Police
thugs brutalize 19 year old African woman; 13 year old child
CLEARWATER, Fl — While
George Bush contemplated carrying out terrorist assaults on innocent women
and children in Iraq, a young woman and child were victims of terrorism
right here in the African community in Florida.
On March 8, 2003, 19-year-old
Ashley Talley and her 13-year-old brother, Arron Scott, were attacked
and brutalized by Clearwater police officers. At a concert being held
by a local radio station, police snatched Ashley over a barricade as she
tried to protect her 13-year-old sister from being squished against it
by the crowd.
The burley officer choked Ashley
while she cried out for her little sister who was left behind the barricade.
The officer pressed his thumb into her neck in a choke that the police
use to knock out their victims, often killing them.
Meanwhile, two other officers
snatched Ashley’s little brother Arron over the barricade by his
neck and slammed him to the ground.
As one officer had 13-year-old
Arron in a headlock, choking him, the other wrapped his hands around his
neck, telling Arron that if he kept moving the officer would break his
neck.
Witnesses say that after this, several officers “dog-piled”
Arron and handcuffed him.
Arron was released shortly thereafter and was never charged with any wrongdoing
or told why the police decided to terrorize him. In fact, the officer
who handcuffed him was just as clueless as Arron himself as he questioned
Arron about whether he knew what he had done.
Ashley, however, was handcuffed and moved from paddy wagon to paddy wagon
after she refused to leave without her younger siblings.
Officers told her siblings
that Ashley was only charged with “disorderly conduct,” a misdemeanor,
for arguing with someone while trying to protect her sister, and that
they could meet her outside the concert. Only later did they find out
that she was charged with the felony “battery on a law enforcement
officer.” This charge is ridiculous!
The police report says that
Ashley, 5-foot-4 and 110 pounds, “tried to box” the officer
who was about twice her size. Witnesses say she never hit the pig. The
police report also says that she “unlawfully brawled in public.”
Witnesses say that the only physical movement she made, was after the
police snatched her over the barricade and started choking her!
So, how did the charges change
from “disorderly conduct” to “battery on a L.E.O.”?
If she had a felony charge from the beginning, then why were the police
going to let her go?
We know better! It is no new
thing for police to brutalize an African and then charge the African with
a crime to cover up their own terroristic actions! This is why the 8th
point of the African People’s Socialist Party’s 14-Point Platform
states: “We want the immediate withdrawal of U.S. police from our
oppressed and exploited communities.” We understand that their purpose
is to contain and terrorize us; to keep our communities destabilized and
continuously under assault.
Both Ashley and Arron have
been traumatized by this assault. Ashley has been unable to sleep or eat.
She can’t function at school because she shakes nervously. Her family
moved her from room to room because she feared that police were looking
in the window. It took some time before Arron would even begin talking
again.
These terrorist actions against
our community by the police must stop!
We demand that the trumped-up charges against Ashley Talley be dropped!
We demand justice for Ashley Talley and Arron Scott!
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