Stolen Lives Remembered on October 22 : Pittsburgh Indymedia

Stolen Lives Remembered on October 22
by marie Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 at 5:48 PM

National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

Every year on October 22, citizens around the country gather in a National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. The work of the October 22nd Coalition over the last ten years has shown that when people expose police brutality and repression and drag their crimes out into the light of day, it puts the “checkpoint” back on the perpetrators of those crimes. On October 22, people all over the country remember those whose lives have been stolen, bringing out the stories that have been covered over. Families speak out and tell the truth about so many cases that too often people haven't even heard of.

This year, the local chapter of the October 22nd Coalition gathered at Freedom Corner in the Hill District, the traditional civil rights meeting point in Pittsburgh. Residents came out to remember Stoney Bey, Jerry Jackson, Jonny Gammage, Craig Guest, Maurice Hall, Lawrence Powell, Raynard Bloxson, Deron Grimmitt, Charles E. Lloyd Michael Platt, Thomasina Brown, James B. Lewis, Michael Hunter, Bernard Rodgers, Charles Dixon, Dion Hall, Andrea Umphrey, Michael Ellerbe and so many more victims of police brutality.

Billy Jackson, director of “Enough is Enough: The Death of Jonny Gammage,” spoke about the documentary which examines the criminal justice system and the procedural relationships among the law enforcement officers, the Coroner's office, the District Attorneys and the courts. Interwoven with the story line are interviews with prominent lawyers, politicians and activists such as Prof. Charles Ogletree of Harvard, Louis Farrakhan, Johnnie Cochran, Al Sharpton and many others. Jackson noted an exciting new addition to the project – narration is now provided by Danny Glover (http://www.nommoproductions.com)!

For more information on the October 22nd Coalition, visit http://www.october22.org and http://stolenlives.org or contact organizer Celeste Taylor, taylor.celeste@gmail.com or 412-670-0937. The Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board can be reached at 412-765-8023 or http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/cprb.

Earlier that day, Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) and other area youth rallied and marched through Bloomfield, Friendship, Garfield and East Liberty to raise these important issues in their local neighborhoods. Organizers said these areas have not received as much exposure to police brutality events as downtown, the Hill District and areas outside the city but suffer from it nonetheless.

The group gathered in Friendship Park and ended up at the East Liberty Police Precinct with a stop along the way at the Bloomfield Garfield Corporation (BGC).

“The BGC plays a major contributing role in furthering an unjust and violent criminal injustice system decimating local Pittsburgh communities," said Alex Bradley of POG. "In direct cooperation with the local police and federal agencies, they work to target people they deem to be 'undesirable' while seeking to bring in more affluent and upwardly mobile professionals. By working to flood neighborhoods with cops, working for the elimination of local payphones, publishing the names of residents arrested for drug and sex crimes and pursuing gentrifying development policies, they contribute to a massive cycle of displacement. As a supposedly community-based organization not only refraining from criticism of the police but in fact working hand-in-hand with them they provide much needed cover for police violence and the overall drug war locking up so many non-violent drug offenders.”

Organizers sought to make connections between the police department, the prison system, the legal system and the crackdown on dissent. “Perhaps you’re one of those who’ve been directly affected by the police since the war started,” POG’s call read. “One of the 150 arrested, 40+ pepper sprayed, dozens hit, choked and beaten, two tazered, two hospitalized and countless other people harassed for seeking to resist a war that is nothing less than an obscenity upon our conscience…Maybe you’ve heard about or witnessed first-hand how the state has handled public dissent in the streets of Seattle, Quebec City, NYC, Philly, Miami, DC, Pittsburgh and everywhere else that people have risen up in opposition to the actions of their government, in an effort to change the things that make their lives unbearable…Maybe you understand that the policies and structure of our current system are in fact responsible for much of the violence and crime it then uses to justify violence and oppression against less privileged communities and political resistance movements.”

To contact POG, e-mail pog@mutualaid.org or visit http://www.organizepittsburgh.org/o22 to learn more about the organizing for this event.