'From sea to shining sea'

Scan page 2

Barbara Putnam, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

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On March 3, the Los Angeles "boys in blue" were trying to beat Rodney G. King, a black motorist, to death. Not only was King handcuffed, but he was attached to an electric stun gun. Twelve Los Angeles cops stood by watching while three police officers hit the victim over 56 times with their clubs.

They hit him so hard that fillings flew out of his teeth, his eye socket bone was fractured, his cheek bone was fractured, his skull was fractured in eleven places, his facial nerves are probably permanently damaged, and he suffered a broken leg. Medical reports say that he will By never fully recover and possibly have brain damage.

While this was just cop businessas-usual, something new was happening. This vicious atrocity was being recorded by a bystander with a video camera. He sent it to a local TV show in Los Angeles, and CNN, the television news network, played it for the whole world to see.

Watching the video was like watching wild dogs tear apart a helpless victim. But the dogs do it for food-the racist cops were doing it for fun. When tapes were released to the public, they revealed that even when the cops radioed for an ambulance, they were laughing and making racist innuendos.

The Black and Latino people of Los Angeles were outraged. They suffer at the hands of the cops all of the time, but more often than not the forces of law and order cover it up, and the victims are lucky if they don't get sent up for "assaulting an officer." But police brutality is so common, the cops do get caught once in a while.

When people demanded action from L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates, he excused it as an "aberration." But they know better. They are victims of an organized system of racist brutality against the Black and Latino communities.

New York's "finest"

This mad-dog system is not just relegated to the city of Los Angeles-it's par for the course, from West to East, from sea to shining sea.

Across the continent in New York City, the city's "finest" were also having their fun ("partying," one of them said. On Feb. 5, Federico Pereira, a 21-year-old cook who worked in a fast food restaurant, was murdered by N.Y. cops. There was no video this time, but there were three witnesses to estimate than previously admitted. He said that over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers might have been killed by allied air and ground attacks, including as many as 25,000 in the last four days of the war.

Other non-governmental sources include civilian deaths in their estimates. The Red Cross and the the killing.

One of the witnesses said that Mr. Pereira was lying on the ground, handcuffed to one of his legs, which was bent back at a 90degree angle and attached to one of his wrists. He was being hit and kicked by plainclothes officers. At one point, one of the cops stepped to the curb and cleaned blood off of his boots and went back to beat up his victim.

Another of the cops, Officer Paparella, straddled Pereira, entwined his fingers under the suspects neck, and lifted his head back into what was referred to as a "camel clutch," while jamming his knee into Pereira's back. When he dropped him to the ground, Pereira was motionless. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

One of the witnesses, Ronald Harmon, had his car tires slashed and his dog poisoned. Harmon was punched in the head by a cop who took him to the station house and "questioned" him for seven hours. Thomas A. Stickel, Harmon's lawyer, said that his client had been coerced into saying that he had seen the victim "swing" at the cops— which he now repudiates. Other cops are accused of terrorizing and THE BUSH DOMESTIC POLICY some neighborhoods. These weapons are used to kill people, not to disable "military targets.

U.S. planes attacked a bomb shelter and university classrooms. One bridge was hit at three in the afternoon, when 400 civilians were crossing it. Were these just examples of "collateral damage?" Or were they examples of a systematic terror campaign against the Iraqi people?"

"Nowhere to Hide"

The tragic results of the U.S. bombing are shown in a new video, "Nowhere to Hide." In midFebruary, the filmmakers accomACTiON Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Alex Chis, Paul Colvin, May May Gong, Malik Business Manager: DAVID KIRSCHNER Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

San Francisco, CA 94110.

$30. (Money orders, checks should be in U.S. dollars.)

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views expressed in editorials. otherwise harassing the other witnesses, too.

The cops' version of the killing is that their victim was "thrashing about in a cocaine-induced mania, banging his head against the sidewalk as officers tried to subdue him."

Cops are noted not only for their brutality toward the Black and Latino communities. They have a long record of brutality towards workers who are on strike. The history of the labor movement is covered with the blood of workers.

It is the job of the cops to protect the wealthy from their victims when they fight back. The cops often just want to let the workers know who's boss and what they can expect if they get uppity.

The "new world order" is not only for foreign countries but for the Black, Latino, and working-class communities of the U.S.A. The capitalist class wants everyone to know that they are prepared to use whatever methods of violence and terror are necessary to stamp out resistance to their exploitation. The government views the working class of this country as it does the people of a colonial country.

FOREEN panied former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark on a tour of Bagdad, Basra, and other Iraqi towns. Their film documents bomb strikes against a baby's milk factory, a soft-drink bottling plant, a hotel, a public market, buses and trucks on the highway, and numerous private homes.

Two U.S. networks refused to honor their earlier commitments to televise "Nowhere to Hide." But the 28-minute film, in VHS format, can be ordered for $25. For more information, call the San Franciscobased Emergency Committee to Stop the U.S. War in the Middle East at (415) 821-6545.

Closing date:

March 31, 1991