Subject: Police Abuse List . Including homophobia.
From: WWW Consultation <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 95 12:51:12 -0800

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/* Written  8:43 PM  Nov  4, 1995 by bwitanek in igc:njspeakout
/* ---------- "POL-ABUSE Has Been Implemented!" ---------- */
Posted: Bob Witanek <[email-masked]> 11/4/95

[email-masked] HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED

The moment you have all been waiting for has arrived.
[email-masked] has implemented.  Everybody who
has about had enough of police abuse, you are invited to subscribe.
The following is some information about the service:

List Name: [email-masked]

Owner / Moderator:     Bob Witanek <[email-masked]>

To subscribe, send this message:

subscribe pol-abuse

To this address:

[email-masked] unsubscribe, send this message:

unsubscribe pol-abuse

To this address:

[email-masked]

Associated IGC Conference: justice.polabuse
==============================

PURPOSE:

1. To document abuse by prosecutors, judges (as in Albert Sabo),
police, federal police agencies and jail and prison guards
throughout the United States and its colonies and territories.
Types of police abuse to be documented include:

     A. Police brutality and killings

     B. Prosecutorial misconduct including perjury, fabrication of
evidence, planting of evidence, suppression of evidence,
intimidation of witnesses or other illegal means of denying a fair
trial to defendants

     C. Police corruption including illegal acts, involvement in
illegal gun and drug operations, abuse of power for personal gain
and other illegal acts

     D. Organized and random racism, sexism and homophobia
within police departments including but not limited to the existence
of white supremacist organizations within police organizations,
patterns of racist abuse of communities and racist attacks against
Black and Latino fellow officers

     E. Active campaigning against progressive organizing for
death row prisoners and political prisoners, use of the political
arena and media to repress and suppress information, or to distort
public opinion toward their own racist oppressive interests

     F. Engaging in repressive illegal measures targeting
community and political organizations including illegal wire taps
and other forms of surveillance, intimidation of activists, or any
other means of repressing legitimate political and community
organizing

     G. Other means of abuse of power by police

2. To provide a means for dialogue among those interested in
taking action to campaign against or halt police abuse, to demand
justice for the victims of police abuse, and to discuss alternatives
to what is often seen as an occupying force in our communities,
including possibilities of civilian review board, other civilian
oversight, police watchdog groups and even community self
policing and self defense projects;

3. To formulate, announce and publicize actions by those
interested in opposing police abuse;

4. To promote unity among victims of police abuse, their
supporters and others interested in justice and halting such abuses;

- and -

5. To analyze what is the role of police departments in our
communities, whose interests are being served by their operations,
and at what cost to tax payers and to citizens who often end up at
the wrong end of the billy, so to speak.

==============================
STATEMENT:

>From the antics of Mark Fuhrman, to the massive prosecutorial
misconduct by Philadelphia Police, to the Mollen Commission in
New York, everyday in the papers we learn of more and more
examples of police abuse of power.  Media commentators tend to
write off such patterns of massive police abuse as random acts
committed by "rogue police officers."  But more and more, a
pattern is emerging indicating that police abuse is rampant and
systemic throughout much of the policing system of this nation.

Meanwhile, victims of police abuse and their families are often
isolated in their efforts to seek justice.  They end up running up
massive legal expenses, face harassment, are ridiculed by reporters
and often shunned by their fellow citizens.  Unity among victims
of police abuse and their supporters, while it occurs, is rare.

The internet provides us with a tool to document the pervasiveness
of police abuse throughout this nation.  It has the potential to
link victims of such abuse with others who have also suffered
similar abuses.  It can give organizations interested in working
to fight police abuse a means to analyze the situation and
synthesize effective strategies and tactics.  Through this list,
we hope to begin to realize this potential.

This list makes no claim to be the only internet initiative on this
issue.  In fact, a web site with similar goals to this list has
been set up.  We aim to work with the providers of that site to
coordinate our efforts.  As other such resources become known,
information about them will be published here.

When dealing with an issue like police abuse, we can easily be
overwhelmed by the immense power of the police and be
consumed by powerlessness.  This is especially true if we become
targets for police harassment.  However, through unity, power of
police forces, and the justice system which is all too often a rubber
stamp for their unchecked power, can be balanced by the power of
the people organized and united.  The first step toward unity is to
create a dialogue that can identify the problem and begin to offer
solutions to it.  That is what we hope to accomplish with
[email-masked] .
==============================
DISCLAIMER:

If you make a submission to this list, you bear 100% legal
responsibility for the content of your submission.  The following
disclaimer must appear in your messages which make factual
claims:

I, <your name>, bear full responsibility for the facts contained
in this message.

The following are some guidelines for submitting to pol-
[email-masked] :

* Information should be fully documented, naming the source of
the information.  This requirement is not only for your legal
protection, but so this service can be looked to as a reliable
source of information for researchers, authors and organizers.
Citation of press and other media reports, police statements, legal
documents should be included as much as possible.  Do not
speculate and elaborate on the facts of a case.  Do not confuse
your opinions with the facts of situations.

* If you are going to make claims of fact concerning specific
incidents on this list service, you will need to provide supporting
documentation in the form of news articles, police reports, legal
documents, etc.  They can be provided by faxing to (908)
281-7873 or sending them through snail mail to NJ-SPEAKOUT,
PO Box 1214, Belle Mead, NJ 08502.  The moderator reserves the
right not to post information insufficiently documented.  This
requirement is for your messages which make factual claim about
specific incidents and does not apply to your opinions, which can
be posted without documentation.

* Hearsay should not be submitted here.  pol-abuse WILL NOT be
used as a rumor mill.

These guidelines might appear restrictive to you but they are
devised for your protection and for the protection of this service
as a vital resource.
==============================
WE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING TO
[email-masked] AND LOOK
FORWARD TO YOUR PARTICIPATION.

Bob Witanek <[email-masked]>
(Prepared with able input from Marpessa Kupendua)

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