Phoenix Copwatch Media
Phoenix Copwatch Calls for Humane Treatment of MLK Day Participants
January 18, 2008
Dear City Officials and Governor Napolitano,
For the past two years members of Phoenix Copwatch have been appalled at the dehumanizing crowd control tactics of law enforcement officials at Phoenix's 2007 Martin Luther King Day celebration at Margaret T. Hance Park. We are writing this letter to ensure that police brutality will not occur again at this year’s MLK Day event.
At past events we witnessed many police officers surrounding the celebration as though the participants were all assumed to be criminals. Black youth were forced by police out of a public park at four in the afternoon, herded into the library parking lot and then forced out onto the street by predominately white officers. In both 2006 and 2007, we observed officers indiscriminately spraying attendees with pepper spray, expelling Black youth from local restaurants, driving recklessly, and refusing to provide us with their names and badge numbers when asked. All of this is unacceptable. If more people had stayed to witness this as we have--and which we are encouraging people to do--you would be hearing a louder outcry. We ask, what would Martin Luther King Jr. have to say about this? Is this a concern for you and your officers?
This abusive behavior by the Phoenix Police Department must not be tolerated by elected public officials, the city, law enforcement agencies or society in general. Clearly, many of these situations could have been avoided had attendees been given time to leisurely leave the public park (as happens in every other major event in the City of Phoenix) and not herded out and treated like criminals.
Phoenix Copwatch will be on patrol this Monday at the MLK Day event. We will have our cameras on and we will be watching. Let’s make sure, together, that this atrocious behavior does not occur again.
Sincerely,
Phoenix Copwatch