Homeowners Fighting Police Brutality Illegally Arrested, Never Charged
Home Closed by Dept. of Licensing & Inspections, Property Seized by PA State Police
Press Conference: Tuesday, June 17th, 1 pm, Outside West Side of City Hall
Click here for a .doc version of the below release:
http://babel.serve.com/...
On Tuesday, June 17th, at 1pm, the owners and residents of 1652 Ridge
Avenue will hold a press conference on the western steps of City Hall to
inform reporters and interested parties about the June 13th police
action seizing their property and sealing off their home. Please read
the release below for more details.
Contact: Hannah Sassaman, hannahjs@prometheusradio.org, 267-970-4007
Andy Switzer, andrew_switzer@hotmail.com, 267-269-5448
http://babel.serve.com/...
Are we beginning to see more and more abuses of Civil Liberties on the local level? If the current administration believes that it is lawful to hold "enemy combatants" then why not the local police, especially when Philadelphia is deemed as Baghdad? Will the neighbors who are "revitalizing" inner city areas allow this to happen? Does anyone who lives in a "revitalizing" areas have an opinion? Is this war against the poor?
On the morning of Friday, June 13th, 2008, plainclothes detectives and a
Ninth Precinct Police Captain entered a Ridge Avenue home without a
warrant and arrested four Philadelphia community members -- Daniel
Moffat, Trevor Burgess, Andrea Okorley, and Jennifer Rock. These
residents were pulled from their home at 1652 Ridge Avenue, arrested,
and detained without charges at the Ninth Philadelphia police precinct
for over twelve hours. Less than twenty four hours later, almost half a
dozen other law enforcement agencies, including the Department of
Homeland Security and the Housing Authority, had conducted a tour of the
property, and the Department of Licensing and Inspections had closed and
sealed the property.
And
Residents stress that this incident happened just a week after they had
begun circulating petitions about police surveillance cameras that had
been installed in the neighborhood. Francisville, which abuts the newly
affluent areas of Fairmount and Spring Garden, has seen a rise in police
presence and in residents being asked for identification in their own
neighborhood and in front of their homes. "It's clear to me that you
don't have to be doing something wrong in order to be targeted by the
police," said Andrea Okorley. "The fact that we were communicating with
our neighbors about the presence of surveillance cameras was threatening
enough."
Please spread the word. This is only the tip of the iceberg as the Philadelphia Police Department begins to institute their "Stop and Frisk" program. I hate the crime in my city but at the same time, I do not want to go through the humiliation of being stopped and frisked for no reason.