------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 24, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
BALTIMORE BUS FARE STRUGGLE: CITY COUNCIL, AFSCME WEIGH IN
By WW Baltimore bureau
At a July 14 Baltimore City Council meeting, Council President Sheila Dixon and a majority of the members introduced a resolution requiring hearings and an inquiry into why police arrested one activist and wrote citations against eight others during a recent protest of the bus fare increase.
Jeff Bigelow, a union organizer for AFSCME Council 92, is facing 10 years on assault charges. The other eight community activists were given criminal citations for the use of a bullhorn and are facing a total of $4,000 in fines.
Sharon Ceci, a volunteer organizer with the All Peoples Congress, called tonight's resolution a clear victory for community activists seeking justice.
The next step will be for the council to set up public hearings to gather testimony. The resolution also calls for Baltimore City State's Attorney Patricia Coates Jessamy and newly appointed Police Commis sioner Kevin Clark to appear before the council's Judiciary and Legislative Invest igations Committee.
Ceci stated, "We intend to wage a cam paign to have all charges dropped and to defend our right to protest. The overwhelming presence of scores of police, including city, state and MTA police, along with special SWAT teams and a helicopter, at the recent protest is meant to intimidate and criminalize dissent.
"The unprecedented number of police dispatched to a clearly legal and peaceful protest is an outrageous expense at a time when many in our city go hungry at night and have nowhere to sleep. It is too costly when school children are in need of books and teachers.
"Too often youth in the poorest of communities are targeted for increased police harassment. Their rights have also been denied. In our community work and at the recent council hearings on citations, we heard painful and horrendous accounts by Baltimore city residents who testified to incidents of racism and abuse by Balti more's police department," she concluded.
AFSCME Council 92, representing 30,000 state and county workers, has voted formally to support the case of Jeff Bigelow.
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