BY JOHN STUDER
CHICAGO - "I feel like marching," Rev. Paul Jakes, chairman of the Greater Chicago Committee Against Police Brutality, told a crowd of more than 300 people at a tribunal against police brutality here March 29. The event followed a week of mobilizations by hundreds of Blacks and other opponents of police brutality to protest the second police beating and arrest of 19-year-old Jeremiah Mearday.

Mearday was assaulted by two cops last September and his front teeth were smashed down his throat by a police flashlight. On March 12, in a victory for opponents of police violence, the two cops involved, James Comito Jr. and Matthew Thiel, were fired by the Chicago Police Board. The board said the cops used "egregiously violent conduct" and "conspired to cover up how Mearday received his injuries."

One week after the firing, three cops approached Mearday as he was sitting on his front steps. A number of witnesses have told the press they saw the cops jump Mearday and handcuff him. The cops took the young man to the same police station where Comito and Thiel had been assigned, searched him, and found nothing. The cops claimed a later search found six pieces of crack cocaine in one of Mearday's shoes. Mearday was held overnight and charged with attacking the three cops who arrested him and possession of the cocaine.

Hundreds turned out for an emergency meeting that night at the offices of the Midwest Community Council, a Black community organization. Jakes organized funds from a number of churches and community groups to cover Mearday's bail, and he was released the next day.

William Nolan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the press that Mearday's arrest proved the two fired cops had been victimized. Nolan called Mearday a "gangbanger" and "scumbag."

The cops who arrested Mearday claimed they did not know who he was. They told the press Mearday was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, they were looking for a shooting suspect, and while Mearday was not a suspect, he looked suspicious. But the television footage of Mearday being brought into the police station made it clear the young man's jacket didn't have a hood.

Everyone in the neighborhood who came forward to say they saw the arrest backed up Mearday's description of what happened. Alfonso López, a 23-year-old worker at a used car lot nearby, told the Chicago Tribune that Mearday waved the cops off and "the next thing you know, they jumped him. He was screaming, `I'm Jeremiah, I'm Jeremiah Mearday.' And they were saying they didn't care. They were laughing."

The Committee Against Police Brutality held a press conference the day after the arrest to demand the federal Justice Department investigate this harassment and other charges of police brutality in Chicago.

That afternoon, March 20, cops began scouring Mearday's neighborhood passing out subpoenas and telling area residents they had to show up before a grand jury the next Monday, March 23, or go to jail. Mearday supporters called a rally for that Sunday night at the New Mount Pilgrim M.B. Church to organize to fight this effort to intimidate witnesses to the cop beating.

The featured speaker at that rally of 300 people was former Illinois appellate court judge Eugene Pincham, who volunteered to serve as attorney for all those who had been served a subpoena. The rally was the broadest since the Mearday fight began. All three of Chicago's Black congressmen attended, as well as dozens of area ministers and political figures. Another meeting was called for the following night.

A videotape was shown of the TV coverage reporting the cops' claim that they didn't recognize Mearday because his face was covered by a hood, followed by the footage of Mearday being brought into the cop station. The crowd chanted, "No hood! No hood!"

Monday morning Pincham appeared before Judge Thomas Fitzgerald flanked by 80 opponents of police brutality. The cops had to admit that the subpoenas they had served had no names on them and no identification of any grand jury for witnesses to appear before. The judge ruled that the subpoenas were invalid, and no one could be forced to appear before a grand jury without an opportunity to consult with Pincham first.

Two hundred people rallied at the Old St. Paul M.B. church to celebrate the victory and decided to organize a march in Mearday's neighborhood the next evening. More than 100 people joined that action. Many area residents marched and several shouted support from their porches.

The Committee Against Police Brutality held the tribunal on police violence at the Quality Inn near downtown March 29.

John Studer is a member of the United Steelworkers of America Local 1011.  
 
 
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