FIGHT BACK: Families Against Police Terror

National conference organized to fight police brutality: FIGHT BACK

 

With our very own Reggie Buggs, VP of U.R.G.E.N.T. as a panelist on "Strategies for Moving Forward"

 

Saturday, June 1, 2013

 

RIVERSIDE CHURCH

South Hall 120th St. & Claremont Ave. 

Harlem, New York

12pm-10pm

2 panels and live music

1st panel 1:00-3:30 p.m. 

"Voices of Resistance" 

 

2nd panel  4:00-6:30 

"Strategies for Moving Forward"

 

8:00- 10:00 p.m. LIVE PERFORMANCES by The Welfare Poets & Aidge 

The full schedule is as follows:

12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m. Welcome
1:00- 3:30 p.m. "Voices of Resistance" Panel (MC- Brian Jones)

• Ramona Africa, MOVE Organization, Survivor of 1985 Bombing of MOVE, Philadelphia, Pa. 
• Danette Chavis, Mother of 19-year-old Gregory Chavis, left to bleed to death after being shot by the NYPD on October 9, 2004
• Mark Clements, torture victim of Jon Burge, Chicago police chief and wrongfully convicted & incarcerated for 28 years in Chicago, Illinois
• Natasha Davis, sister of 23-year old Shantel Davis, shot by the Brooklyn NYPD on June 14, 2012, while sitting in a car
• Askia Sabur, police brutality victim in Philadelphia on September 3, 2010, Askia Coalition Against Police Brutality
• Fred Bryant, father of Keaton Otis, murdered by the police on May 12, 2010 in Portland, OR
• Margarita Rosario, mother of Anthony Rosario, murdered by the NYPD in the Bronx along with his cousin Hilton Vega, on January 12, 1995.
• Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson, shot point-blank by undercover NYPD in the Bronx, on March 1, 2000.

3:30- 4:00 BREAK

4:00 - 6:30 "Strategies for Moving Forward" Panel (MC- Amir Amma)

• Frank Graham and Constance Malcolm, parents of Ramarley Graham, killed in his home in the Bronx on February 2, 2012, by the NYPD
• Jack Bryson, father of two sons who were with Oscar Grant when he was murdered on an Oakland, CA, subway platform by police on January 1, 2009
• Adam & Jeralynn Blueford, parents of 18-year-old Alan Blueford, murdered on May 6, 2012 by Oakland police
• Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five wrongfully convicted of rape in New York’s Central Park in 1989
• Rev. C.D. Witherspoon, President, SCLC Baltimore Chapter, Organizer, Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly
• Reggie Buggs, Vice President of activist group U.R.G.E.N.T. Garfield, New Jersey

6:30- 8:00 p.m. BREAK

8:00- 10:00 p.m. LIVE PERFORMANCES by The Welfare Poets & Aidge!!

Hosted by: Campaign to End the New Jim Crow
Endorsed by: Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Haymarket Books, International Socialist Organization, Justice Committee, Parents Against Police Brutality, Stop & Frisk Freedom Fighters, Socialist Alternative (list in formation – contact jonessa@rowan.edu to endorse)

URGENT Member, Wayne Harper Found Guilty

U.R.G.E.N.T. member Wayne Harper exercised his First Amendment right of Free Speech, and was charged with harassment.  Then Harper exercised his Right to Trial, instead of taking a plea, and the final outcome is that the judge found him guilty.  

Guilty of harassing the prosecutor's office for making 3 phonecalls and sending text messages.  Harassment is a petty disorderly persons offense.  The municipal prosecutor, Donald DeDio, had asked that the maximum possible fine, $500, be imposed.  Judge Corradino instead ordered Harper to pay a $200 fine plus court costs.

Wayne Harper - a law abiding citizen of Garfield New Jersey, who never had a run in with the law, who is a coach for the youth, was moved, as was the whole community of Garfield, New Jersey, after the police shooting of a city teen, Malik Williams.  Wayne demanded an answer and called the prosecutor's office for the status on the case.  He called three times.  He was told that if he called again he would be charged. The prosecutor's office made good on their threat and charged Wayne with harassment.  Keep in mind that the police officers involved in the shooting of Malik Williams,  were not even charged.  The only charges made related to this shooting was to Wayne Harper, a concerned citizen exercising his right to know.

The judge's decision is being criticized as it should be, read the comments northjersey.com, .

Walter Luers, president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government said, "If they don't want to deal with the public, then they shouldn't work for the public.  This is a misuse of prosecutorial resources. They should be going after real criminals, not concerned citizens."

We applaud Harper for taking a stand.

This decision might stifle some to speak up, but for us and because of Harper's determination we will not stay quiet it there is an injustice.  We will continue to fight for injustice.

No Justice.  No Peace.   Know Justice.  Know Peace.

Read more here:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/bergen_prosecutor/Garfield_man_found_guilty_of_harassing_Bergen_Prosecutors_Office_.html

 

Right now in my heart, I’m not satisfied. I think it was one of the worst mis-justices ever.
                                                         -Wayne Harper

URGENT Headquarters

We are working on getting office space, or as we prefer to refer to to it:  URGENT Headquarters, in Garfield, New Jersey.

An office will allow us to have a place where we can conduct business in a more centralized all the operations it takes to run an organization such as URGENT.

We are working diligently on this and will let you know when the plans are finalized.

Stay tuned....!

Follow URGENT

Follow URGENT on social media. We are on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus!  Or you can follow our blog!

Either way, by following URGENT,

you can see what we have done and

what we are working on and

you can connect with us and

tell us your concerns or just tell us how you're doing! 

As Garfield Superfund site raises chromium concerns, NYU researchers plan exposure study

Members of URGENT in Garfield meeting protesting chronium

According to nj.com:

GARFIELD — The federal Environmental Protection Agency will begin work in the coming weeks to determine how far a pool of cancer-causing chromium that sits beneath a Superfund site in a residential neighborhood has spread.

At the same time, a team of researchers from NYU's School of Medicine is hoping to begin work educating residents on the impacts of the contamination on public health, and testing their toenails for traces of the metal.

It turns out our toenails keep better records than government agencies sometimes.

 "There's no information," said Miguel Reyes, a member of the community group URGENT Garfield that's turned up at public events to protest the government's handling of the site. "People need to be held accountable. Nobody's putting the blame on anybody, and we need to investigate if the city fumbled the football."

Read more here:

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2013/03/as_chromium_contimation_concerns_loom_nyu_researches_plan_to_test_toenails.html

"Nobody's putting the blame on anybody, and we need to investigate if the city fumbled the football."          -Miguel Reyes, Pres. of URGENT

Garfield man in legal limbo after being accused of harrassing Bergen prosecutor's office

Members of URGENT in Garfield, New Jersey

According to nj.com:  

GARFIELD — Weeks before a grand jury cleared police officers in the shooting of a local teenager last year, a group of residents upset with the investigation bombarded the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office with phone calls.

It had been three months since Malik Williams was killed in a confrontation with police after fleeing the Garfield police station where he was being booked, and few details had been released.

Wayne Harper says he called three times himself.

"It was 90 days," he said recently. "We didn't hear anything at all."

Bergen Prosecutor John Molinelli fielded one of those calls from Harper, warning him that if he called again he'd face harassment charges. He called again.

In the year since, Harper has been fighting that single charge of harassment in a Passaic County municipal court after being granted a request for a venue change. A verdict was expected this week, but The Record reported that the judge, citing personal issues, had to again postpone a ruling.

"The bottom line is making phone calls to a public office isn't harassment," Harper said.

 Read more here: 

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2013/05/garfield_man_in_legal_limbo_after_being_accused_of_harrassing_bergen_prosecutors_office.html#incart_river_bergen

"The bottom line is making phone calls to a public office isn't harassment." 
                              -Wayne Harper, URGENT Member 

Verdict postponed in URGENT member's harassment case

According to northjersey.com:

LITTLE FALLS — A municipal court verdict was postponed Tuesday in the case of a Garfield man accused of harassing the Bergen County prosecutor during a probe of a police shooting.

 “I’m appalled! This is too much,” Harper, visibly frustrated, said after learning that his case would be adjourned. “This is definitely looking shaky — suspicious.”

A verdict had been expected Tuesday in the 13-month-long legal case against Harper, who has been on trial in Little Falls Municipal Court on a charge of harassment, a disorderly persons offense, for making repeated telephone calls to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office on March 7, 2012. The intent of those calls, police allege, was to harass employees of that office, including Prosecutor John L. Molinelli and his assistant, Patricia Scanlon.

About 15 people came out to support Harper on Tuesday, including Garfield Councilman Glenn Mati; Williams’ mother, Shirley, and Miguel Reyes and Reggie Buggs of United Residents of Garfield Engaging Neighborhood Transformation (U.R.G.E.N.T.), a community group that formed after Williams’ death.

Read more here:

http://www.northjersey.com/garfield/Verdict_postponed_in_harassment_case_related_to_Garfield_police_shooting_.html

“This is definitely looking shaky — suspicious.”  
              -Wayne Harper, URGENT Member

We were greeted by the sun, but startled by the surreal devastation!

The United Residents of Garfield Engaging Neighborhood Transformation (URGENT) helped "Restore the Shore" by participating in helping clean up communities, beaches and bays still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

President of URGENT Reggie Buggs. Buggs said they arrived down the shore at 8:30 a.m. by transportation that was provided by the Garfield City Manager Tom Duch and the mayor and council.

"We were greeted by the sun but startled by the surreal devastation," Buggs said.

Read the whole article here:

http://www.northjersey.com/community/205429171_URGENT_group_of_Garfield_helps_to_restore_the_shore.html

 

"We were greeted by the sun but startled by the surreal devastation."    -Reggie Buggs, VP of URGENT