CHANGE OF LOCATION: A People's Hearing on Racism and Police Violence

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Contacts:
Miriam Zouzounis, Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Miriam [at] araborganizing.org
415.861.7444

Sanyika Bryant, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
sanyika.unity [at] gmail.com
510.485.3125

People's Hearing on Racism and Police Brutality

The People's Hearing on Racism and Police violence will be held in Oakland, CA on Saturday, February 19th and Sunday, February 20th, 2011 at Edna Brewer Middle School, located at 3748 13th Avenue Oakland, CA 94610.

The People's Hearing is an expression of the outrage over the brutal murder of Oscar Grant on January 1st, 2009, the subsequent travesty of justice with the minimal sentencing of Johannes Mehserle for Grant's murder, the repressive tactics and brutality of the Oakland Police Department against lawful demonstrations seeking justice for Oscar Grant, the string of Police murders in Oakland and the Bay Area preceding and following Grants’ murder, and the implementation of repressive and racially discriminatory "gang injunctions" targeting Latino and Black youth.

The aim of the People's Hearing is to eliminate the isolation of the victims of police brutality, unite the peoples and communities targeted by the governments repressive policies and practices, and to link local struggles for social justice and human rights with national and international struggles. The People's Tribunal will hear testimony from the victims of human rights abuses throughout the Bay Area and the country, including members of Oscar Grants family; targeted communities and sectors, particularly Indigenous, Black, Latino, Arab, and Muslim individuals and communities; victims of racial profiling, police brutality, and gang injunctions; and victims of FBI infiltration and disruption via COINTELPRO and present day disruption operations.

The testimony and evidence gathered in the People's Hearing will be shared with international legal advocates and presented to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), follow-up to the Universal Periodic Review Process (UPR), the Human Rights Committee (ICCPR), and the International Committee on the Elimination on all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) for consideration and action.

Confirmed witnesses include Jack Bryson (Grant family friend), Mario Pangelina (friend of Oscar Grant), Cathy King (Gary King’s mother), Lori Davis (Raheim Brown’s mother) and dozens of others.

Confirmed jurists include Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, David Gespass, Ajamu Baraka, Bill Ong Hing and several others.

The People's Hearing is co-sponsored by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, EastSide Arts Alliance, New Year's Movement, National Lawyers Guild, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant, Collision Course Video Productions, Hard Knock Radio, Onyx, African People's Socialist Party, International Indian Treaty Council, National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance for Racial Justice and Human Rights, and the US Human Rights Network.

For more information on the People's Hearing on Racism and Police Brutality visit http://www.peopleshearing.wordpress.com. Email oaklandtribunal [at] gmail.com.