Mumia Melee or Police Riot? Mark Taylor's Note to the Philly Inquirer
Sun, 9 Dec 2001
To send a letter to the Philly Inquirer, e-mail inquirer.letters@phillynews.com (include your phone number) -- let's flood their inbox!! If you missed their "coverage" of this story, visit hillynews.com and click on "Inquirer"
To the Inquirer:
Your story on the "Mumia Melee" was inaccurate and left out what I saw. I drove in from Princeton, New Jersey, for this peaceful rally. And it was peaceful, symbolized for me by the many parents guiding their children through the streets in a 2-hour act of solidarity for Mumia.
I did not see how the conflict with police started, but by the time I got to the scene I saw police rioting, charging into the crowd of people simply to terrorize. I saw one burly officer rush a small, young woman, pick her up, shake her until she was terrorized, then push her back into the crowd. I saw others with faces twitching, eager to swing their clubs, both physically and emotionally out of control. Most distressing, I saw police supervisors on the sidewalks seeing their officers improper actions, and doing nothing.
I returned to Princeton leaving one of my friends among those jailed by the police. He was doing nothing but shouting out to the police to calm down. And he's now charged with "felony riot?" Something's wrong in Philadelphia. I am ready to testify against the police for their riotous ways.
Mark Taylor mark.taylor@ptsem.edu
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