Support Students Racially Profiled &
Brutally Arrested at Campus Anti-War Protest
Take Action to Demand: Drop the Charges Now!
Get involved!
March 20, 2006: Youth and Student Day of Resistance
Statement from Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R. Take Action A.N.S.W.E.R. has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to send a message to the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Please take a moment now, by clicking here, to send your message today!
to Demand:
Drop the Charges Now! Stop racial & religious profiling!
Three days of protest engulfed De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California when former Secretary of State Colin Powell came to speak November 9-11, 2005. On Friday, November 11, over 150 protesters rallied militantly outside the hall where Powell was speaking. One person was arrested inside the hall disrupting Powell's speech. Outside the hall, Campus Police, San Jose City Police and Santa Clara County Sheriffs - some in riot gear - engaged in racial and religious profiling. Sheriffs brutally arrested seven students singled out from among the protesters - all of whom were people of color, six of whom were Muslim.
Many of the students arrested outside the hall had just come over to the protest from an evening Islamic prayer meeting held on campus. They were engaged in lawful free speech activities. The arrests of the students racially and religiously profiled were particularly brutal.
Numerous violations occurred during the arrest of these students. The students were beaten with large clubs. Two of the students were choked. At least one student was not told he was being placed under arrest or read his Miranda Rights.
Six of the students were released within four to six hours and are still facing serious false charges. One, possibly two, of the students arrested face false felony charges.
California has a "Three Strikes" law. This means anyone convicted of three felonies, violent or nonviolent, can be sent to prison for life. This unjust law increases incarceration rates, disproportionately high among communities of color.
One of the students currently facing false felony charges was wearing formal traditional Muslim clothing at the demonstration. He was the only student kept in jail over the weekend following the arrests. He had gone over to the protest with other students directly from the prayer meeting. The Sheriffs Department falsely claims he assaulted a police officer with a rock they assert was a deadly weapon.
On Monday, November 14 this student's lawyer was refused entry to the jail to see him. While the attorney was seeking access to see his client, Sheriffs officers were questioning the student, pressuring him to confess to the false charges. In an effort to smear the Islamic community, the line of questioning by the Sheriffs centered on the student’s religious affiliation and organization.
Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) calls for support for the De Anza students who were arrested, and demands that all charges against the students be immediately dropped and that the Sheriff’s Department be held accountable and punished for racial and religious profiling, police brutality, and the harm to the students’ livelihoods and education they have caused.
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Take Action A.N.S.W.E.R. has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to send a message to the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Please take a moment now, by clicking here, to send your message today! |
In the name of the U.S. Government and the Bush Administration, Colin Powell presented false “evidence” that Iraq possessed so-called weapons of mass destruction. This lie was used as an excuse for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It has been estimated that the war in Iraq has resulted in the death of over 100,000 Iraqis. (Lancet,Nov. 20, 2004) Over 2,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the Iraq war.
Colin Powell was the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first Gulf War, which destroyed Iraq’s life-sustaining infrastructure, and led to the death of thousands of Iraqis during the invasion. The U.S. government’s bombing during the first Gulf War poisoned the entire region with Depleted Uranium. Depleted Uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years and has caused increased birth defects and cancers among Iraqis. Use of DU has also had disastrous effects on the lives and health of U.S. soldiers sent to Iraq. In Vietnam, as a Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff in the 23rd Infantry Division of the Army with the rank of Major, Powell covered up the Mai Lai massacre carried out by the U.S. military in 1968.
Since September 2001, the Bush Administration has increased its attacks on the Muslim and Arab community as part of an attempt to demonize all people of color and justify their program of war at home and abroad. Racist scapegoating is a strategy used in attempts to justify illegal wars and occupations and weaken opposition movements.
All people have a right to protest war criminals, as well as the illegal and unjust U.S. wars and imperialist aggression towards other countries. The war makers - Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Powell and any Republican or Democratic leader in support of the war - should be met with protest at every campus and city in which they dare to speak. They are the real war criminals. They are responsible for a racist war that has killed over 100,000 Iraqis and over 2,000 U.S. soldiers with the purpose of increasing profits for U.S. oil companies, banks, and arms manufacturers.
- Drop the charges against the De Anza students!
- Stop racial & religious profiling!
- Stop police brutality!
- End the war and occupation!
Statement from Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R.
Take Action to Demand:
Drop the Charges Now!
Stop racial and religious profiling!
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to send a message to District Attorney of Santa Clara County George Kennedy to demand that all charges against the De Anza College students arrested November 11 be dropped, and the Sheriffs Department be held accountable and punished for racial and religious profiling, as well as brutality. We have provided a sample letter, but you can customize your message to get your point across.
Please take a moment now, by clicking here, to send your message today!
March 20, 2006:
Youth and Student Day of Resistance
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On Monday, March 20, young people will organize acts of resistance in their schools and communities. See below for a link to the statement that was adopted at the November 6 Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R. Strategy Meeting held in New York City at HunterCollege. - Read the Call to Action |
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| Resources - including flyers, posters, stickers, fact sheets, videos and more - will be available soon. Contact the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition National Office in WashingtonDC at 202-544-3389 or [email protected] for support in your local organizing efforts. | |
| Saturday, March 18 - Sunday, March 19 Locally-Coordinated Antiwar Protests |
- Read the Call to Action - Endorse - List an Anti-War Event |
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://images.answercoalition.org/cms/
[email protected]
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545