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From: bghauk@berlin.infomatch.com (Brian Hauk)
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Protests Mount Against Cop Brutality In Chicago
Date: 12 Apr 1998 22:53:43 GMT
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Protests Mount Against Cop Brutality In Chicago
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from the Militant, vol.62/no.15                        April 20, 1998
  
BY JOHN STUDER
  CHICAGO - "I feel like marching," Rev. Paul Jakes,
chairman of the Greater Chicago Committee Against Police
Brutality, told a crowd of more than 300 people at a
tribunal against police brutality here March 29. The event
followed a week of mobilizations by hundreds of Blacks and
other opponents of police brutality to protest the second
police beating and arrest of 19-year-old Jeremiah Mearday.
  Mearday was assaulted by two cops last September and his
front teeth were smashed down his throat by a police
flashlight. On March 12, in a victory for opponents of
police violence, the two cops involved, James Comito Jr. and
Matthew Thiel, were fired by the Chicago Police Board. The
board said the cops used "egregiously violent conduct" and
"conspired to cover up how Mearday received his injuries."
  One week after the firing, three cops approached Mearday
as he was sitting on his front steps. A number of witnesses
have told the press they saw the cops jump Mearday and
handcuff him. The cops took the young man to the same police
station where Comito and Thiel had been assigned, searched
him, and found nothing. The cops claimed a later search
found six pieces of crack cocaine in one of Mearday's shoes.
Mearday was held overnight and charged with attacking the
three cops who arrested him and possession of the cocaine.
  Hundreds turned out for an emergency meeting that night
at the offices of the Midwest Community Council, a Black
community organization. Jakes organized funds from a number
of churches and community groups to cover Mearday's bail,
and he was released the next day.
  William Nolan, president of the Fraternal Order of
Police, told the press that Mearday's arrest proved the two
fired cops had been victimized. Nolan called Mearday a
"gangbanger" and "scumbag."
  The cops who arrested Mearday claimed they did not know
who he was. They told the press Mearday was wearing a
sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, they were looking for a
shooting suspect, and while Mearday was not a suspect, he
looked suspicious. But the television footage of Mearday
being brought into the police station made it clear the
young man's jacket didn't have a hood.
  Everyone in the neighborhood who came forward to say they
saw the arrest backed up Mearday's description of what
happened. Alfonso Lo'pez, a 23-year-old worker at a used car
lot nearby, told the Chicago Tribune that Mearday waved the
cops off and "the next thing you know, they jumped him. He
was screaming, `I'm Jeremiah, I'm Jeremiah Mearday.' And
they were saying they didn't care. They were laughing."
  The Committee Against Police Brutality held a press
conference the day after the arrest to demand the federal
Justice Department investigate this harassment and other
charges of police brutality in Chicago.
  That afternoon, March 20, cops began scouring Mearday's
neighborhood passing out subpoenas and telling area
residents they had to show up before a grand jury the next
Monday, March 23, or go to jail. Mearday supporters called a
rally for that Sunday night at the New Mount Pilgrim M.B.
Church to organize to fight this effort to intimidate
witnesses to the cop beating.
  The featured speaker at that rally of 300 people was
former Illinois appellate court judge Eugene Pincham, who
volunteered to serve as attorney for all those who had been
served a subpoena. The rally was the broadest since the
Mearday fight began. All three of Chicago's Black
congressmen attended, as well as dozens of area ministers
and political figures. Another meeting was called for the
following night.
  A videotape was shown of the TV coverage reporting the
cops' claim that they didn't recognize Mearday because his
face was covered by a hood, followed by the footage of
Mearday being brought into the cop station. The crowd
chanted, "No hood! No hood!"
  Monday morning Pincham appeared before Judge Thomas
Fitzgerald flanked by 80 opponents of police brutality. The
cops had to admit that the subpoenas they had served had no
names on them and no identification of any grand jury for
witnesses to appear before. The judge ruled that the
subpoenas were invalid, and no one could be forced to appear
before a grand jury without an opportunity to consult with
Pincham first.
  Two hundred people rallied at the Old St. Paul M.B.
church to celebrate the victory and decided to organize a
march in Mearday's neighborhood the next evening. More than
100 people joined that action. Many area residents marched
and several shouted support from their porches.
  The Committee Against Police Brutality held the tribunal
on police violence at the Quality Inn near downtown March
29.
  
  John Studer is a member of the United Steelworkers of
America Local 1011.
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