People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 23

People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 23

Brenda Bickerstaff (continued), followed by testimony from Art Blakey.

Puncture the Silence

2015-04-11

CLE.001.027

.mp4

English

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

12 minutes, 14 seconds

Puncture the Silence-Stop Mass Incarceration

Brenda Bickerstaff-- "...I filed a complaint; he was fired; but 2 days ago, they reinstated his job--2 days ago, a judge, John D. Sutula. What happened was, he went through the arbitration; arbitration gave him his job back, then the City appealed it, to this judge, and the judge reinstated him 2 days ago. So, I'm lettin' you know, Vincent Lucarelli. And I'm goin' tell you somethin' that was so odd about this. When we were goin' through the court system, and we're still goin' through it now. My lawyer questioned him on a deposition and what he said was, his boss who was a black commander, Dennis Hill, of the 5th District, knew that he was textin' and sleepin' with these victims. So, if Dennis Hill, would a took care of his business back in 2012 when another lawyer called and complained about another client, I wouldn't a got indicted. See, everybody don't know the system like me. Everybody didn't know how to get out the system like me, and get an indictment out from under you and pull records and get text messages. They don't, people don't know how to do that. My clients, they seen...on TV, said, Bickerstaff, we wouldn't a known to do that. We wouldn't a known how to do that. We don't have money to do that, and we run across this every single day. And anybody that's familiar with the court system knows, you don't have no help. And it's sad to say; I hate to say it, but it's true. And I want you to understand too, just like this young lady said, being black is not always right. Cause you have a black man who's a commander, in a white shirt, who's lettin' a detective run loose and do what he want to do, in the black community. But, wait a minute, Dennis Hill told the public he live on Nathaniel Avenue. He got a big house out there in Remindersville, in Twinsburg. He does not live in Cleveland. So, when you run into Dennis Hill, ask him this question, do you pay attention to what your officers do in your district? And my next question is: why in the hell is he still a commander?? I could be in the penitentiary right now for 5 years, for nothin'. 5 years, for nothin'. He put an intimidation case on me, for what? I'm out here doin' my job. So, it's just not regular citizens; it's people like me too. It happened to me. So, I can speak on this. So, all the marchin' and everything is beautiful. Just like this gentleman here, Uncle Bob? We have to take this to a next level. My brother, Craig, I went to visit his grave yesterday. And, I said, "Brother, your big sister still fightin' for ya." He has 2 daughters, Kenisha and Aravia, who sometimes cry out because they miss they father. They was 4 and 5 when he was murdered. They're grown now, graduated from high school; they're in college. They still hurt in pain from the loss of their dad. Now, to the police, he might have been a thug, but to them, that's my daddy. And to me, that's my brother. Thug is not on his birth certificate; it says Craig Lamont Bickerstaff. (Genevieve Mitchell: “Question to you, Brenda, I'd like to ask you a question, what do you think, what's your idea of what the next level is, you and Uncle Bobby?”) I would like to talk about, and I'm so glad to meet you; I read your article, and I would like to talk to you when this is over too. And, don't get me wrong, through the years I've met some amazing people. I met this young lady, who spoke about her son, and the young lady up..., Bernadette, is that your name? Bernadette about Dan Fiegler [sic--Ficker]. I would like all of us to stay in touch. And we fell out a touch. We were all stayin' in touch; Bill know this. Now we are out a touch. I want us to all stay back in touch. Now just like she just said not too long ago, we need some of you down in them courtrooms, to see what's really goin' on. Because I'm goin' tell you how I got indicted. He wrote the complaint; he passed it to Alicia McDuffy; he put a sticker on it sayin', ‘Don't indict this if you don't want to, I'm not worried about it.’ Then they sent it over to Hill; Hill signed off on it without even findin' out any information. Next thing I know, I'm indicted. And then when he said that Hill knew all about what he does, and you're gonna tell me you're a lieutenant, a commander and you don't even know what goin' on in your district? But I'm puttin' this out here because I want you to know Dennis Hill. Do not forget that name. He is a commander of the 5th District on E. 152nd St. He's a black man with a white shirt. He's a black man in power, and he dogs his own people.”

Bill Swain—“I want to say a few things. I want to say that April 14th is Tuesday, and everyone in this room, and their friends, etc., need to be out there. This Tribunal is a stepping stone; it doesn't exist in and of itself. We're doing, we're saying on April 14 across the country it's no business as usual, it's stop police murder, shut down, no school, no work, stop business as usual, we will not go back. That's the rallying cry, April 14. Everyone in this room should take cards and they should...It will begin... (Audience: “She said, what time?”) by reading the names of people murdered by the police across this country. 3 o'clock, northeast corner of Public Square. (Audience question) what? 3 o'clock, and we'll read the names, and there'll be a huge banner of the stolen lives, people murdered by the police. These are our loved ones. These are our people. And we're gonna have a huge banner; we're gonna go through Public Square, that whole area and beyond. But I want to just call on people though, get these cards, get 'em out, get 'em to people, and be out there on April 14. That's the rallying cry right now to get us back into being in the streets, and actually no business as usual. The business as usual is what we've heard today. The business as usual is brutalizing and killing Black and Brown people. That's the business as usual. We can not have business as usual anymore in America. And April 14th is a very important stepping stone to say, "No more!" Thank you. And we got cards, and people should sign up, whatever you have to do, but mainly get cards, get to your people in church tomorrow; get those ministers to talk out about it and say, be down at April 14th.”

Brenda Bickerstaff—“Ok, and I just want to say just one last thing, the young lady, I think your name is King. (Carol Steiner: “No, Rev. Lewis.”) Oh, Rev. Lewis, I'm sorry. (Rev. Lewis: “That's alright.”) Rev. Lewis was sayin' you may not think the politicians is held accountable-- yes, they are. Remember. I'm somebody's mother, somebody's sister. And all these people in here are too. And if they do me like that, they'll do you like that. Just don't get away from that. Just remember that. Dennis Hill. Thank you.” (Applause)

Alice Ragland—“So, we are going to have to leave very soon, so the last 3 people will be Art Blakey, Jeremy Brustein, and Faheem Khabeer, in that order, so, you can just come up. I'm not gonna announce, so...” (Carol Steiner: “Ok, come down.”)

Art Blakey—“Hello, my name is Art Blakey. And, yeah, I could sit up and talk about all the abuses of police brutality that I have went through in my life, and my family, but that would take much more than 5 minutes, so, I'm going to just harp on one incident with my sister. Her name was Nicole, Kiana Nicole Blakey. She was killed on August 18 in 1989. And there was a cop, a Cleveland cop, who was at that point, an off-duty cop, who was stalking my sister, wanting to meet her. But she was much younger than he was; she was only 19 years old. And, we heard that, we got a phone call, sayin' that my sister attempted suicide. And, she was found dead in the hallway of her apartment building, which was, you know, Longwood Apartments. And, we... was tryin' to get more information, but we couldn't even get in contact with them on any part of the investigation or even get information about the body or anything else. We had to actually get a lawyer to actually have them release the body. And, another autopsy report was done and it was found that she was shot twice in the head, (Audience: “Oh, my.”) execution-style. Since then the family had, my family had at one point received a $9 million settlement from the City of Cleveland. And that money was gone away after taxes after lawyer fees and everything else; it was piddley compared to the life of a human being. (Audience: “That's right.”) Now, ...out there, this was my youngest sister. I mean I have 6 brothers and 9 sisters, so we are looked at as a gang. And my sister was destined to go to Ohio State University; she would be the only other person besides myself that went to college of my siblings. And she was going on a full scholarship. And she was supposed to leave that next week before she got murdered. So, now the thing is, and why I maintain stands not just for me, 'cause I could tell like many stories of my own experiences with police brutality, and, with my brothers and I also have a son, who can also tell stories about police brutality. But, this is, and then this is a continuing problem, this needs to be feverishly called out on. And this is why we must get behind April 14 because that is the day that we need to stand up; we need to stand together and call out these atrocities that have been goin' on, you know with police murders, every time you turn around you hear about a police murder. And, also I'm part of the Stolen Lives Project, which I am doing the list..."