The Third Annual National Conference on Police Accountability was held in Irving, Texas, from the 19th to the 21st of November 1993. About 35 people from eight states and Washington, DC, attended.
The National Coalition for Police Accountability (NCOPA), which organized the conference, is calling the Third Annual National Action for the week of March 3rd (the third anniversary of the beating of Rodney King). Any organizations struggling against police misconduct and abuse should try to hold some event as part of "National Police Accountability Week." COPWATCH will be among the organizations working on an event or action for that week; contact our office if you want to help.
Some members of NCOPA plan to meet that week in Washington, D.C., at the office of Attorney General Janet Reno, to demand that the Justice Department begin releasing statistics on murders by police and deaths in custody. NCOPA will bring a list of cases to Reno's office as evidence.
Everyone agreed that the most horrifying news was coming from Mississippi. Andrea Gibbs, a former prison guard, told the Conference some history of the organizing there.
Four years ago, Gibbs and three other prison guards "blew the whistle" on guard beatings of children in a Mississippi youth detention center. Fired by the prison system, she founded Victim's Voice, an advocate for families of people who died or were beaten in custody. With this organization, she exposed inhuman conditions in many other Mississippi jails. She currently faces constant threats and harassment from police and KKK members: she has moved five times, been followed by police, and had her house searched by head guard Homer McKnight.
The brutality is systemic: the first week she worked in youth detention, guards lectured Gibbs on how to beat the children so there are no bruises. In 1989, when she exposed child-beating by Homer McKnight, two deputies and seven youths testified against McKnight-- but no charges were brought against him. Yet one whistle-blower guard was brought up on charges based on one person's testimony.
Gibbs described Mississippi Prison conditions: prisoners are locked up twenty hours a day; six prisoners share one gallon of water a day in the summer; there is no education for school-aged children; inmates are put on depressant drugs, but there are no drug rehab programs. And in just the five months prior to the Conference, there had been fourteen more "suicides."
Victim's Voice is now working with twenty families, both black and white, with cases of police brutality or murder. Victim's Voice has held a memorial service for those who died in jail, brought pressure to bear on Attorney General Reno, and got nine specialists to investigate conditions in prisons. Through its efforts, the organization has gotten international publicity, and it is working on getting United Nations attention.
Victim's Voice desperately needs to raise money for surveillance equipment. Anyone who can help should contact Andrea Gibbs at P.O. Box 6741, Gulfport, MS, 39506. The group is planning a thirty-year commemoration of the Civil Rights Movement for this summer.
More shocking news came from the U.S.-Mexico border. Recently there have been twenty cases of people shot in the back by border patrol as they try to reŠenter Mexico. Maria Jimenez, of the Dallas American Friends' Service Committee (AFSC), gave a presentation.
The current U.S. racist anti-immigrant backlash provides a cover for the border patrol to abuse their authority. Legal residents and U.S. citizens who "look like illegal immigrants" are abused-- in fact, 17% of abuse cases are against U.S. citizens. And cops with consciences who expose the abuse are fired and threatened.
The AFSC's organizing includes a data base to document cases and a manual to train lawyers who take on Federal agents, as well as pressure on Washington to reform. Last year, the AFSC won a lawsuit mandating the Border Patrol to set up a new system.
Organizations in both Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, described their plans to start Copwatching-- i.e., street patrols using scanners, video cameras, and even cellular phones. Representatives from Dallas, Albuquerque, and San Diego spoke about their struggles to establish civilian review boards.
Cornelius Hall told the conference about Berkeley COPWATCH's campaign for justice for his son, Jerrold Hall, who was murdered by BART Police last year. Mary Johnson of Chicago's Citizen's Alert discussed the years of organizing that went into the victorious campaign to fire John Birge, an officer who tortured many people in custody. Other cities spoke about their work in cases, campaigns, and lawsuits. Many had found support or worked through local church organizations, and some of these have networked to form the National Interreligious Taskforce on Criminal Justice.
One representative asked that everyone pressure their U.S. Congressional representatives to vote No on HR 1148, by Rep. James Murand, a bill which gives extra rights to cops. For more information, contact Murand's office at (202) 225-4376. A Yes vote was urged, however, on Craig Washington's Police Accountability Amendment to the Crime Bill currently in the House. Contact Washington (D-Houston, TX) at the House of Representatives: 1711 Longworth Blvd. Washington, D.C., 20515. His phone number is (202) 225-4318.
The 1994 National Conference on Police Accountability will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is planned for midOctober.