, is not true.
One of the four officers is Jeffrey Asher, a white cop who
was suspended from the police force for a year in 1997 after a
Springfield resident disseminated a videotape showing Asher
kicking an African American man.
James Shewchuck, another police officer involved in the
Greer beating, has been accused of organizing a "welcome back"
party for the cop who shot and killed Ben Schoolfield, an
unarmed African Amer ican, during a traffic stop in 1994. This
police murder resulted in massive demonstrations and national
news coverage.
Greer has filed assault charges against the officers. He is
exploring legal and other avenues of resistance with
Springfield's Nation of Islam, among others.
The president of the Urban League of Springfield has
requested that the U.S. Department of Justice conduct an
independent investigation into the Greer case.
Attempting to quell a possible rebellion, Springfield Mayor
Charlie Ryan requested the state-appointed Finance Control
Board to place the four cops on administrative leave. This
happened on Nov. 15. The so-called police union is claiming
that Ryan, who is a member of the board, used the board to
circumvent disciplinary procedures in the police officers'
contract with the city.
Ryan and the city's ruling class may be using the Greer case
as an opportunity for union busting and privatizing services,
which could threaten public-sector unions. Consider the state
law language governing the control board: The board has the
power "notwithstanding the charter or any city ordinance to the
contrary, to appoint, remove, supervise and control all city
employees and have control over all personnel matters."
The Nov. 20 march began at STCC. Marchers went to the main
Springfield police station three blocks away. There a speak-out
took place.
Community member Ishmael Ali and others presented a
citizens' complaint about the Greer beating.
The multinational group of protesters, who came from
throughout western Massachusetts, faced the police station from
a traffic island, chanting, "No justice, no peace" and other
slogans. Banners and placards declared: "Jobs for youth: Not
jail," "Stop racism, police brutality and racial profiling,"
"Lynch law is no law," and "Stop police violence."
Protesters spontaneously decided to march from the station
to State Street, a main thoroughfare to the heart of the
oppressed community. Here another speak-out took place where
speakers denounced police home invasions and the
criminalization of the poor and oppres sed, the disabled,
mentally ill, addicts and the homeless.
Protesters stood on adjacent street corners and traffic
islands with placards as many passersby honked car horns in
support.
Members of Arise for Social Justice, the American Friends
Service Committee, Springfield Copwatch, the Graduate Employee
Organization, UAW Local 2322, the Industrial Workers of the
World, the Nation of Islam, Western Mass International Action
Center and Workers World Party took part in the protest.
The STCC students stress that this is the first of what they
hope are many fight-back actions, including a possible people's
commission to investigate and protest police brutality and
police occupations of oppressed communities in the city.
Urban Awareness Group member William Russell connected the
U.S. war in Iraq with the war on the working class and
oppressed domestically.
"We have to do something to make some kind of change."
Nick Camerota and Catherine Donaghy of the Western Mass
International Action Center contributed to this report.
Reprinted from the Dec. 2, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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