| CopWatch conference for a safer community |
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| by Jocelyn Hall | |
| Tuesday, 03 July 2007 | |
 Marching for justice are Mesha Mong_-Irizarry, center, and other relatives of victims of police brutality. The main goal of CopWatch is to reduce police violence by observing and documenting incidents. Members hit the streets patrolling various parts of the city in order to make their presence to the police known. Some groups use police scanners in order to find exactly where the police are in order to better assist the detained. Documenting can be through video, sound bites or just having some witnesses present to testify in the detained person’s defense. What the different groups hope to achieve from this conference is to discuss theory, different strategies and resources and to bring together the groups, which have grown independent of each other. Throughout the weekend there will be several panels and workshops addressing issues that pertain to the different aspects of CopWatch – from video editing, broadcasting and using technology in organized strategies to how to start your own CopWatch chapter and the role of police in society. There will also be a film fest featuring “Free Ya Hood,” a movie about Brooklyn’s resistance to police brutality. Along with this film will be other CopWatch video updates. An important panel titled “Disability and Mental Health Issues” will include Mesha Mongé-Irizarry, a woman who turned a personal violent encounter with the police into a cause. She is the mother of 23-year-old murdered African American student Idriss Stelley, who was shot 48 times by nine San Francisco police officers in an emptied movie theatre at San Francisco’s Sony Metreon complex in June 2001. A clear case of excessive force, she sued the city of San Francisco for negligence and wrongful death. She won a settlement of $500,000, which she used, after paying legal fees of $245,000, to set up the Idriss Stelley Foundation. The foundation is a safe haven for victims and the families of those who have been negatively impacted, disabled or killed at the hands of law enforcement officers. They provide one on one emotional support and support groups for survivors and the victims’ families and empower them by laying out all aspects of reporting police crimes and seeking justice, from contingency attorneys, the Office of Citizens Complaints and the San Francisco Police Commission and fosters socialization between people impacted by law enforcement oppression to grow their common pursuit of justice. If the foundation clients’ pleas are not taken seriously, the foundation then sets up a petition for action as well as a website in their name. There are currently 71 websites and listserves that clients and their supporters use in their struggle for justice. Irizarry’s foundation has a 24-hour bilingual English-Spanish hotline that receives over 400 calls a month from the community, at (415) 595-8251. The foundation also operates a 24/7 radio station called SF_Village_Voice Community Radio from its office at 4921 Third St. For more information on the foundation, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/. The purpose of Irizarry’s panel will be to alert the CopWatch community that the most vulnerable people that need our help are the mentally ill and disabled. She emphasizes that the police need to be aware of the symptoms and behaviors of mentally disabled people in order to correctly assess the situations they encounter. The Idriss Stelley Foundation is at the center of enforcing the 40-hour mandatory mental health training for San Francisco police officers. Ratified in 2002, this would correct several potential situations where police would use excessive force on the mentally ill and disabled. I’m sure everyone can relate to a time when they were mistreated or manhandled by a police officer. What the CopWatch community and the many foundations and organizations that identify with it want you to know is that you have resources and rights! The CopWatch conference can empower you with the tools and knowledge to take the power the police have and put it back into the hands of your community. We can all learn a thing or two about what to do in the event of an arrest or potentially dangerous situation with the police. You can stop this injustice, make your community safer for everyone and hold police officers accountable for their actions. For more information on the conference or CopWatch in general, visit www.copwatchconference.org. Jocelyn Hall is a journalism student attending Berkeley City College. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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