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News :: Crime & Police |
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Local civil rights organization, national groups to protest police brutality |
Current rating: 1 |
by Movement for Change
Phone: (850) 432-4411 |
14 Oct 2004
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The civil rights organization Movement for Change will observe the national day of action against police brutality by holding a march and rally Saturday, Oct. 23. The rally will feature speeches by victims and family members of victims of violence at the hands of law enforcement. |
PENSACOLA -- The civil rights organization Movement for Change will observe the national day of action against police brutality by holding a march and rally Saturday, Oct. 23. The rally will feature speeches by victims and family members of victims of violence at the hands of law enforcement.
Marchers will gather at the Center for Social Justice, 1603 N. Davis Hwy., at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23. They will march north on the sidewalk along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street 10 blocks to Magee Field, where they will rally peacefully until about 6 p.m. The rally will include music, speeches and food.
Marchers are urged to dress in black to show that they are mourning the loss of friends, neighbors and loved ones. Those who know someone killed by law enforcement should bring a photo of the person to place on a memorial during the rally.
Among the planned speakers at the rally is Katrina Lewis, the girlfriend of Joseph Golden, who was fatally shot by an Escambia County deputy July 2 in front of Lewis and their five children. Golden's death was the 15th caused by Escambia deputies since 1994.
Pensacola police have killed two people in the past 10 years, including an unarmed pregnant 21-year-old woman, Andrena Kitt, who was shot to death on Feb. 26, 2001.
Both of the police's victims and six of the deputies' victims were black.
Internal and state-sponsored investigations have cleared law enforcement officials of wrongdoing in all of the killings.
To counter what is seen as institutional rubber-stamping of officers' actions, civil rights groups, including the Panhandle Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Movement for Change, have called for the formation of a Citizens Review Board, an independent panel with the power to investigate complaints of misconduct and make recommendations to the city and county managers, sheriff and police chief.
"We've seen an increasing number of very questionable shootings over the past few years that have gone unanswered," Susan Watson, Chair of the Panhandle Chapter of the ACLU of Florida, said in 2003 the first time the issue of Citizens Review Board was proposed. "Now is the time for the county to get serious about this problem and put a process in place that makes these officers accountable for their actions."
At about the same time local residents are rallying to demand that law enforcement officials be held accountable for their excessive use of force, organizations around the country will also be gathering to protest police brutality in their communities and nationwide.
Oct. 22 is the official national day of action against police brutality called by the Oct. 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of Generation. 2004 marks the ninth year of national protests.
The coalition brings together "those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality," according to the coalition's New York website (http://october22-ny.org).
The coalition also publishes a book called "Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement," which includes biographies and photos of people who were killed by law enforcement officials throughout the country. |
This work is in the public domain. |
