Community Empowerment Will Hold Community Forum to Address Brutal Beating of Jordan Miles

In response to the inhumane beating of Jordan Miles, Community Empowerment is calling all community leaders, families who’ve been victimized by police violence, afflicted youth, and concerned citizens to contribute their testimonies and suggestions to a community forum on police violence on February 13, 2010 from 2 – 4pm.  Location 7143 Fleury Way, Pittsburgh, PA  15208 - CEA Culture Center.

It is your time now to speak out for justice!  Please help outline a coordinated response to the Jordan Miles attack, as well as a list of demands and action steps for the City of Pittsburgh Police and Government Officials!

Help officials understand that the way to reduce gang violence and crime is through improving the health of our communities!  Officials can make headway by creating pathways out of poverty with educational training programs, and job opportunities. Police can truly protect and serve their communities by making alliances with local businesses and neighbors, not by harassing and terrorizing their constituents.

Jordan Miles, 18 year old CAPA senior and was accosted in his Homewood neighborhood, by three plain-clothed police officers on January 22, 2010.  Jordan Miles’ says he was just walking to Grandmothers house, while the police claim that they suspected criminal activity, and sensed he had a weapon.

Regardless of any allegations there is one thing that is irrefutably clear upon seeing the bruises, the swelling, and the patchy scalp of young Jordan Miles—this was a vicious and unwarranted attack on an unarmed member of our community.

The inhuman attack of a young, black, student, who I would still deem a child, was in no way an act of protection or an act in the interest of the community that those police officers were called to serve. 

Jordan was harassed, tackled, stunned with a taser, kicked, punched, and impaled with a tree branch.  Yet it is JORDAN that was taken to jail for aggravated assault, and it is JORDAN that still faces criminal charges, as the three police officers still proudly wear the uniform that is supposed to signify a rational authority.

It is painful for me to look at these photos of Jordan, not just because I, too, have been the victim of police brutality, but because it resurrects a lineage of atrocity in the African American community at the hands of “authority” that curdles my blood and inflames the proverbial lashes on my back.

Sadly, way too many comparisons can be made to innocent black men who have been beaten or killed at the hands of those who were called to protect them: Oscar Grant, Jonny Gammage, Sean Bell.  While the references to Jonny Gammage are certainly apt, my visceral reaction scuttled back to open casket of Emmit Till.

The disfigured face of Jordan Miles, beaten beyond recognition immediately conjured the nightmarish attack on Emmit Till. The single picture of his bloated and mangled figure was broadcast as evidence to the world—it served as evidence of the brutality of the South; evidence that segregation was not just a palatable separate but equal, evidence of the demonic glaze that can take over a man’s eyes in the face of pride, ego, and assumption.

In the same way the photos of Jordan Miles broadcast around the nation serve as self-evident: an unarmed 150 pound teenage violist with no priors, beaten beyond recognition by three undercover trained and experienced officers. It is evidence of the realities of racial profiling, false assumptions, and a pervasive battlefield mentality that makes ALL black men EVERYWHERE the targeted enemy combatants.

Just as Emmit Till’s mother wanted the world to see what had been done to her son, so Jordan Miles mother has implored us to LOOK—take note! The image of brutality from Tills beating was one catalyst that sparked a multi-racial movement towards civil rights.  Let the image of our Jordan reverberating with the echoes of countless other cases of barbaric beatings call us to action!

Jordan admitted to having reoccurring flashbacks and nightmares about the savage beating, and it seems that this could very well be inline with the wishes of his plain-clothed attackers.  They wanted to terrorize him, to intimidate him, to make him an example in his own community—and he was an easy target.  His bruises and lacerations were to serve as a warning sign to his peers just as mutilated black bodies were left hanging during the era of segregation to discourage future detractors.

The officers tactics were overly aggressive, inhumane, and NOT isolated.  There is a long lineage of attacks against unarmed, non-threatening black men, and it is these reoccurring incidents that fosters a healthy distrust of the police and the justice system in the black community. The “deficit of trust” in the black community is a festering gash infected from historical inequity and intimidation.  Each time the community looks to stitch up these old wounds by making hopeful partnerships with city police and officials, an incident like this painfully rips out the sutures. 

It is quite unfortunate that an event like this has transpired under Chief of Police Nate Harper’s watch.  He has been such a staunch advocate for much-needed job and training programs in our ailing communities, but we fear that this incident has come as a severe setback to these positive relations.

Although it is tragic that such a model youth was exposed to such brutality—it is not just his academic and social achievement that should grant him justice; it’s his innocence!  We are standing behind Jordan Miles, but also behind all of those more troubled youth who have continuously been brutally abused then were granted no sympathy.  All of our community members deserve dignified treatment!

As Ryan Allen, a classmate of Jordan’s said, “He doesn’t fight. He makes everybody laugh.  I want him to receive justice, to go back to his old life, to be happy.”

Unfortunately, even as the swelling wanes and his blood shoot eyes regain their clarity; this is no indication of how long, if ever, it will take for Jordan and his community to heal from the psychological wounds afflicted from this abuse.

WE ARE DEMANDING:

• A Full Federal Investigation to determine if this is a Civil Rights Hate Crime violation.
• A Grand Jury Investigation into the Crime committed by these officers against Jordan Miles
• All 3 police officers immediately fired and indicted for attempted murder and torture.
• An Independent Prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office and or Justice Department assigned to this case.
• Full Compensation for the Miles Family, including pain and suffering
• All Charges Dropped on Jordan Miles
• All Racial profiling and military-like tactics in the black community must CEASE.
• There should be racial and disparities impact reports attached to every piece of legislation and major criminal justice policy that details the impact on the black community
• A psychological profile for any former or active military personnel who are law enforcement officers along with cultural sensitivity competency training prior to working in the black community. 
• Provide Public Access to the Federal Report provided under the Federal Decree
• Provide to the Community information on all open cases of police brutality; and the history of policy brutality cases in the black community and their outcomes. 
• The Termination of any officers that have demonstrated an established pattern of police abuse.
• Provide adequate funding and training for national best practice models in community and police relationships.
• Provide full investigative powers, including subpoena powers to the Civilian Police Review Board.
• Reinstate Community Orientated Police Stations in the black communities to improve community and police relationships
• Develop a Community Driven Commission that consists of public, private, and community sector to address violence and crime from a Public Health Perspective.
• Mayor Ravenstahl, Councilman Ricky Burgess, Public Safety Director Huss, and Chief Nate Harper to report out on these demands publicly.

AND FINALLY

The Only Crime that Jordan Miles committed – IS BEING BLACK IN AMERICA