A call for a mass march on Chattanooga, Tennessee

By Lorenzo Ervin, 13 February 2000

This is a call for a mass march on Chattanooga, Tennessee. Police murders, beatings, corruption, driving while Black and other racial profiling cases, go on routinely in this city.

Although police brutality is a national problem, Chattanooga is a city which has been beset with racist violence and police brutaltiy for years. Over 35 persons have been killed in police custody since 1980, and according to the Department of Justice's own statistics, hundreds of persons (mostly racial minorities) are beaten or subjected to other acts of brutality by local police departments. In fact, it is the #7 city with reported police brutality cases, and #1 in cases of cities with populations of less than 200,000 persons. Yet because of racism and political corruption in both the state and federal DA's offices, no policeman in Hamilton County has ever been criminally charged with murder or excessive use of force.

On the contrary, while the cops have gone free, Black activists have been railroaded in cases like the Chattanooga 8 case of 1993, when a counter-demonstration in front of the County Courthouse was broken up and eight of the protesters were dragged off to jail, and the 1998 protest at City Hall, where three Black activists were beaten up and dragged off to jail, when they protested the shootings of two Black men in late April and early May 1998.

The International Committee to Support the Chattanooga 3, the Concerned Citizens for Justice, Black Autonomy-COPWATCH, and other making up the Ad Hoc Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality call for a demonstration in Chattanooga on March 18, 2000. We are planning demonstrations and protests against police brutality in Chattanooga, part of the International Day of Action Against Police Brutality (held March 15th of each year, in 17 countries and 50 cities in North America). Too many have died, and too many Black people are still being harassed by the police for us to remain silent.

WHAT: A march through downtown Chattanooga to protest police brutality in Chattanooga, the South, and the USA.

WHEN: noontime, March 18, 2000

WHERE: March assembles at Miller Park, downtown Chattanooga, marches to the County Courthouse for a rally and speeches.

For more information call: 423/622-7614; e-mail at <Komboa@hotmail.com> or International Committee to Support the Chattanooga 3 at <Jonina1@yahoo.com>.

We are asking for all those who believe in justice to stand with us in Chattanooga. The strength of the racist system now is that we are isolated, and we need to send a strong message to the cops and local politicians that we are not alone. JOIN US ON MARCH 18, 2000 IN CHATTANOOGA!