January 16
GUEST: Elias Holtz, a freelance television producer and queer organizer with The #BradleyPride NYC Coalition and The Freedom Socialist Party, talks about police violence and the story of Ramsey Orta, who was prosecuted and imprisoned for videotaping the murder of Eric Garner.Plan to establish the Elected Civilian Review Board
Reading about the harassment of Ramsey Orta after he filmed the murder of Eric Garner is like taking a peek at some fascist regime of the 1930s. The NYC cops could not be controlled. Ramsey had videotaped one of their members choking a Black man laying on the sidewalk. Viewers could even hear the dying man pleading, "I can't breath."
At first it was shining spotlights into Ramsey's home and stopped people coming in and out of his house. Pretty soon it escalated to arresting him for various crimes. He was jailed at least eight times in fewer than two years before any of the charges stuck. Were the guns and drugs planted on him? In a white world, such things don't happen. But for Ramsey Orta and Eric Garner, their skin color determines whether they are treated with justice or not.
Ramsey finally made a number of plea deals, mostly to free his mother and his brother who had also been arrested. But once in jail, the harassment got even worse. Continually targeted for petty infractions, Ramsey has spent much of his prison time in solitary confinement.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-attempt-ramsey-orta
Elias talked with us about the critical fight to empower communities to combat police abuse. The effort is being organized by the NYC Campaign for an Elected Civilian Review Board and a Special Prosecutor (ECRB). These are grassroots coalitions, led by the Freedom Socialist Party, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and family members of several police victims.
For more information, visit stoppoliceviolencenyc.org.
