Women put a face on police brutality

Amadou Diallo's death at the hands of New York City police officers in February 1999 cast its shadow on the Penn campus last Thursday evening. Approximately two dozen people -- most of whom were Philadelphia residents -- gathered in Logan Hall to discuss racial oppression and police brutality. The meeting was organized by Uhuru, a subsection of the African People's Socialist Society that promotes the democratic rights of African Americans and opposes government-sponsored oppression. During the two-hour long meeting, the audience listened to four speakers, two of whom were relatives of black men who were shot and killed by Philadelphia law enforcement officers. Barbara Vance, an aunt of police shooting victim Kenneth Griffin, described the circumstances of her nephew's death. Griffin was shot to death by two Philadelphia parole officers while allegedly naked and unarmed in the basement of a relative's home. Vance described her nephew's death as a racially motivated "homicide." "We're not considered men or women in this country," Vance told the audience. "Even in the Constitution we're considered three-fifths of a person." With tears in her eyes, Vance told the audience that even the health problems she suffered through since Griffin's death could not repress her activism. "I've had a stroke during this. I can barely walk, but I'm going to keep on fighting until I die," she said. Theresa Choice, whose son is currently imprisoned on armed robbery charges, spoke out against the American prison system, which she said makes an industry out of the imprisonment of African Americans. "Since 1990, 10 new prisons have been built. How do you think the government plans to keep them in operation?" Choice asked. With events like the Redman/Method Man concert and Penn Relays occurring on the same evening, the meeting drew a smaller-than-expected turnout. Many of those who did attend, however, felt deeply moved by what they heard. "The speeches were really powerful," remarked Wasi Hassan, a volunteer at a downtown Uhuru furniture store. College junior Lindsay Koshgarian said she was drawn to the Uhuru meeting by a sense of community obligation. "One of the reasons I came to Penn was to be a part of an urban community," Koshgarian said. "And that means being a part of the community as a whole, not just the Penn campus." Peg Shaw, a Health System employee, said she hoped that hearing the event's speakers would help those in attendance put a face on issues they hear about in the media. "You can read these things in the paper, but to see it in person allows you to realize that real human beings are affected when the police gun down somebody. There's no way you can be worried about the whales and the trees and not care about oppressed people," Shaw said. Kamau Becktemba, the Philadelphia president of the People's Democratic Uhuru movement, insisted that justice can only be achieved when enough people are motivated to act. "The only way we can get justice is to get it ourselves. I'm not naive enough to think that the system will ever give us justice," he said. Becktemba also chastised black elected officials for not providing the African-American community with more support, and singled out Philadelphia Mayor John Street, calling him "white power with a black face."