Police arrests Miami students for peaceful protest
Friday, March 7, 2008
By: Nathalie Hrizi
Parents, community outraged at violence
Ten cops and 6 students were hurt and 27 students were arrested after police were called in to repress a Feb. 29 student protest at Miami Edison High School . Hundreds of students had been peacefully protesting against Vice Principal Javier Perez, who had applied a choke hold to a student the day before.
Parents wait behind police tape
after hearing that cops attacked
students. |
The Miami-Dade county schools are already highly militarized and the district has its own police force. The administration nevertheless called the Miami-Dade police department and, within minutes, 60 to 70 police cruisers surrounded the schools.
When the police officers threatened the students, the students fought back with books, soda pop, water bottles and milk cartons. According to the pupils, the police used stun guns and pepper spray. One student required stitches.
Miami Edison High School is 90 percent Black—a high percentage of students are Haitian and Haitian-American—and 9 percent Latino. Sixty percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, attesting to the student body’s primarily working class background.
As they do in all working-class oppressed communities, the police at Miami Edison High School did not hesitate to use excessive force. The corporate media has described the peaceful student demonstration as a "riot," a "fracas" and a "brawl," and painted the police as a protective—rather than invasive and repressive—force.
Outraged parents and community members met later that evening at Jean-Jacques Dessalines Center, criticizing excessive police action. Relatives and classmates gathered outside the juvenile detention center.
One parent, Edwin Alvarez, commented that his 18-year-old daughter, who is part of a non-violent student group, "was arrested and treated like a criminal for just being in the area.'' He had been given no information regarding her well-being.
Three days after the incident, Judge Lester Langer ordered 19 of the juveniles arrested to return to class the following day and to obey a night time curfew. To legitimize the police intervention, the students were slapped with charges of disrupting a school event, rioting and resisting arrest with violence. If convicted, the teenagers could be sent to special juvenile programs while the adult students face probation or up to five years in prison.
More than 100 students held a rally early at a park across the school before the court hearing. Drivers honked as the students waved signs demanding that the vice principal be ousted and that charges be dropped. At a meeting of community members, students and the police the day before, student Sandra Alexandra had read a list of demands.
"And if they are not met, they will continue to protest until they are met," Alexandra said.
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