wed- protest the recent taser-killing on tompkins ave
September 29th, 2008 02:24 pm
"What do we want?-JUSTICE!"
"When do we want it?-NOW!"
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Lisa Ortega 646.260.6575
Mary Dougherty 845.598.4186
Who: Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities
Why: We are outraged over the death of another person with mental
illness who was tasered by the NYPD
The blood lies in the hands of the NYPD!
They must be held accountable!
The NYPD needs a change in policy and procedure
NOW IS THE TIME FOR CRISIS INTERVENTION TEAMS!
What: Join members of RIPPD, Make the Road New York, People's
Justice, Justice Committee, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, Urban
Justice Center/Mental Health Project for a Press Conference/Rally
When: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
1:00 PM
Where: 489 Tompkins Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11216
C train to Kingston Throop
Read the following article to get more details of the incident:
NYP:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09252008/news/regionalnews/nypd_investigate_stun_gun_death_130718.htm
NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/nyregion/26taser.html?hp
This is how the media puts it.
Stigmatization, like Criminalization towards those overwhelmed with
Mental Illness must Stop
POST STAFF REPORT
Last updated: 5:58 pm
September 24, 2008
Posted: 5:03 pm
September 24, 2008
A deranged Brooklyn man ranting in his birthday suit from a fire
escape stairway was shot by cops with a taser gun fell to his death,
this shocking video shows.
The crazy rager fell about 10 feet to the street below 491 Tompkins
Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 2 p.m. and was rushed to Woodhull
Hospital with a serious head injury, cops said. He later died at the
hospital.
The nudist first appears on the video standing on a fire escape
stairway between the second and third floors, screaming inaudibly to a
crowd below.
With police shouting for him to get down, the man climbed down to a
ledge above a metal roll-down storefront cover.
He then picked up what appears to be a six-foot metal rod and waved it
in the air.
"Walk down now! Move down!" the police can be heard shouting to him.
He refused the order and continued his incoherent tirade, the video
shows.
Finally, one of the cops can be seen shooting him with the taser,
sending the mad man head first to the street 10 feet below. It was
unclear what set off his seemingly psychotic episode.
Peoples' Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability
Statement on the NYPD Killing of Iman Morales
Sept. 26, 2008
Peoples' Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability
condemns the killing of Iman Morales by the NYPD last Wednesday
afternoon in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Like the shooting deaths of
Sean Bell and Jayson Tirado by NYPD officers, Mr. Morales death sends
yet another message that the lives of people of color in New York City
are expendable. Furthermore, it is another example of the NYPD's
disregard and disrespect of people with disabilities.
Incidents such as the killings of Eleanor Bumpers, Gideon Busch, Khiel
Coppin, and now Iman Morales are evidence of the NYPD's blatant
dehumanization of people with mental disabilities. Peoples' Justice
supports the call of Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric
Disabilities' (RIPPD) for the NYPD to make use of crisis intervention
teams. Such teams, which exist in other parts of the country and have
been used with great success, are well trained in non-lethal de-
escalation techniques and are prepared to deal with similar situations
without the use of TASERs or any other weapons. These teams also
always have mental health clinicians on-site, who are prepared to
offer treatment, not abuse, to emotionally disturbed individuals.
Peoples' Justice thanks the New York residents that videotaped and
publicized Mr. Morales' killing. The ability to document and
publicize police misconduct increases accountability and prevents the
police from misrepresenting or covering up their actions as they have
done many times in the past. We call on all New Yorkers to arm
themselves with cameras, observe all law enforcement activity and
document any incidents of misconduct. All documentation of
questionable law enforcement behavior should be made available to the
public.
Sean Bell's killing – in which the cops were acquitted of all charges
– and that of Jayson Tirado – a killing that never even went to trial
– show that the District Attorney's Office is not capable of
overcoming its marriage with the police department in pursuit of
justice. Therefore, we can only expect the same in this case and once
again reiterate the call for the assignment of an independent
prosecutor to investigate the killing of Mr. Morales and all cases of
police violence, past and future.
Amnesty International's website states, "Since June 2001, more than
290 individuals in the United States have died after being struck by
police TASERs. Amnesty International is concerned that TASERs are
being used as tools of routine force, rather than as weapons of last
resort." (http://www.amnestyusa.org/us-human-rights/taser-abuse/
page.do?id=1021202&n1=3&n2=850&n3=220). This quote speaks not only to
the deadly potential of TASERs, but to the fact that the police, no
matter their weapon of choice, routinely act with unnecessary
violence. The killing of Mr. Morales was not an isolated incident of
poor judgment on the part of individual officers. The killings of all
those mentioned in this statement, on top of many others, reveal the
pattern – and policy – of the NYPD to kill in communities of color as
an initial response, regardless of whether the circumstances call for
the use of deadly force.
Peoples' Justice is a coalition of NYC-based grassroots organizations
that have joined forces to win community control and police
accountability.