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Cop’s acquittal sparks anger, action

Published Jun 3, 2012 9:06 PM

“This is a very volatile situation,” said Nation of Islam minister, Robert Muhammad. “Either we’re going to get real justice in Houston, or no one can have any peace.”


Police violence survivors Anthony Childress
(speaking) and Juan Romero condemn the verdict.
WW photo: Gloria Rubac

It’s now 35 years after Houston’s notorious José Campos Torres case. At that time, cops had brutally beaten and then thrown a handcuffed Torres into a bayou, where he drowned. The cops in the Torres case were fined $1.00.

This year, the racist Houston police have committed an act so brutal that Houstonians are again up in arms. In a misdemeanor trial which had individual questioning of jurors and lasted almost three weeks, a Houston cop was again let off for his racist crimes.

For many in Houston and particularly Black Houstonians, the not-guilty verdict reached on May 23 in the trial of former Houston Police Department officer, Andrew Blomberg, was yet another example of how the justice system fails the Black community. Blomberg and 10 other Houston policemen had stomped and kicked and brutalized an unarmed 15-year-old burglary suspect, Chad Holley, in March of 2010. Blomberg is white. The beating victim, Holley, is Black.

This attack was inadvertently caught on security video. Almost a year later, an employee turned it over to Black activist Quannell X after the worker discovered what was on the tape.

This May 23, State District judge, Ruben Guerrero, announced the all-white jury’s not-guilty decision. After this announcement, activists from the National Black United Front and the New Black Panther Party erupted in anger and expletives in the hallway outside the courtroom. They accused prosecutors and the all-white jury — two women and four men — of racism.

The next day, May 17, at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, there was an emergency demonstration, which began with dozens and swelled to almost 500 people, with anger and outrage evident as they marched and chanted: “No more all-white juries!” and “No justice, no peace!”

Anthony Tashaka Childress was brutally beaten and had six teeth knocked out by Houston cops earlier this year as he walked in his neighborhood. He told the rally, “They have sent a message to Black people, to all of us, that our lives aren’t worth a damn in this city, that my life, my son’s life means nothing to them.”

Quanell X said: “There is no way an all-white jury could provide justice in this case. That was not a jury of our peers, Chad’s peers or the city’s peers.”

Ballplayer brutalized

Robbie Tolan also spoke. He was an African-American minor league baseball player who was living with his parents in the upscale municipality of Bellaire in Houston. In 2010, Tolan had been shot by cops who were also acquitted. The police had ordered Tolan to lie down on the walkway to his front door and had physically forced his mother up against a garage door.

Tolan told the crowd that this racist brutality by cops must be stopped. He still has a bullet in his liver. The police had ended his baseball career.

“They are police officers and all they have to say is ‘I fear for my life’ and that gives them a free pass,” said the younger Tolan’s father, Bobby Tolan, a former major league outfielder. “Our civil rights were violated.”

On May 18, three people who were at the Harris County district attorney’s office were arrested for allegedly impeding the entrance to her doorway. The three now face criminal trespassing charges, which carry a penalty of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. Those arrested were Krystal Muhammad, the Houston chair of the New Black Panther Party; Kofi Taharka, the national chair of the National Black United Front; and activist attorney Maria Elena Castellaños.

At an emergency Town Hall meeting at the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center on May 21, hundreds of people signed up for volunteer work on media, event planning, petitioning and other committees. Many took the mic and spoke about incidents they had experienced at the hands of the police. The next Town Hall will be May 29.

The meeting was organized and chaired by the Black Justice Tuesday Coalition, which has demonstrated at either City Hall or the County Courthouse for 69 straight weeks, getting petitions signed to force a referendum on an independent police review board with subpoena power and funding to conduct research on police actions. Following Blomberg’s acquittal, more and more people have been signing petitions and also taking them to their families, churches and organizations.

The Houston police chief has already fired seven of the 12 cops involved in the beating. Three other cops still face charges for the pummeling of the youth. But the charge against the police officers is only a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in jail if convicted.

Black elected officials held a press conference May 25 and called the misdemeanor charges of “official repression” a slap on the wrist. They questioned why prosecutors had not persuaded a grand jury to charge the officers with felony assault.

U.S. Rep. Al Green met with the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C., and asked for an investigation of Houston police conduct. Green told the dozens of media representatives at the press conference that there are over 255,000 Asians in Harris County, over 773,000 African Americans, and over 1,670,000 Latinos/as, yet not one person from these communities was identified as such on the Chad Holley jury. The county’s total population is about 4.1 million.

Video helped publicize cops’ brutality

Cindy Paten, a white employee at a storage lot was outraged by the contents of the surveillance video and gave it to Quanell X. The beating had occurred just outside the fence of the storage facility. Since that time, Paten has been fired and has lost her home and car.

Houston’s ABC news affiliate describes the video, which has been seen by millions since it was released last year, this way: “Holley was clipped by a police car and falls on the ground face down. He clearly puts his arms out in the surrender pose then folds his hands over the back of his head before police move in. The first officer [Blomberg] stomps on Holley’s head and he’s repeatedly kicked. We counted four officers doing the kicking. Then one officer lands five kicks. It looks like the kicks are landing on Holley’s head.

“Holley has been on the ground with cops on top of him for about 20 seconds, and then one officer lands five heavy punches. The officer who did the kicking in the beginning does it again — this time from behind. Then he stomps on the back of his leg. And then just before a handcuffed Holley is picked up to be taken to a patrol car, there’s another kick.”

“The images were clear and graphic — Houston police kicking, punching and stomping a teenage burglary suspect who had run, but was now clearly trying to surrender,” Kofi Taharka told Workers World. “This is racist, it is criminal, and the charges against the cops should be felony attempted murder. The Black Justice Tuesday Coalition will continue petitioning and demonstrating and organizing our community until we have justice.”