[Ppnews] Organizers released, 200 supporters fill courtroom

[PPnews at freedomarchives.org]

 From the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement:

Revolutionary greeting, love, thanks, gratitude and utmost respect to all 
of our members, allies, supporters and comrades.

Lumumba, Dasaw, and Djibril were released because of your work, energy, 
love and dedication. Never underestimate the immutable power of a united 
people.

We represented the globe--from Palestine, to Korea, to Nigeria, to England, 
to New Afrika. We united across race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual 
orientation, identity, gender and class--the very things that everyone 
thinks should separate us.

The two hundred (200) people in that court house yesterday were the face, 
heart and blood of our movement.

The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey once said "CHANCE has never yet 
satisfied the hope of a suffering people.Action, self-reliance, the vision 
of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have 
seen and realized the light of their own freedom."

On Wednesday February 9th, we demonstrated that very point--we are 
dedicated, organized and ready.

And we have only just begun.

Stop Police Brutality
Free All Political Prisoners
Free        The           Land


Stiff resistance,

Meron Wondwosen




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

9 February 2005

9:37pm





CONTACT:

asha bandele

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

(646) 541-9499

asha97 at aol.com

www.mxgm.org











ORGANIZERS RELEASED,

200 SUPPORTERS FILL COURTROOM







The three members of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Lumumba Bandele, 
Dasaw Floyd, and Djibril Toure who were arrested in the Bedford-Stuyvesant 
section of Brooklyn just past midnight were released tonight at 
approximately 8:30 p.m.  The District Attorney's office requested $1,000 
bail for each of the men, but the judge released them into their own 
recognizance and set a court date for March 30, 2005.  Charges that the 
three assaulted police officers, resisted arrest and participated in the 
obstruction of governmental administration, still stand.



Early this morning, Bandele, Floyd and Toure had been driving through their 
Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood as part of the Malcolm X Grassroots 
Movement program, CopWatch.  CopWatch, a effort to monitor and document 
police activities with video cameras, was initiated after the killing of 
Amadou Diallo six years ago this month. Diallo, an innocent and unarmed 
young man, was shot by members of the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit 41 times as 
he stood in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building.



Kamau Karl Franklin, who together with Bob Boyle and Joan Gibbs, 
represented the men, is confident that when all the evidence is presented, 
the charges will be dismissed. Monifa Bandele, Lumumba Bandele's wife, and 
a founder of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement offered many "thanks, and much 
appreciation" to the 200 people who packed the courtroom tonight, and to 
all the others who supported her husband, Toure and Floyd in myriad other 
ways.  "We hope that people will be able to come out once again on March 
30th," she added.



The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement was officially organized in 1995 as an 
attempt to raise awareness about human rights violations in the Black 
community. It was part of the coalition of organizations that filed a 
lawsuit against the notorious street crimes unit, an effort which 
ultimately resulted in the units disbanding.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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