Police Intimidate and Attack Witnesses to the Shooting Death of Javon Dawson

Keon was detained and subjected to search of his person and locker as a result of authorities’ claim that they got a tip from an “agency” that he had a gun. Even after it was clear that Keon didn’t have a gun, he was interrogated further alone with one cop who attempted to have him say he had a gun.

This is only the latest in a series of attacks against witnesses to the June 7 police murder of Javon Dawson. Several young witnesses who courageously came forward to testify to what they saw that night have been steadily harassed, intimidated, threatened and attacked by police. The parents of some of them have contacted the Uhuru Movement to report that the police have been phoning and coming to their houses to pressure their children to make statements to validate the police cover-up.

The police department, the state attorney’s office and some representatives of the media have explained witnesses’ hesitancy to make statements to the police as due to a so-called “no snitch culture.” In fact, the deep rift between the law enforcement agencies and the African community is a result of the ruthless code of intimidation and hostility carried out by the police department, sheriff’s department and state attorney’s office against the African community.

This popular police practice of violating the law to attack African people and then lying to cover-up their actions, was exposed by some media on August 21, 2008 when they reported the suspension of two St. Petersburg Police officers for illegally towing and defacing a memorial to Javon and then lying about it in their official reports.

In fact, the two cops, Courtney Zak and George Lofton, initially reported that they had towed the memorial and scraped the posters of Javon Dawson because it was a “community hazard.” After a citizen filed a complaint with photos of the police actions, the officers admitted to an internal affairs investigation that they acted because “they did not agree with the posters’ message.”

If the police lied in their reports to cover-up their illegal destruction of the Javon Dawson memorial, why should anyone believe the reports they have constructed about the night of Javon’s execution?

In a press conference on Wednesday, September 3, Uhuru Movement representative Kobina Bantushango stated, “These tactics will not work. The Justice for Javon Dawson Committee will not take a single step back. We continue to demand an unbiased, independent, transparent investigation into the execution of Javon Dawson.

“We do not believe that the FDLE investigation ordered by Governor Charlie Crist will be unbiased or fair. We know that Governor Crist, State Attorney McCabe, Mayor Rick Baker, the FDLE, the Sheriffs Department and the St. Petersburg Police Department work hand in hand to carry out a policy of heavy-handed policing designed to terrorize the African community.”

Cover-ups of Police Murders of Africans in Florida Unspoken Policy

UhuruNews.com learned that Bernie McCabe, Rick Baker, former Sheriff Everett Rice and current Sheriff Jim Coats were on Charlie Crist’s “transition team” for his role as Governor.

There are also close connections between Bernie McCabe, the FDLE and the key forces that orchestrated the cover-up of the brutal murder of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, beaten to death by guards at a Bay County Florida boot camp. (see full story: http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=police-take-murder-victim-s-brother-from-middle-school-class-to-intimidate)

Tune in to http://www.UhuruRadio.com at 11:00 and 16:00 U.S. Eastern Time for updates on the Campaign for Justice for Javon Dawson.