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JUSTICE FOR EARL FAISON AND ALL VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND RACIAL PROFILING
(Statement by Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People's Organization For Progress, at the "March for Justice for Earl Faison and All Victims of Police Brutality & Racial Profiling," which began in Orange, New Jersey, Saturday, October 27, 2001)
It has been two and a half years since his death and justice still has not been attained for Earl Faison and his family. In April of 1999, Earl Faison was wrongfully arrested as a suspect in the brutal murder of Orange police officer Joyce Ann Carnegie. Earl died while in custody after being beaten and tortured by Orange police.
Officer Joyce Ann Carnegie also died in April of 1999. But the person charged, tried, and convicted for her murder, Condell Woodson, is now in prison serving the third year of a life sentence. No one has yet gone to jail or even seen a jail cell for the wicked and horrible things that were done to Earl Faison.
We have come here today not just to demand justice for Earl Faison, we are marching today because justice for Earl Faison is long overdue. The one convicted in Officer Carnegie's case is in jail. Those convicted in Earl Faison's case should be in jail.
In December, five officers, Thomas Smith, Brian Smith, Andrew Garth, Tyrone Payton, and Paul Carpinteri were found guilty of conspiracy and civil rights violations in connection with the beating and torture of Earl Faison. In May, U. S. District Court Judge John Lifland outraged our community when he overturned the jury's guilty verdicts on the conspiracy charge. Judge Lifland's decision to overturn the jury's guilty verdicts was the wrong decision.
Why did we even have a seven week long trial if the judge was going to take it upon himself to overturn the jury's guilty verdicts? His action makes a mockery of the trial by jury system. By overturning the guilty verdicts Judge Lifland took back the little bit of justice that the jury tried to give the family of Earl Faison. Judge Lifland has clearly shown us that there are two systems of justice, one for the police and one for the rest of us.
The families of police brutality victims, the People's Organization For Progress, and our friends and allies are marching today to demand justice for Earl Faison. We demand that the guilty verdicts on the conspiracy charge be reinstated now against all the officers involved.
An appeal of Judge Lifland's decision has been filed by the U. S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey. The appeal will be heard in the United States Court of Appeals For The Third Circuit in Philadelphia, sometime early next year.
The family of Earl Faison and many of us find some solace in the decision of United States Attorney Robert J. Cleary to appeal this hurtful decision. But none of us will rest until those who beat and tortured Earl and brought about his death are brought to justice and punished for what they did.
Earl Faison lost more than his civil rights on the night of April 11, 1999. He lost his life. But no one has yet been held accountable for his death and criminally charged. Earl Faison did not commit suicide. His death was not an accident.
The actions of those around him that night, who took an oath to protect and serve, brought about his death. He was killed and we are marching today to demand that the State Attorney General John Farmer reopen the criminal investigation into the death of Earl Fasion.
We are here today for Earl Faison but he is not the only one we are marching for today. We are marching to demand jusrtice for Bilal Colbert, Stanton Crew, Randy Weaver, Michael Anglin, and Jenny Hightower.
We are marching to demand justice for the three minority men shot by officers Hogan and Kenna on the New Jersey Turnpike, and we say that the deal being offered to those officers that would prevent them from serving any jail time for what they did is a slap in the face to our entire community. We are marching today to demand justice for all the victims of police brutality and racial profiling.
(END)
The march began at the old police headquarters where Earl Fasion died in Orange, New Jersey. Particpants in the march walked about eight miles along a route that took them through the towns of Orange, East Orange, Irvington, and Newark. It ended at the federal complex where Judge Lifland's court is located. Speakers at rallies along the way included family members of police brutality victims. Among them was Earl Williams, the father of Earl Faison; Ingrid Crew, the sister of Stanton Crew; and Bishop William Pickett, the grandfather of Michael Anglin. Representatives of other grassroots community groups also spoke.
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"If there is No Struggle, There is No Progress," Frederick Douglass