FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2012 INTIMIDATION, ABUSE, ARRESTS OF VICTIMS' SUPPORTERS FOLLOWING NYPD BEATING OF BLACK TEEN IN THE BRONX
The new year has begun with yet another scandal for Ray Kelly’s NYPD as officers from the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx were caught on video viciously beating a 19-year-old last week. The victim, Jatiek Reed, faces numerous charges, including resisting arrest. The Bronx DA has opened an investigation into the incident and all four officers involved have been stripped of their guns and badges and placed on modified duty. A neighbor who witnessed the assault on Reed and who tried to intervene told NY1 that he was threatened by the same officers, who came after him in his apartment. The bystander who filmed the incident was threatened with pepper spray, as can be clearly seen in the video.
This pattern of intimidation and abuse against those who would support Reed and other victims of police brutality and racist police tactics such as Stop and Frisk continued throughout the following week. Members of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign became targets when they attended Reed’s arraignment at the Bronx Hall of Justice on Wednesday, February 1. This small group wished to support Reed’s family, who have been devastated by the suffering of their loved one. One of the group was attacked by a court officer in an elevator. The court officer identified him as a member of the Stop Stop & Frisk campaign, verbally threatened him, used racial slurs, and ejected him from the courthouse. When two other young Freedom Fighters attempted to intervene, they were immediately arrested by additional court officers and charged with disorderly conduct. Bronx Legal Aid attorneys are handling the case and a complaint against the court officer has been filed.
Additionally, another member of the Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign, who has a history of being targeted by the NYPD for her activism, was also recognized by court officers and threatened and intimidated yesterday. These officers harassed her until she left and prevented her from lending her support to the Reed family. Also on Wednesday, in Harlem, undercover NYPD officers stopped and harassed a fifth individual who has been a leader of the movement to end Stop & Frisk as he was walking near his residence, falsely accusing him of having a weapon and making threats to come to his home.
Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign members and others that are speaking out and standing up against police brutality are now literally putting their lives and livelihoods on the line in neighborhoods like the one in the Bronx where Jatiek Reed was so brutally attacked. This kind of retaliation is not a coincidence. On Friday, January 27, the Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign held a successful rally, march and demonstration in the Mott Haven area of the Bronx to spread the campaign’s messages about racially-biased policing, the criminalization of youth, and mass incarceration. During part of the march, protestors focused on the 42nd Precinct, whose officers were responsible for beating Jatiek Reed the day before, and whose officers stop and frisk hundreds of neighborhood residents every month. The rally was held in solidarity with Take Back Bronx, the Bronx Freedom Party, URI People’s Initiative, Picture the Homeless, the Prison Abolition Subcommittee of POCcupy, Radical Social Workers, and PROP. In 2011, the Campaign held successful, non-violent civil disobedience protests at precincts in Harlem, Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens. The Freedom Fighters who were arrested in these protests have upcoming court dates in February and March and are represented by attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild and Manhattan and Brooklyn Legal Aid Society.
The Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign is responding to these incidents with continued outreach and public education efforts in the Bronx and across New York City. Efforts by the New York Police Department to intimidate, threaten, and harass citizens who exercise their civil right to protest will not be tolerated and we will continue to work with our Network and our allies to build a movement against the injustice of racially biased Stop & Frisk.
Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign
c/o P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station
New York City, New York 10002-0900
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.stopmassincarceration.org
Twitter: @StopMassIncNet
The "Stop Mass Incarceration: We're Better Than That!" Network is a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a 501c3 tax-exempt organization. Tax-deductible contributions accepted, and checks should be made payable to the "Alliance for Global Justice, with "Mass Incarceration Network" in the memo line. Other forms of contributions also accepted.
This pattern of intimidation and abuse against those who would support Reed and other victims of police brutality and racist police tactics such as Stop and Frisk continued throughout the following week. Members of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign became targets when they attended Reed’s arraignment at the Bronx Hall of Justice on Wednesday, February 1. This small group wished to support Reed’s family, who have been devastated by the suffering of their loved one. One of the group was attacked by a court officer in an elevator. The court officer identified him as a member of the Stop Stop & Frisk campaign, verbally threatened him, used racial slurs, and ejected him from the courthouse. When two other young Freedom Fighters attempted to intervene, they were immediately arrested by additional court officers and charged with disorderly conduct. Bronx Legal Aid attorneys are handling the case and a complaint against the court officer has been filed.
Additionally, another member of the Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign, who has a history of being targeted by the NYPD for her activism, was also recognized by court officers and threatened and intimidated yesterday. These officers harassed her until she left and prevented her from lending her support to the Reed family. Also on Wednesday, in Harlem, undercover NYPD officers stopped and harassed a fifth individual who has been a leader of the movement to end Stop & Frisk as he was walking near his residence, falsely accusing him of having a weapon and making threats to come to his home.
Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign members and others that are speaking out and standing up against police brutality are now literally putting their lives and livelihoods on the line in neighborhoods like the one in the Bronx where Jatiek Reed was so brutally attacked. This kind of retaliation is not a coincidence. On Friday, January 27, the Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign held a successful rally, march and demonstration in the Mott Haven area of the Bronx to spread the campaign’s messages about racially-biased policing, the criminalization of youth, and mass incarceration. During part of the march, protestors focused on the 42nd Precinct, whose officers were responsible for beating Jatiek Reed the day before, and whose officers stop and frisk hundreds of neighborhood residents every month. The rally was held in solidarity with Take Back Bronx, the Bronx Freedom Party, URI People’s Initiative, Picture the Homeless, the Prison Abolition Subcommittee of POCcupy, Radical Social Workers, and PROP. In 2011, the Campaign held successful, non-violent civil disobedience protests at precincts in Harlem, Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens. The Freedom Fighters who were arrested in these protests have upcoming court dates in February and March and are represented by attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild and Manhattan and Brooklyn Legal Aid Society.
The Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign is responding to these incidents with continued outreach and public education efforts in the Bronx and across New York City. Efforts by the New York Police Department to intimidate, threaten, and harass citizens who exercise their civil right to protest will not be tolerated and we will continue to work with our Network and our allies to build a movement against the injustice of racially biased Stop & Frisk.
Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Stop Stop & Frisk Campaign
c/o P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station
New York City, New York 10002-0900
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.stopmassincarceration.org
Twitter: @StopMassIncNet
The "Stop Mass Incarceration: We're Better Than That!" Network is a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a 501c3 tax-exempt organization. Tax-deductible contributions accepted, and checks should be made payable to the "Alliance for Global Justice, with "Mass Incarceration Network" in the memo line. Other forms of contributions also accepted.