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- From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
- Subject: NEWS:Detroit Cops Indicted for Racist Killing/ww
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.221641.14755@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 22:16:41 GMT
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- Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
-
-
- DETROIT COPS INDICTED FOR RACIST KILLING
-
- By Jerry Goldberg
- Detroit
-
- Four Detroit cops were indicted Nov. 16 for the vicious racist
- killing of Malice Green, who police beat to death Nov. 5. The
- indictments were the result of a spontaneous outpouring of
- community outrage.
-
- Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, the cops who initiated the
- unprovoked attack on Malice Green, were charged with
- second-degree murder with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
- Robert Lessnau, a cop who joined the attack, was charged with
- assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder.
- And Freddie Douglas, the only Black cop involved, was charged
- with involuntary manslaughter and neglect of duty.
-
- Even in charging these cops, the prosecutor and judge exposed the
- inequality of the criminal justice system. All the cops were
- released on personal recognizance. Three other cops who were
- involved were not charged. A preliminary examination on the
- charges, normally held within 10 days of arraignment, is not
- scheduled until Dec. 14.
-
- The killing of Malice Green set off a tremendous grassroots
- response in the community. The bloodstained site where the
- killing took place at Warren and 23rd Streets became a gathering
- place where people continue to stop and talk politics. A memorial
- to Green was built on the spot and a people's artist drew a
- beautiful mural of Green on a nearby wall.
-
- Five days after the killing over 6,000 people turned out to view
- Malice Green's body. Two thousand attended the funeral the next
- day, where talks condemning racism and police brutality were
- fervently applauded. Many demonstrations directed against the
- cops and the prosecutor's office have taken place.
-
- For years the reality of daily police brutality and the racist
- criminal justice system has been covered up in Detroit. The facts
- that witnesses lived to tell about the Malice Green murder and
- that EMS workers came forward with testimony seem to lift the lid
- off this coverup.
-
- Throughout Detroit, police attack poor people every day. Homeless
- people are attacked for "loitering" or drinking beer on the
- street. Women standing in line for buses in oppressed
- neighborhoods are accused of prostitution and ticketed.
-
- In 1990, the city of Detroit paid more than $12 million in
- lawsuits stemming from police brutality cases--$3 million more
- than Los Angeles.
-
- Two of the cops charged--Nevers and Budzyn--have a particular
- history of brutality and are called "Starsky and Hutch" in the
- neighborhood. Nevers is a former member of STRESS, a police squad
- that was disbanded because of its notorious racism, brutality and
- killings. When they were in the narcotics division, Nevers and
- Budzyn were known for planting dope to frame individuals.
-
- Twenty-five complaints have been filed with the police department
- against these two cops. None was pursued. The 3rd Precinct, where
- these two cops are stationed, has a history of brutality and
- oppression in the African American, Latino and poor white
- neighborhoods.
-
- In a statement on the murder of Malice Green, William Roundtree
- of Workers World Party said: "The fact that police brutality
- continues unchecked in Detroit 20 years after the election of an
- African American administration exposes one thing. The real power
- in Detroit remains in the hands of big business, the bankers and
- corporations. It is they who are responsible for high
- unemployment, racism, evictions and poverty.
-
- "The cops--whether in L.A., New York City, Detroit or South
- Africa--exist to serve and protect the capitalist system and to
- terrorize and repress the workers and oppressed people, to ensure
- the profits of the rich. It was the response of the people that
- forced the state to press charges against some of the police
- killers of Malice Green. And it is only the continued
- mobilization of the people that will ensure that any kind of
- justice is done."
-
-
- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
- if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
- St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
- "workers@mcimail.com".)
-
- NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
- Modem: 718-448-2358 * Internet: nytransfer@igc.apc.org
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