Pigs in the Bay Area community of Hunter's Point celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day this year by terrorizing and beating up 4 Black kids between the ages of 12 and 14 and telling the parents whose children they were beating "As long as you people are here, we will act like this." The kids were sitting in a car listening to music in front of their houses.
12-year-old Janell Harris was forced out of the car on her knees, a cop pushed her face into the ground and held a gun to her head while her mother watched helplessly. The other kids were forced into the same position. According to her mother, Janell still can not sleep at night from the terror of the experience. 14-year old, Jerome Brown, was in the crowd watching the brutality. He was beaten badly for asking the cops to "take the guns off my li'l cousin." He suffered a concussion, a broken jaw, needed stitches inside and outside of his mouth, couldn't stand, and for a while didn't know who he was. Janell's stepfather objected to the brutality so another pig rushed him and beat him while forcing him into a police car.
Witnesses asked the cops for their names and badge numbers but the pigs refused to give out this information. The cops then cuffed all the kids tightly and picked them up by their cuffs. Two parents asked the cops if they could cross the street to be with their kids and were told that if they crossed the street they would be shot. The pigs then searched the kids. According to the mother of one girl "The police were starting to search the children. One of the officers took the palm of his hand and went across my daughter's breast. I started screaming that they needed to get a female police officer out here. The police officer continued to feel down my daughter. He went up between her legs to her crotch and lifted her sweater and felt on her behind with the palm of his hand."
The cops searched the car, claiming that they had received a call about guys with guns and ski masks in a red car. They found nothing in the car. They released the two girls but took the two boys to the station. One of the girls was told that if she wanted to be released she had to sign a piece of paper. To this day no one is sure what she signed.
Since the beatings those same cops continue to patrol Hunter's Point, driving by the houses of the residents slowly and even giving out candy to kids in the neighborhood. The community is outraged and the parents are actively organizing to get these cops dismissed from the police force. But it's clear that they understand that this is not a question of just a few bad cops. Hunter's Point residents point out that usually the cops take an hour or more to respond to calls for help, if they respond at all. The pigs are not there to serve the people, they are there to harass the people and enforce social control on the Black nation.
A protest demanding justice for the Hunter's Point kids will be held February 27 at 5pm at the Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant between 6th and 7th. Join MIM at the demo to denounce police brutality and proclaim the true purpose of the entire criminal injustice system from the cops to the courts to the prisons: social control of the oppressed nations.
Notes: San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, February 6, 2002 and Community Forum on the Hunter's Point Beatings.