Justice For Antwi Akom

Justice for Professor Antwi Akom !
(by mesha Monge-Irizarry, Idriss Stelley Foundation)

Full house in Room 16 on December 5, 9 a.m. at the Hall of Injustice in SF !
Close to 70 students, SFSU Faculty members and concerned community members came in support of Professor Antwi Akom, brutalized on campus by SFSU institutional police on Oct 25, 2005.

By now, hundreds of articles have been written nationwide around the shameful racial profiling and SFPD brutalization of San Francisco State Ethnic Studies Department professor Antwi Akom, arrested and placed in county jail after going into his campus office.

According to his colleagues, Akom came to campus around 10 p.m.on Monday Oct. 25, to pick up a book he needed for teaching his class.
When he arrived in the front of the Ethnic Studies building (which is where his office is located), he was approached by a security guard who asked him what he was doing here. Akom reportedly told the security guard he was a professor and he was going into his office. He then proceeded to go inside.
When he came out, there was a white cop to meet him and told him to put his hands behind his back.
Akom said the unidentified campus police officer was called by the security guard while he was inside of his office getting the book. He said he asked the officer why he was getting arrested, but the officer had no answer.
Eventually three officers threw Akom to the ground and handcuffed him. During that process, one of them hit their face against his knee. After Akom's arrest, his 3 children were left unattended, crying in his car....Blatant case of racialized policing that is pervasive in all aspects of our society.
This is not the first incidence of racial profiling on campus: we sadly remember the institutional police assault, 2 years ago, of a 16 yr. old AfriKan American June Jordan High School student on SFSU campus...

Professor Akom is facing charges of resisting arrest and falsely accused of assaulting an officer ! On Monday Dec. 5, the judge moved the preliminary hearing to July 10, 2006, 9:30 am, waving Professor Akom's need to appear in court.

According to Ashley Moore, Akom's student, Campus President Robert Corrigan has made no apology to Akom for this shameful incidence... and instead set up a "special investigative team" on his case, consisting of... Former Mayor Willie Brown (who has swept all law enforcement brutality cases under the rug during his tenure.... And Louise Renee , current SF Police Commission president, ex-city Attorney nominated by Mayor Newsome, who suggested upon her nomination that the Police Commission hearings frequency should be drastically reduced... Sister Shirley states: " We feel uneasy, unsafe when it comes to legal issues on campus... We will hold a debriefing meeting tomorrow at 2 PM in the Ethnic Studies building". Kenneth Monteiro, SFSU Dean of students came in full support of Professor Akom, accompanied by many concerned faculty members, stressing how crucial it is to be involved in exposing this racial profiling scandal.
Young Brother Boze from "Club Knowledge" at Laney College also came to express his support, inviting us to the Malcom X Consciousness Conference in April 06 at Laney College.

"This scares me" states SFSU Student Tina Martin "I have 2 young children. It gives me no hope. It saddens me that I have to teach my children that they are going to be a target...The whole system is racist, how can I give them hope for equality?..."
Sister Melanie Price teaches at Berkeley High School and contends: "Antwi Akom was one of my professors at UC Berkeley Academic Pathways, always vocal, always present, inspirational... How can this be..." According to Sister Nyuieko: "We have been avoiding issues for some time on campus. This opens my and other student's eyes... We still have a lot to fight for as minorities!". Jessica Arriego, Berkeley Leconte Elementary School teacher states: "It's important our faces be here ! This is what racism looks like..." while Brother Laron from the Western Addition shares: "Yeah it's been going on... A professor got caught up. It's about time we stand up for all the racially profiled young Brothers out there, the police breaks all the laws !"

The small crowd gathered at 10 am after the hearing on the steps of the Hall of Justice. Jeff Adachi, SF Public Defender stepps to the mike :"I need to express my outrage! There is no justification for brutalizing Akom, who was just there, doing his work, charged with a felony in the bastion of 3rd World Class ! Why hasn't this case been dismissed after so many weeks? This is not a complicated case! Why is Akom still being charged? We need to pledge our unconditional support to Akom, this is not only about this case, it's about Bayview, the Western Addition. Akom is a model for our community!"

SF NAACP President Amos Brown stated: "SF State 2005 happened because of perpetrators of racism, the climate was picked up by the institutional police as if Akom was a thug... Rosa Park sat down so that we can stand up in 2005 in SF State !" When I approached Rev Brown to share how Akom brutalization impacts our community at large, he replied: "It's just a reflection of what we have been facing all along".

Steve Phillips, Atty., former SF School Board president states: "Akom is a scholar, an outstanding citizen, a freedom fighter educating the minds of our people, teaching ethnic studies to challenge racist practices ! Apparently it is illegal to do so at State! We challenge interracial profiling at SF State! The DA must drop all charges, Liberate and Educate should not be illegal!" and is cheered by protesters holding signs stating: "Name:______ID#________Don't Arrest Me" "Where are you President Corrigan?" "Answer International Coalition: Stop Racial Profiling"

Shawn Guiwright, Professor in Africata Studies stated: "If this happened to Akom, an Ivy League Ph.D., it can happen to anybody! Drop the charges now!"

By 10:30 am, the crowd slowly breaks up, as Professor Akom, whose strong and serene presence permeates in all our hearts, hugs his students, colleagues and simple folks who just showed up to demonstrate their support. I keep staring at this strikingly handsome, spiritual Black Brother, unabated by repression and adversity, who carries the powerful, heavy legacy of a better future for our Youth of Color. How I wish my AfriKan child Idriss Stelley, murdered by SFPD in June 2001, would have been blessed by his teachings, and love for his People, that exhudes so brightly from every fiber of his being...The Road away is going to be paved with deception, cover-ups, administrative delays, feeble attempts at intimidation.... We are with you, Professor Antwi Akom, every step of the way, Gumbo to our Souls !

(For more information, email Ashley Moore at amooremotte [at] gmail.com or sfsustudentsagainstracism [at] yahoo.com, and write to Justice4Akom-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com to join
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Akom/ (created by Idriss Stelley Foundation)
to join Professor Akom' struggle to End Racialized Policing !)