BY BILL SCHEER

PITTSBURGH - Widespread anger and protest greeted the acquittal of Pittsburgh area cop John Vojtas in the death of Jonny Gammage. Gammage, a 31-year-old Black man, was killed last year in a traffic stop involving five white cops. More than 2,000 people marched here in protest November 16 and then surrounded the court house and city-county building. They condemned the verdict and vowed to continue the fight for justice, by demanding that Vojtas and the other four police officers be charged with federal civil rights violations. Two other cops involved in Gammage's death will be retried in early 1997, after the judge declared a mistrial at their first hearing. The other two officers have not been charged.

The verdict acquitting Vojtas was rendered by an all-white jury brought in from far away Lackawanna County, whose population is less than 1 percent Black. Two jury members were relatives of police officers. The prosecution did not challenge the jury selection procedure or the racial composition.

"We have no confidence in the district attorney's office," said football player Ray Seals, a cousin and former business partner of Gammage. The district attorney, Robert Colville, is a former cop. His office works closely with the cops to prosecute cases.

Shortly after Gammage was killed, a coroner's jury was convened to hear evidence and make recommendations for charges. That jury recommended that all five cops be charged with first degree murder. Instead, the DA charged three officers with involuntary manslaughter, which is a misdemeanor, and did not bring charges against the other two. The DA called as a prosecution witness Keith Henderson, one of the cops who wasn't charged. Henderson testified that the police actions that night were justified and within the guidelines.

The only eyewitness besides the cops was a former tow truck driver, Frank Belajac, who disputed the cops' story and testified that the police started the fight.

Abdulrazak Shakir, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Gammage, testified on the cause of death. Based on hemorrhages in Gammage's eyes and bruises on his neck and back, Shakir concluded that he died of asphyxiation caused by compression to the neck and chest. In other words, Gammage was pressed against the ground with so much force that his respiratory system gave out. Gammage was handcuffed at the time of his death. Immediate reaction to verdict
TV stations interrupted regular programming to cover the verdict. Reaction was immediate. Within two hours of the announcement, 150 people converged on the court house, many carrying hurriedly made signs. This included people who had never participated in a demonstration.

In Brentwood, the mostly white working-class borough where Gammage was killed, police beefed up patrols, the schools canceled sports practices, and students were told to go straight home. This added to the hype in some of the media coverage of "racial trouble" and of a supposed "racial divide."

The reaction on the streets and in workplaces told another story. "Most of my co-workers, both Black and white, disagreed with the verdict and were angered by it," said Sheila Ostrow, a steelworker at LTV.

"Far from there being a racial divide, I think this has brought the races together," said Deborah Bailey, an African- American activist in the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice and a worker at Carnegie-Mellon University. The day after the verdict the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette printed reactions from people in a large cross section of the Pittsburgh area. Of the 44 printed, only four defended the verdict.

Several speakers at the November 16 protest made reference to the multiracial character of the protest. Roughly a quarter of the demonstrators were white. The action included high school students and others who were at their first protest.

"I called off work so I could be here," said Eva Lavelle, a Black woman who works in an office. She was appalled that the case was tried by an all-white jury from out of town. "Not one of my co-workers defended the verdict," she said. Others tell of police brutality cases
The demonstration, which was initiated by the NAACP, attracted people who had their own cases of police brutality. Dawn King carried a sign with a picture of family friend Maneia "Stoney" Bey, a young man gunned down by police in 1993.

Arnold Staples carried a sign listing several cops' names. At the top the sign said "Civil Rights Violators" and "Nazi Cops." "This cop," he said, pointing to the name Claude Sims, "tortured and beat my son and my nephew while they were in custody. He was off duty and drunk when he arrested them. He pleaded guilty in court, but he is still on the police force." Pointing to another name, Javan Wilson, he said, "This is a Black cop who killed a white guy, shot him five times, and was acquitted. Police brutality is not a Black and white thing, it is a social thing," said Staples, who is Black.

Other signs identified organizations such as the YWCA, the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the NAACP.

The NAACP had projected the protest as a quiet, spiritual, prayerful event. When the protesters locked arms and circled the building there was silence. "The power of the statement is in our silence and in our somberness," said Tim Stevens, president of the NAACP in Pittsburgh.

During the demonstration and at the rally the militancy and anger was evident, though. As the march began chants of "No Justice! No Peace!" burst through, despite the organizers' efforts to maintain quiet. At the rally, calls for any sort of action, especially the demand that Vojtas and the other cops be charged and prosecuted by the federal government for civil rights violations, drew a loud response. Many speakers promoted a boycott of downtown Pittsburgh as well.

Stevens urged those present to register to vote as the main way to bring change. Most of the speakers at the rally were capitalist politicians and preachers.

One young woman, Crystal Somerville, was able to get the microphone and articulate the anger of Black youth who routinely confront police abuse. "It took Jonny Gammage to bring me down here," she declared.

One march participant, Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy, drew the verbal wrath of some marchers. Murphy, a Democrat, has made "the fight against crime" and pro-police pronouncements a feature of his administration. In the wake of the verdict, the mayor has called for a federal investigation into Gammage's death. Murphy left the demonstration early.

Some authorities are worried about the verdict undermining the credibility and effectiveness of the police and the criminal justice system. "Right or wrong, there are a lot of people who believe that because the jury was not racially mixed, the system is not fair," said John Gismondi, president of the Allegheny County Bar Association. "That should be a concern to anyone connected to the legal system. It is absolutely vital that the average citizen thinks that the system is a fair one; otherwise it loses credibility," he said.

Bill Scheer is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1557. Cecelia Moriarity contributed to this article.  
 
 
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