Letter To Cong. John Conyers
United African Movement
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Alton H. Maddox, jr. Tel: (718) 834-9034
Chairman Fax : (718) 834-1275
16 Court Street
Suite 1901
Brooklyn, NY 11241
May 23, 2007
Cong. John Conyers
Chairman
House Judiciary Committee
2426 RHOB
Washington, DC
Re: Congressional Hearing on Police Brutality
Dear Cong. Conyers:
The House Judiciary Committee needs to revisit its 1983 Congressional Hearing on Police Brutality in New York City. Cong. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, expressed concern about the extraterritorial conduct of the New York Police Department and its use of federal funds to undermine federal-state relationships.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has had to enact defensive legislation. Similarly, the state of Georgia is considering similar legislation. Similar action provoked the Civil War. While New York, geographically, sits north of the Mason-Dixon Line, its sympathies were with the Confederacy. Blacks, en masse, had to flee New York during the Civil War. Whites refused to fight for the Union.
While the extraterritorial conduct of the NYPD should be a matter of great concern to the House Judiciary Committee, UAM is particularly concerned about the extrajudicial conduct of the NYPD. The NYPD, in 1983, smelled like a rose compared to the racial mindset of the present department. It operates with the protection of a judicial system which a blue-ribbon commission, in 1991, characterized as “infested with racism.”
Amid the 1983 Congressional hearing, eleven white members of the New York Transit Police Department fatally beat Michael Stewart after he was observed kissing a white woman before he sought to enter a subway station. The medical examiner initially found “cardiac arrest” as the cause of death.
It took two grand juries before an indictment could be secured against these police officers. The Manhattan district attorney’s office had never indicted a police officer for killing a person of African ancestry. The district attorney’s office took retaliatory action against me. I was prosecuted on criminal charges but was acquitted by a jury.
But for the legal efforts of attorneys Louis Clayton Jones, Michael Warren and myself, this beating would have been swept under the rug. You may take a mule to a watering hole but the mule must decide to drink the water. The police officers were acquitted because of a lethargic, criminal prosecution.
Michael Stewart, with all due respect, was small potatoes compared to the rash of current police killings. Each of these killings is designed to terrorize the general population. Black people are being routinely detained in the streets and searched because of race. Many of these illegal confrontations have led to serious or fatal injuries. The New York Legislature has failed to enact any legislation against racial profiling.
Amadou Diallo was a victim of police terrorism. He was gunned down on a Bronx Street in front of his home without any semblance of reasonable suspicion. The four, police officers indiscriminately fired their weapons. When the smoke cleared, 41 bullets were spent and 19 bullets hit the target. This was indeed a crime against humanity and an example of police terrorism.
Once the Bronx district attorney’s office secured indictments against the four, police officers, charging murder in the second degree, the executive branch of state government invaded the judiciary and secured a change of venue from Bronx County to Albany County. This action would remove a Black judge from hearing the case and would, perforce, disenfranchise Black and Latino residents and voters.
The outcome was predictable. The four policemen were not only acquitted in a foreign jurisdiction but the City of New York, afterwards, treated them as conquering heroes. One of the four police officers had been involved in a prior murder of a descendant of African ancestry. Death squads, acting under color of law, are in operation in New York City.
I am also sharing with you an enclosed letter that I sent to Cong. Thompson. The circumstances in New York City are grave. The police officers, in the assassination of Sean Bell, will soon be acquitted even though there was no basis for the police confrontation which ended in a 50-shot fusillade.
I testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 1983 as general counsel for the Black United Front and as co-counsel for the estate of Michael Stewart. I am willing to assist the Committee concerning the NYPD and its unconstitutional interaction with the Black community in particular and residents in general.
Very truly yours,
AHM:sr
Encl.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Alton H. Maddox, jr. Tel: (718) 834-9034
Chairman Fax : (718) 834-1275
16 Court Street
Suite 1901
Brooklyn, NY 11241
May 23, 2007
Cong. John Conyers
Chairman
House Judiciary Committee
2426 RHOB
Washington, DC
Re: Congressional Hearing on Police Brutality
Dear Cong. Conyers:
The House Judiciary Committee needs to revisit its 1983 Congressional Hearing on Police Brutality in New York City. Cong. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, expressed concern about the extraterritorial conduct of the New York Police Department and its use of federal funds to undermine federal-state relationships.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has had to enact defensive legislation. Similarly, the state of Georgia is considering similar legislation. Similar action provoked the Civil War. While New York, geographically, sits north of the Mason-Dixon Line, its sympathies were with the Confederacy. Blacks, en masse, had to flee New York during the Civil War. Whites refused to fight for the Union.
While the extraterritorial conduct of the NYPD should be a matter of great concern to the House Judiciary Committee, UAM is particularly concerned about the extrajudicial conduct of the NYPD. The NYPD, in 1983, smelled like a rose compared to the racial mindset of the present department. It operates with the protection of a judicial system which a blue-ribbon commission, in 1991, characterized as “infested with racism.”
Amid the 1983 Congressional hearing, eleven white members of the New York Transit Police Department fatally beat Michael Stewart after he was observed kissing a white woman before he sought to enter a subway station. The medical examiner initially found “cardiac arrest” as the cause of death.
It took two grand juries before an indictment could be secured against these police officers. The Manhattan district attorney’s office had never indicted a police officer for killing a person of African ancestry. The district attorney’s office took retaliatory action against me. I was prosecuted on criminal charges but was acquitted by a jury.
But for the legal efforts of attorneys Louis Clayton Jones, Michael Warren and myself, this beating would have been swept under the rug. You may take a mule to a watering hole but the mule must decide to drink the water. The police officers were acquitted because of a lethargic, criminal prosecution.
Michael Stewart, with all due respect, was small potatoes compared to the rash of current police killings. Each of these killings is designed to terrorize the general population. Black people are being routinely detained in the streets and searched because of race. Many of these illegal confrontations have led to serious or fatal injuries. The New York Legislature has failed to enact any legislation against racial profiling.
Amadou Diallo was a victim of police terrorism. He was gunned down on a Bronx Street in front of his home without any semblance of reasonable suspicion. The four, police officers indiscriminately fired their weapons. When the smoke cleared, 41 bullets were spent and 19 bullets hit the target. This was indeed a crime against humanity and an example of police terrorism.
Once the Bronx district attorney’s office secured indictments against the four, police officers, charging murder in the second degree, the executive branch of state government invaded the judiciary and secured a change of venue from Bronx County to Albany County. This action would remove a Black judge from hearing the case and would, perforce, disenfranchise Black and Latino residents and voters.
The outcome was predictable. The four policemen were not only acquitted in a foreign jurisdiction but the City of New York, afterwards, treated them as conquering heroes. One of the four police officers had been involved in a prior murder of a descendant of African ancestry. Death squads, acting under color of law, are in operation in New York City.
I am also sharing with you an enclosed letter that I sent to Cong. Thompson. The circumstances in New York City are grave. The police officers, in the assassination of Sean Bell, will soon be acquitted even though there was no basis for the police confrontation which ended in a 50-shot fusillade.
I testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 1983 as general counsel for the Black United Front and as co-counsel for the estate of Michael Stewart. I am willing to assist the Committee concerning the NYPD and its unconstitutional interaction with the Black community in particular and residents in general.
Very truly yours,
AHM:sr
Encl.
posted by Attorney Alton Maddox at 5:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home