[news] Cop Shoots Handcuffed African-America 12 Times and Gets Off

[ron]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 12:46:51 -0800 (PST)
From: sabate <sabate at ziplip.com>
To: copb-van-l at lists.resist.ca
Subject: [copb-van-l] anti-cop news from U.S.

Louisville, KY: City prepares for an uprising.

City officials are preparing for a possible uprising in response to the
decision not to indict a police officer that shot and killed a handcuffed
African-American man last December. A grand jury came back with the
decision today, Feb. 24 at about 6 PM. The victim, James Taylor, was shot
twelve times by Louisville Police detective Michael O’neil. O’neil claimed
that Taylor attacked him with a “box-cutter type knife.” Witnesses at the
scene and community activists have proved numerous times that Taylor could
not have been a threat to the detectives while handcuffed behind his back.
The decision not to indict is no surprise to community members who have
had to go through seven major shooting incidents involving the LPD and
African-American men. Each one surrounded by controversy and severe
brutality on the part of the police. In each case officers were cleared of
all wrong doing. This particular case has also been surrounded by
controversies, other than the obvious excessive use of force by police
after taking Taylor’s life. Accusations of witness tampering and coercion
have been directed at the LPD.

Obviously preparing themselves for an uprising similar to the events that
shook Cincinnati to the core last April, the LPD and the city
Louisvgovernment have turned downtown Louisville into a virtual military
occupied zone. Cops are sitting in alley ways through out the downtown
area equipped with riot gear and buses for mass arrests. A police
helicopter is also flying overhead watching for any congregation of
people. Numbers of police mobilized specifically for a disturbance is
estimated in the hundreds.

Community activists are planning an economic boycott of all shops and
events in the downtown Louisville area. It will be in response to the city
governments general unwillingness to cooperate with the community on
issues concerning police brutality and misconduct and to protest the new
Citizen Complaint Board. The board was created by the mayor and gives
absolutely no power to actual members of the community in investigating
the police. Local anarchists are also responding by starting a Louisville
COPWATCH, which is in it’s third weeks of operation.

Report from the enrag’es collective... FUCK THE LPD!