[News] Three activists went out to police the police­and ended up in jail

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Busted in Brooklyn
Three activists went out to police the police­and ended up in jail
http://villagevoice.com/news/0508,lee,61338,5.html
by Chanel Lee
February 22nd, 2005 2:37 PM

Shortly after midnight on February 9, Lumumba Bandele, Dasaw Floyd, and 
Djibril Toure were driving down Greene Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant when 
they heard police sirens wailing about four or five blocks ahead.

For the three young men, this was nothing new. They'd spent many hours 
monitoring police activity for the Brooklyn-based Malcolm X Grassroots 
Movement's Cop Watch program, armed with little more than a video camera 
and a citizen's right to observe officers in the course of their duties.

However, the sight of several police vehicles running red lights on a 
chase, and of one car speeding down the sidewalk, did raise an eyebrow. As 
the young men approached the scene at Throop Avenue, a witness ran past 
from the opposite direction, saying that police officers had just arrested 
someone­and that the officers had used excessive force.

"It was obviously a stop," says Floyd. "It was obvious that something was 
happening, or had already gone down."

By the time they got there, the Cop Watchers say, 39-year-old Christopher 
Dukes was handcuffed and inside a police car, after allegedly threatening a 
man with a knife. Toure says 15 to 20 cruisers were on hand, with at least 
30 standing by. Turning on a video camera, Bandele, Floyd, and Toure made 
their way toward the center of the action­only to be ordered by an officer 
to leave.

Invoking their legal right to observe, the three stepped back, and Floyd 
continued to tape. Bandele says the officer again asked them to leave, and 
again, the three asserted their right to observe, insisting they had no 
intention of interfering. According to Toure, the officer then shoved 
Bandele. When Bandele asked for the officer's name and badge number, the 
officer began arresting the three. At some point, Floyd was thrown to the 
ground.

Police confiscated his camera and took the tape as evidence. They accused 
the three of interfering with the arrest of Dukes, preventing the recovery 
of the knife he allegedly carried. In addition, they say Toure assaulted 
the arresting officer by jumping on his back and punching him.

The Cop Watch volunteers describe themselves as having been cooperative, if 
insistent on asserting their rights. "At no point in time was anyone 
resisting arrest," says Floyd.

After being handcuffed and taken away in separate cars, the trio spent the 
night in separate holding cells at the 79th Precinct on Tompkins Avenue. 
That's the same precinct where Cop Watch members and other locals gathered 
a year ago to decry the police shooting of teenager Timothy Stansbury Jr. 
on a project rooftop.

Word of the Cop Watch arrests last week spread quickly, and an angry crowd 
gathered at the 79th to demand their release. Community leaders were there, 
too, including Councilmember Charles Barron and aides to Councilmember Al 
Vann. By the time the three men were arraigned at central booking the next 
evening, 200 protesters were on hand. Malcolm X Grassroots Movement lawyer 
Kamau Karl Franklin describes hearing screams of support in an otherwise 
"pretty dead place." When the night court judge released them, at about 9 
p.m., the group responded with wild applause.

Now Bandele and Floyd face accusations of harassment, disorderly conduct, 
resisting arrest, and obstruction of governmental administration. In 
addition to facing those same charges, Toure remains accused of assaulting 
an officer. Their initial pre-trial hearing is scheduled for March 30.

Brooklyn community leaders are reacting with outrage to this rendering of 
the police department's creed, "Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect."

"If you're practicing CPR, why would you get nervous about being filmed?" 
fumes Councilmember Barron, a Democrat from East New York and a onetime 
candidate for mayor. "You should be happy to be filmed. If you're not doing 
anything wrong, you shouldn't have a problem with being filmed."

Others express anger at what they believe is an attempt to railroad 
community organizers known for monitoring police.

Jeffrey Fogel, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, says 
police too often slap charges on anyone who tries to challenge them in the 
streets. "Resisting arrest is an easy one to stick on people," he says. 
"Even if the arrest is no good, people can be charged with resisting." It's 
also not unheard of, he says, for police to drop a felony assault charge if 
defendants promise not to sue.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department stresses that the agency 
works with community groups but won't tolerate meddling. "When officers are 
interfered with, it's a serious offense that results in criminal charges," 
says Deputy Chief Michael Collins.

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement was founded in 1995 and immediately 
became known for its focus on human rights violations in the African 
American community. In addition to running Cop Watch and pushing for law 
enforcement reform, the group provides clothing and meals for the homeless, 
sponsors a series of educational forums on everything from tenant 
organization to the prison system and racism in the music industry, and 
works to shed light on the plight of political prisoners. Cop Watch began 
in 2000 as a response to the police killing of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx 
as well as the surge in complaints of police brutality in central Brooklyn.

As a whole, Brooklyn recorded 1,756 complaints to the Civilian Complaint 
Review Board in 2003, and over 1,000 in the first six months of 2004. 
Brooklyn North, which includes the 79th Precinct, recorded 1,003 complaints 
in 2003, the second highest tally in the city. As for the 79th itself, in 
the year and a half between January 2003 and June 2004, there were 222 
complaints.

"This kind of thing happens all the time, but not everyone has video 
cameras," says Floyd. "People are conditioned to expect this kind of 
treatment by police."

Cop Watch carefully teaches its members to conduct lawful patrols, says 
attorney Franklin. "I know that our folks are trained to do these. They 
know their rights, what to do and what not to do," he says. "I know they 
were only documenting and videotaping."

In the last year, Cop Watch has trained about 250 people, teaching them how 
to safely intervene in incidents of police misconduct. They learn how to 
invoke their right to observe from a reasonable distance, inform suspects 
of their rights, question officers about their use of force, and interview 
witnesses.

As many as 50 volunteers now regularly conduct patrols. Despite the recent 
setback, Bandele, Toure, and Floyd have insisted that Cop Watch will 
continue­and expand. "It has to continue," says Floyd. "We have video 
cameras, [but] there's no telling what could happen to people who don't 
have documentation or know the law the way they should."

"This doesn't come in a vacuum," says Toure. "When people question things 
that are abnormal and are arrested, we have to make connections. This is 
not about us, this is about everyone who's been stopped and searched. We're 
trying to make everyone aware of their rights."

"We want everyone to be very clear that Cop Watch will continue. We have 
actually been approached by other organizations to implement Cop Watch in 
their own communities," says Bandele. "Tactically, this is one of the worst 
things the police department could have done."



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050223/b7cf4ee9/attachment.htm>