Greetings:
Miami and Miami-Dade School police are rioting against students of Edison Senior High School on the morning of Friday, February 29th. The story is all over local and national news, but is being skewed against the students. Here is the real deal:
On Thursday, February 28th, a teacher apparently put a student in a choke-hold during school, according to eye witnesses and CBS 4 News (http://cbs4.com/local/disturbance.miami.edison.2.665835.html "One student told reporters that the fight started after students staged a protest Friday morning against a teacher at the high school who allegedly placed a student in a choke-hold Thursday.") Then, police enter the classroom and brutalize the student before arresting him in front of classmates and a teacher, according to eye witnesses and the Miami Herald (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/438888.html "The student, she [an unnamed teacher] said, was handcuffed in front of his classmates and teacher."''They felt as though the way the young man was handled wasn't proper; they felt it was too brutal,'' said the teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she did not have permission to talk with the press.")
The mostly black and largely Haitian-American Miami Edison students organized a protest this morning at the school courtyard. According to all accounts, the protest was peaceful, possibly including civil disobedience (Miami Herald: "The incident apparently began as a peaceful protest, according to a teacher inside the school, but got out of hand." CBS4: "The student said police were called to the school to respond to the protest, and when students objected a scuffle broke out, escalating quickly into an all out fight between students and officers.").
Police were called in to break up the protest and when the students refused- exercising their right to protest- school and city of Miami police attacked them and the students defended themselves against attacks by police.
While the media is trying very hard to connect this police riot to instances of violence at Miami-Dade schools over the past two days, it is clear that in this case the schools themselves started the fights and inflicted the majority of the violence. CNN.com is calling this a "school fight."
There are currently over 70 police cars at Miami Edison and police are arresting large numbers of students. No police or administrators have been arrested for assaulting students.
CopWatch and the Power U Center for Social Change are calling on people to support students' right to protest and condemn school police for mistreating students.
Please call the Miami-Dade County school board to complain about this police abuse: 305-995-1000.
Also, please go to the school tonight, Friday, February 29 at 6:00pm to protest police abuse and support student rights to free speech.
forward,
Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
Friday, February 29, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
Picket to Support the Liberty City 7- Tuesday 9am Federal Courthouse Miami, FL
Greetings:
CopWatch and other community organizations are organizing a picket to demand the acquittal and immediate release of the Liberty City 7 (LC7). The re-trial of the six remaining defendants begins today (Friday, February 1, 2008). The picket will take place on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami, Ave. in downtown Miami, beginning at 9:00am.
The LC7 were arrested amidst great fanfare during the summer of 2006, with then attorney general Alberto Gonzalez calling them Muslim terrorists. It was quickly discovered that the men were neither Muslim nor terrorists. While the Bush administration trumpeted the arrests as a significant advancement in the "war on terror," the case clearly lacked substance: the men were never in contact with Al Qaeda; they lacked the capacity to carry out the acts they were charged with planning; it was clear the government agent, not the LC7, was leading the planning; there were no weapons or bomb making materials found in their possession; and the group dismantled itself more than a month prior to the arrests.
While the case was lacking, the motivation for bringing the case was obvious. On Friday June 23, 2006, The New York Times planned to release a story about the Bush Administration spying on the financial transactions of millions of American citizens, without a warrant. On Thursday, June 22nd, FBI Director Rober Mueller announced the raid of the LC7 warehouse (none of the them were in the building at the time) on live television during an interview. The next day, instead of focusing on the Bush Administration spying scandal, the media and general public only talked about the seven "terrorists" in Miami. As George W. Bush might say, "mission accomplished."
The first trial ended in one acquittal and a mistrial for the other six. The judge immediately called for and set a date for a new trial. In addition, the judget put in place a number of "security measures," such as refering to jurors by number instead of name and ordering the jury escorted by armed marshalls, which do not protect the jury- there was no tampering during the last trial- but, instead, is designed to intimidate the jury into thinking the men pose a security risk. It was extremely telling that in this politically charged climate, the government was unable to secure even on conviction of a Black man charged with terrorism.
The LC7 case is important because it directly targets Black organizations and movements under the guise of fighting the war on terror. If this travesty is allowed to proceed unchallenged, every organization pushing a progressive agenda will be targeted and charged with conspiracy. Make no mistake about it: this is the new McCarthy Red Scare in this day and age.
Future generations will demand to know what YOU did during the time the government targeted innocent people and charged them with terror related conspiracies. How will you respond?
forward,
Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
CopWatch and other community organizations are organizing a picket to demand the acquittal and immediate release of the Liberty City 7 (LC7). The re-trial of the six remaining defendants begins today (Friday, February 1, 2008). The picket will take place on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at the federal courthouse, 301 N. Miami, Ave. in downtown Miami, beginning at 9:00am.
The LC7 were arrested amidst great fanfare during the summer of 2006, with then attorney general Alberto Gonzalez calling them Muslim terrorists. It was quickly discovered that the men were neither Muslim nor terrorists. While the Bush administration trumpeted the arrests as a significant advancement in the "war on terror," the case clearly lacked substance: the men were never in contact with Al Qaeda; they lacked the capacity to carry out the acts they were charged with planning; it was clear the government agent, not the LC7, was leading the planning; there were no weapons or bomb making materials found in their possession; and the group dismantled itself more than a month prior to the arrests.
While the case was lacking, the motivation for bringing the case was obvious. On Friday June 23, 2006, The New York Times planned to release a story about the Bush Administration spying on the financial transactions of millions of American citizens, without a warrant. On Thursday, June 22nd, FBI Director Rober Mueller announced the raid of the LC7 warehouse (none of the them were in the building at the time) on live television during an interview. The next day, instead of focusing on the Bush Administration spying scandal, the media and general public only talked about the seven "terrorists" in Miami. As George W. Bush might say, "mission accomplished."
The first trial ended in one acquittal and a mistrial for the other six. The judge immediately called for and set a date for a new trial. In addition, the judget put in place a number of "security measures," such as refering to jurors by number instead of name and ordering the jury escorted by armed marshalls, which do not protect the jury- there was no tampering during the last trial- but, instead, is designed to intimidate the jury into thinking the men pose a security risk. It was extremely telling that in this politically charged climate, the government was unable to secure even on conviction of a Black man charged with terrorism.
The LC7 case is important because it directly targets Black organizations and movements under the guise of fighting the war on terror. If this travesty is allowed to proceed unchallenged, every organization pushing a progressive agenda will be targeted and charged with conspiracy. Make no mistake about it: this is the new McCarthy Red Scare in this day and age.
Future generations will demand to know what YOU did during the time the government targeted innocent people and charged them with terror related conspiracies. How will you respond?
forward,
Max Rameau
CopWatch
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
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