Re: AA CALL FOR INTERNATION SUPPORT OF THE CHATTANOOGA THREE
Lorenzo Ervin (komboa@rocketmail.com)
Mon, 4 Oct 1999 20:20:09 -0700 (PDT)
--- Lorenzo Ervin <komboa@rocketmail.com> wrote:
> FROM: International Committee to Support
> the Chattanooga 3,
> 2014 Citico Avenue
> Chattanooga, TN. 37404-1403
> e-mail: (for Lorenzo Ervin, Secretary-Treasurer)
> komboa@rocketmail.com
> (for JoNina Abron, Chairwoman) jonina1@yahoo.com
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> In May of 1998, two police shootings of young Black
> men in Chattanooga, Tennessee sparked protest
> demonstrations by Black community activists against
> police brutality. A coalition was hurriedly created
> called the Coalition Against Police Brutality, which
> included Black Autonomy-COPWATCH activists Lorenzo
> Komboa Ervin, Damon McGee and Mikail Musa Muhammad.
> along with more than 100 others, they went to City
> Hall to demand answers and to address city
> councilmembers, the were arrogantly told they would
> not be heard.
>
> In protest, they began to speak anyway, but were
> grabbed roughly, punched, and then escorted to jail
> by
> the police, who had been summoned. They appeared
> before a Magistrate, and now they are being charged
> in state criminal court with "disrupting a meeting"
> and face six months in prison. Thsis case is
> nsothing
> but a legal lyncing of these activists because of
> their race and their activism against police
> brutality
> and racism. McGee and Ervin additionally are
> Anarchists and prosecutors have tried to use this to
> slander them as "violence prone", even falsely
> claiming that McGee tried to take a cop's gun during
> the arrests. However, this was a nonviolent
> demonstration, and the only "violence" was from the
> cops who whipped up on unarmed and handcuffed men!
>
> After many delays, the criminal trial against the
> Chattanooga three begins on January 11, 2000, and we
> are calling for international protest against this
> case. It is an outrageous frameup, and violation of
> their human rights to protest against racist
> injustice. But they are in a racist legal system in
> Hamilton County, Tennessee, which has no Black
> judges,
> where jurors are routinely all-white, and where the
> court officers are openly hostile to them. Ervin was
> tried on similar frameup charges with seven other
> defendants to protest the police murder of Larry
> Powell in 1993, and he was not even allowed to
> defend
> himslef by the judge,who had recently worked for the
> county prosecutor's office. Because of such racism
> and
> cronyism, they have no hope of a fair trial in such
> a
> place, and when convicted could be killed in prison
> like so many other Blacks have been.
>
> WHAT CAN YOU DO TO STOP THIS LEGAL LYNCHING?
>
> 1. write letters of protest to local authorities
> responsible for this racist prosecution:
>
> Bill Cox,
> Hamilton County District Attorney
> City-County Courts Bldg.
> 601 Market Street
> Chattanooga, TN. 37404
> e-mail: d_a@hcda.cps.k12.tn.us
> fax: (423)209-7401
> NOTE: free faxes can be sent from you computer at:
> www7.Fax4free.com
> www.Efax.com
> www.Jfax.com
>
> 2. international human rights groups should
> investigate this racist prosecution, which is
> clearly
> in violation of international law, to which the USA
> is
> a signatory.
>
> 3. Amnesty International and other international
> human
> rights groups should adopt the Chattanooga Three as
> "prisoners of conscience", and protest to the United
> States authorities on their behalf.
>
> 4. We expect the trial to last for at least a week
> (January 11-18,). Become part of the International
> week of protests against the case when the trial
> statrts on January 11, 2000.
> We ask people to go to US consulates in your county
> to
> protest this racist prosecution. Make them aware
> that
> you are aware of human rights violations in the USA,
> criminal charges against people for merely speaking
> out against government wrongdoing. Demand that the
> charges be dropped!
>
> 5. Please make a donation to our campaign, by
> sending
> a check, currency or money order to: International
> Committee to Support the Chattanooga Three, c/o
> Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, Secretary-treasurer, 2014
> Citico
> Avenue, Chattanooga, TN. 37404, or send it to
> account
> # 202-39-84 at First Tennessee Bank, 701 Market
> Street, Chattanooga, TN. 37402
>
> 6. You and/or your organization becoming a member of
> the Chatttanooga 3 Support Committee, and spreading
> the information about our case near and far over the
> internet, your newsletter,and word-of-mouth.
>
> In love and struggle,
>
> Lorenzo Komboa Ervin for
> International Committee to Support
> the Chattanooga 3
>
>
> For even more information about this case, please
> check out our website at:
> http://www.infoshop.org/komboa.ervin.html
>
>
>
> =====
>
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