BY EDWIN FRUIT
WASHINGTON, D.C. - More than 150 people from Pittsburgh,
Syracuse, Buffalo, Richmond, and other areas gathered at the
Justice Department on February 21 to demand federal
intervention in the police murder of Jonny Gammage.
Gammage was killed by city and suburban Pittsburgh cops in October 1995. After a coroner's inquest jury recommended that homicide charges be filed against five of the cops, the Allegheny County District Attorney charged only three of them with involuntary manslaughter.
This past fall, one of those cops was acquitted, and a mistrial was ruled in the trial of the other two. Judge David Cashman is deciding whether to grant a motion to dismiss the charges or set a date for a new trial for the latter two.
Over the past year and a half, rallies, teach-ins, conferences, and consistent picket lines at the court house have kept this case in the public eye in Pittsburgh. The largest demonstration occurred last November when 2,000 people marched to protest the acquittal of John Vojtas by an all-white jury.
While a rally was going on at the Justice Department, a delegation including Gammage's parents; Tim Stevens, president of the Pittsburgh NAACP; representatives of the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice; the Pittsburgh Urban League and Kweisi Mfume, executive director of the NAACP met with Richard Roberts, chief of the criminal division in the Civil Rights section.
The delegation presented petitions with over 6,000 signatures demanding federal prosecution of the cops involved in Gammage's death.
The February 21 day of activities was meant to coincide with the date of the assassination of Malcolm X.
A successful news conference was held in the morning at the National Press Club. Speakers outlined the details of the Gammage case and the unwillingness of the Allegheny County District Attorney's office to vigorously prosecute the cops in a manner that would lead to convictions.
At the rally in front of the Justice Department, Monique Hinton of Schenley High School in Pittsburgh explained why she took a day off from school to come to Washington. "I wanted to protest police brutality with other Afro-American youth and they're not teaching in school what's really going on in the world."
Students from Schenley were part of the 1,200 high school students who walked out of class and marched to downtown Pittsburgh to protest the Vojtas acquittal last November.
Jolene Miklas attends Baldwin High School, which is on the same street where Jonny Gammage was killed. "I'm out here because we have to be here. We can't just let this happen. I've been circulating a petition at school and have also written an article for the school newspaper which they have refused to print. Some of my friends say `give it up' but I won't."
The Gammage case has brought to the fore the issue of police brutality in Pittsburgh. In early February some of the findings from a U.S. Justice Department report were leaked indicating that a long-term pattern of police brutality exists in the city. Mayor Thomas Murphy blasted the findings and indicated that "improvements" had been made in the police department. Some community activists have gathered petitions for a ballot initiative for a civilian review board while others have put forward a boycott of downtown Pittsburgh as a way to address the problems of racism and police brutality.
After the rally a conference was held in a nearby church to discuss the way forward. At an open mike people discussed the pros and cons of boycotts, civilian review boards, and continued mobilizations. Mauri Saalakhan of the National Association for Police Accountability called for a national mobilization around the issues of police brutality, capital punishment, political imprisonment, and sentencing disparities.
That idea, which was well received by the audience, was proposed to be held in Washington, D.C., in August of this year.
Edwin Fruit is a member of the International Association of Machinists in the Pittsburgh area. Mary Martin from Washington, D.C. contributed to the article.