Revolution #173, August 16, 2009
Brutal Police Raid on Home of Juanita Young
As we go to press, Revolution has learned that late Saturday night, August 8, as many as a dozen or more plainclothes New York City police staged a brutal raid on the home of Juanita Young. Juanita Young is the mother of Malcolm Ferguson, who was murdered by New York City police in March of 2000 (see “Victory in Civil Suit Against NYPD: Jury Awards Millions to Family of Malcolm Ferguson—‘The struggle is far from over,’” Revolution 6/17/07). She is an outspoken and tireless fighter against police brutality, repression, and the criminalization of a generation.
In the raid, police broke up a family barbeque, viciously assaulting people, and arresting seven of Juanita’s children and friends, including two of her daughters. At this writing, some of the victims of the police attack have been released, and face criminal charges. Family members and witnesses are very concerned about the condition of Juanita Young’s son J.J., who—according to witnesses—was beaten and pepper-sprayed particularly brutally, and appeared to be in very bad shape, and who has not been released or hospitalized as we go to press.
| “They killed one of my children and now they are attacking my whole family…. But they are not going to make me shut up.” – Juanita Young |
The day after the raid, Juanita Young told Revolution: “They killed one of my children and now they are attacking my whole family.” And, she said, “They’re going after my children to get at me — it’s like they’re saying ‘We killed one and we can take them all.’ But they are not going to make me shut up.”
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Photos of the beatings (by plainclothes police identified only by their guns, clubs, and in some cases visible yellow armbands) are available online at http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/08/106826.html. Revolution will have more details on this outrage, and news about ways people can protest at revcom.us.
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