He was responding to the shattering of the storefront window in the Socialist Workers campaign office and Pathfinder Bookstore during the early morning hours of May 29. The vandalism was discovered when campaign supporters arrived to plan activities for the Memorial Day holiday. Damage was estimated at more than $500.
Just two days before the attack, Sarge was part of a Militant Labor Forum panel there, featuring opponents of police brutality. The forum, titled "Stop the killer cops! What's behind the revelations about the Detroit police," took up recent disclosures about killings and violence by city cops.
The panelists included Arnetta Grable, whose son was killed by a Detroit cop three years ago, in a case against the cops that recently opened in court; and Abayomi Azikiwe, an organizer supporting the fight to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and abolish the death penalty.
Sarge, an auto worker, explained that the attack "was directed at other fighters against police brutality as well." Grable and Azikiwe both reported that activists opposing police brutality "have faced harassment in Detroit."
"My campaign," Sarge told reporters, "will continue to speak out against police brutality and the death penalty, and support the struggles and resistance of working people today."
Attending the news conference were reporters from the Michigan Citizen, one of the city's major Black newspapers, and WHPR radio, which plans to broadcast excerpts of Sarge's comments.
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