Campaigns: Justice for the Hunstville 3!
Update - HSV3 Found “Guilty” on all Charges
On Wednesday, November 26, 2008, Huntsville Municipal Court Judge Charles Rodenhauser ruled in the case of the HSV 3. Despite compelling testimony from three Africans who were themselves victims of the same Huntsville police who attacked the HSV3, and obviously contradictory testimony offered by the police, Judge Rodenhauser found Dr. Michelle Strongfields, Kobina Bantushango and Dr. Aisha Fields guilty on all counts of “obstruction of governmental operations” and “resisting arrest” and sentenced them to paying thousands of dollars in fines and court costs.
Though the trial took place on Friday, November 21, 2008, Judge Rodenhauser chose not to offer his ruling in front of the courtroom full of supporters and journalists who had traveled to Huntsville from throughout the Southeast and all who witnessed the sham of a case put on by the City of Huntsville against the Three.
Testimony from the police and defense witnesses alike painted a scene of a night full of police harassment all too familiar in the African community. North Precinct officers J. Garner and M. Edger had been in the parking lot of a local pharmacy. There they handcuffed a young African couple, who themselves had called police, because they were the victims of a hit-and-run incident. The African couple was then forced to remain handcuffed in the back seat of the police car (they were not arrested) as officers crossed the street in order to harass other Africans at a gas station. While at the station, Edger and Garner continued to terrorize the African community by harassing a young African woman for what they said was “loud music” (that had already been turned down) coming from her car. Next, they demanded identification from, and subsequently handcuffed, the driver’s friend in the back seat of the car, though police admit the passenger was doing “nothing at all.” Garner and Edger turned their aggression toward the HSV3, who were arrested and brutalized for nothing more than documenting the police misconduct at the gas station.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement understands this attack made by the Huntsville Police as an attack against the democratic rights of the entire African community, attacks made possible by the public policies of police containment that exist not only in Huntsville, Alabama, but throughout the US and around the world.
Furthermore, the attack made specifically against the HSV3, and the subsequent guilty verdict handed down, is an attempt by the City of Huntsville to wipe out any resistance from the exploited and oppressed African community against such policies.
The campaign to win justice for the HSV3 continues!
This battle is far from over. On the legal front, the HSV3 are appealing the verdict handed down by Judge Rodenhauser and are demanding a jury trial! InPDUM will continue to organize the African community in Huntsville and around the world to make the political struggle necessary to win justice for the HSV3 and the entire African community. Raising the demand for a community-based police review board with subpoena power will broaden the Hands Off the Huntsville Three campaign. Currently, the City of Huntsville has no such community police review board, and even resists the mild proposal made from a member of the city council to place a citizen on the existing review board comprised only of police.
The need for a community police review board is underscored by recent findings that Huntsville police have been planting drugs in the African community, the police assassination of Wallace Mitchell, shot in the back with his hands up by Huntsville police officer Chet Williams, recent police attacks made against local African college students at a sporting event, and numerous daily incidents of police harassment and terror that go unreported.
InPDUM would like to thank the hundreds of freedom-loving people from around the world who have participated in the “Hands Off the Huntsville Three!” campaign, concerned individuals who have signed petitions, participated in the numerous call-ins, sent emails to various government officials, and attended the trial. Your participation keeps this struggle from being isolated within the Huntsville City limits, places pressure on government officials who would like to be able to “sweep this under the rug,” and inspires the African community within Huntsville to continue its work on the ground.
Regular updates will be given and other calls will certainly be made to the international community for their continued participation in this campaign.
The struggle continues!
Donations are needed in order to help pay for legal fees and court costs associated with this case. Contributions can be made out to “InPDUM” (please indicate that funds are for HSV3 legal case) and sent to the InPDUM World HQ, PO Box 454, Normal, AL 35762.
Please help us continue to get the word out! Media interviews about the HSV3 case can be set up by contacting inpdum_huntsville@yahoo.com
Background
On June 29, 2008, Uhuru Movement memebers Dr. Aisha Fields, Kobina Bantushango (Thomas Buchanan) and Dr. Michelle Strongfields were brutalized and arrested in Huntsville, Alabama by Huntsville police.
On the way to the airport they stopped for gas near their home, which is in the vicinity of Alabama A&M University, where the Black Arts Festival had just concluded. There they saw police harassing an African couple. They exercised their legal right to photograph and observe the police activity. The police became agitated at being exposed and proceeded to brutalize, handcuff and arrest them ("obstructing justice" and "resisting arrest").
The police threatened to seize the 3 children that were in the car - ages 4, 1, and 7 months - who were eventually secured in the hands of relatives
Dr. Fields is a physicist who recently coordinated the installation of community-owned rainwater harvesting systems in Sierra Leone. She was joined there by her mother, Dr. Strongfields, a Cuban trained Doctor of Medicine, who conducted training in the prevention and treatment of water-borne illnesses, which are a major cause of death in West Africa. Kobina Bantushango leads campaigns in defense of the rights of African people, building the Uhuru (freedom) Movement.
Every year, the City of Huntsville imposes heavy-handed policing in the area of the Black Arts Festival, which draws over 35,000 participants. The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement calls for an end to the policy of police containment and military occupation of the African community.
