October 22nd Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22nd, 2009
Contact: oct22atl@gmail.com
National Office: (888) NO BRUTALITY
RALLY AND MARCH TODAY AT 1 PM IN WOODRUFF PARK
NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST TO STOP POLICE BRUTALITY
Atlanta area college students, community activists, recent victims of police brutality and families of those killed by police will hold a rally at the south end of Woodruff Park (Peachtree and Edgewood) at 1 PM today as part of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. A march to the Atlanta Pretrial Detention Center and speakout at the jail will be held following the rally in Woodruff Park. Rallies and marches will be held today in cities across the country.
A Georgia State University student organizer said, “We will be speaking out and wearing black in solidarity with protests around the country and in memory of lives stolen by police bullets. There is an epidemic of police brutality here in Georgia, including:
- raid at the Eagle bar last month by Atlanta Police
- killing of Erik Van Davis in Stockbridge, October 12, 2009 by Henry County Police for “attack with a hammer”
- killing of Lavonia minister Jonathan Ayers, September 1, 2009 by Stephens County Sheriffs in a botched drug sting
- killing of Barbara Baker and Penny Schwartz, July 21, 2009 by Gwinnett County Police in a “suicide by cop” which also killed the mother
- killing of Montellis Clark with 39 bullets, July 15, 2009 by Atlanta Police, including 5 shots in the back
- shooting of Tramaine Miller point blank in the face, May 5, 2009 by Atlanta Police, while he was in his car
- killing of Jerry Conner, April 3, 2009 by Richmond County Police, for wielding a 2-inch pocket knife
- death in custody of Roberto Martinez Medina, March 11, 2009 at the Stewart Detention Center
“We will also call attention to charges filed earlier this year against guards at the Fulton County Jail for brutality and the death in custody of Richard Glasco, and we will remember Kathryn Johnston killed by convicted corrupt Atlanta Police officers, and the 12 people killed by Dekalb County Police in 2006.”
