COMMUNITY LEADERS CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF POLICE RIOT ON DECEMBER 8TH, 2001
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Press Release: For Immediate Release:
December 13, 2001
Contacts:
Lori Allan: 610-394-0306 215-476-5416
Jody Dodd: 215-563-7110Press conference to be held Friday, December 14th, 11:00AM, 16th & Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA
Community activists are calling for an independent investigation of the brutal and unprovoked attack by Philadelphia police on the December 8th thousand-plus march in support of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. A press conference will be held on Friday, December 14, at 11AM at the corner of 16th & Walnut St. near the site of last weekend's police riot, to demand that charges immediately be dropped against six people arrested on Saturday.
The police ambush attack on peaceful protesters in a permitted demonstration is viewed as part of the state's ongoing effort to suppress the mounting evidence in Abu-Jamal's case pointing to his innocence. Rally organizers expressed concern that the national attacks on civil liberties seem to have emboldened the police.
Saturday's demonstration stopped at the intersection of 13th and Locust Streets to view a video taped confession by Arnold Beverly that he, not Abu-Jamal, had shot Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. Shortly after as marchers made their way up Walnut Street, according to eyewitness accounts, on behalf of a heckler of the rally, bicycle cops toward the back of the march charged into the middle of the crowd, dismounted their bikes and drew a gun on one protester whom they pinned to the ground. Police then began ramming people with their bicycles, and indiscriminately beating demonstrators with batons, pepper-spraying them, and arresting people.
It is the contention of supportive organizations of Abu-Jamal that this was in fact, a deliberate staged attack. There are reports that a very large number of police were seen massed on side streets behind the march just before the attack. Civil Affairs officers who have co-operated with rally organizers in the past to keep order, were difficult to find when the attack occurred.
Each of the six demonstrators were given felony charges, including felony assault and felony riot, as well as conspiracy, assault and conspiracy to riot. Bails were set from $8,000 to $100,000. Three of the protesters were hospitalized with injuries including unconsciousness, concussion, a fractured tailbone, dislocated jaw, internal bleeding, and severe abrasions. Police also beat other demonstrators, and attacked a freelance reporter for the Amsterdam News who was covering the event.
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