GOING TO TRIAL: Black and Latino Teachers for attending student's court date

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!
> CONTACT: QA'ID JACOBS - 718.812.9660
> ujimaalliance@gmail.com
> www.ourdemandforjustice.org <http://www.ourdemandforjustice.org/>
>
> GOING TO TRIAL: Black and Latino Teachers & Activists Racially 
> Profiled & Prosecuted For Attending Their Student's Court Proceedings.
>
> What: TRIAL DATE - PACK THE COURT HOUSE
> When: THURSDAY JUNE 5, 2008 at 9am, AP3, 6th Floor
> Where: 120 Schemerhorn St., Brooklyn Court House
>
>
>
> On November 30, Brian Favors, teacher and director of Sankofa 
> Community Empowerment and member of MXGM, Jesus Gonzales, community 
> organizer with Make the Road, NY, Nkululeko Sechaba, President of 
> the Queens chapter of InPDUM, and Mario Cox, an honor roll student 
> at Bushwick Community High School, were all attending court 
> proceedings in support of the students known as the "Bushwick 32," 
> when they themselves were racially profiled in open court, assaulted 
> and placed under arrest.[1]
>
> Community supporters had gathered in court once again to support the 
> Bushwick 32 on November 30, 2007.  Shocked at the terrible 
> representation the students received in court, during recess, their 
> teacher and long-time supporter, Brian Favors discretely urged 
> several defense attorneys to competently represent the students. One 
> defense attorney became defensive and angry and she went back into 
> the court room to speak with the Court Security Officer ("CSO") with 
> whom she has a personal relationship and parents a child.  She told 
> him that she did not like the way Mr. Favors questioned her and that 
> she wanted the "Black man with dread locks" ejected out of the court room.
>
> After court resumed session, the CSO, who was angered by his wife's 
> story, mistakenly identified Mr. Sechaba as the "Black man with 
> dread locks" in question and shouted for him to leave the court room 
> for threatening the attorney.  Mr. Favors then informed the CSO that 
> he had identified the wrong "Black man with dreadlocks" and that no 
> one had been threatened. Mr. Sechaba requested the CSO's badge 
> number so he could report the racial profiling incident.  The CSO 
> refused, shoved the men into the hallway and yelled for fellow 
> officers to "cuff" them.  Mr. Favors and Mr. Sechaba were then 
> surrounded and violently assaulted as the police rushed to place 
> them under arrest.
>
> Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Cox asked why the supporters were being treated 
> this way when they had done nothing wrong.  The two were similarly 
> surrounded and pummeled by the CSOs as they too were arrested. After 
> arraignment, the four were released on their own recognizance and 
> face charges of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, and 
> obstruction of governmental administration.
>
> They head to trial on THURSDAY JUNE 5. 9:00 AM at 120 Schemerhorn, 
> AP-3 on the 6th Floor.
>
> Councilman Charles Barron stated "First the police terrorize us and 
> arrest our youth. Then the court officers terrorize us again and 
> deny our constitutional right to enter a court room and support our 
> youth at their trial. If this is not fascism I don't know what is. I 
> support these brothers 100% and they should be set free." The 
> community insists that this is only the latest example of the 
> targeting of people of color by the NYPD and the criminal justice 
> system. In 2006, 90% of stop and frisks citywide resulted in no 
> summons issuance or arrest. Several New York Times Articles 
> detailing the controversy surrounding the Bushwick 32 case are attached below.
>
> WHAT: TRIAL DATE PACK THE COURT HOUSE
> WHEN: Thursday JUNE 5, at 9:00 am
> WHERE: 120 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn Court House AP3 6th Floor
>
>
> [1] The "Bushwick 32" is a group of students who were racially 
> profiled and arrested while en route to a funeral on May 21, 2007. 
> The NYPD mistakenly identified the students as a gang and held them 
> for 36 hours even though the students had letters excusing them from 
> school to attend a popular student's funeral. Despite the widespread 
> media attention, community support and numerous eye witness 
> testimonies which contradict the NYPD's account of events, District 
> Attorney Charles Hynes has only until recently refused to drop the 
> charges. Several of the Bushwick 32 have had their cases dropped due 
> to lack of probable cause, while other cases remain pending.
>
>
> American by birth
> Caribbean by choice
> African by destiny
> 7thsonchosen1