People’s Coalition for Justice

People’s Coalition for Justice

november 12, 2003, Seattle WA
by Francis Murchison and Johanne Pelletier
pictures will be available soon

After the events of September 11, 2001, the government of President Bush attempted to develop a hemispheric integrated security network and to tighten internal security. The creation of the Patriot Act is a law that gives tools to the government and the forces of order with which to detect, prevent, and control any terrorist attack in U.S. territory. This law gives unequaled power and latitude to the state and the police and has an impact on the rights of the general population that is undetermined as of yet. In a country that is already filled with problems of racism and exclusion of people of colour, this reinforcement of the power held by the police is a major concern for communities of color.

On average once a day in the U.S. a person of colour is killed by the police. Police brutality is a central issue for people of colour throughout the United States. People’s Coalition for Justice (PCJ) is an organization that works on police accountability principally around the theme of racial profiling in the Seattle area. The group was spurred into action four years ago in the aftermath of the brutal killing of David Walker, a black man with a mental handicap. After a dispute with the security guard in a supermarket, the young man fled, and was seen skipping down the street. We were told by K.L. Shannon, a PCJ organizer, how approximately 30 to 40 police cars came in pursuit and in the resulting conflict Walker was killed.

In reaction to these events, the group, formed of a core of 8 to 10 volunteers between the ages of 19 and 30, came together to campaign against police brutality in Seattle. Since 1988, the Seattle police have killed more than 23 people of colour. In each case, no charges have been laid against the police, even when the killings occurred in suspicious circumstances. The officers not only get off repeatedly but are in some cases even awarded for their actions. In spite of this situation in the Seattle police department, police brutality is not considered to be an important issue by the Mayor.

PCJ has been involved in many activities, among which is their Racial Profiling Campaign that began in 2002. The first phase of the campaign, called the No Confidence Campaign, consisted of an opinion gathering survey in the community in order to evaluate the perception of the public to the police. In response to the question “Do you have confidence that the Seattle police department treats all individuals equally?” more than 93% of the people surveyed in the community answered no. The results were brought to the Mayor’s office in order to underline the fact that racial profiling is an important issue among Seattle’s communities of colour.

The second phase of the campaign consisted of a description of racial profiling. PCJ documents how racial profiling effects Seattle’s communities of colour as well as the impacts felt by immigrant communities since September 11th, 2001. The police guild, essentially a Union for the police force, meets once every three years to negotiate their contract. Because the guild is a very powerful institution, the Mayor of Seattle would not wish to commit political suicide by entering into direct confrontation with them. According to the People’s Coalition for Justice, as a result, the police continue to take increasing amounts of power away from the community, which serves only to reinforce institutional oppression and internalized racism. In an effort to bring racial profiling to the agenda, PCJ actively participated in the Racial Profiling Candidates Forum. More than 200 people, primarily of colour, attended, in order to find out the position of the nine municipal candidates on the issue of Racial Profiling and to hear what the candidates intended to do about it once elected.

In the future, PCJ intends to offer workshops in order to inform people who are likely to be victims of racial profiling about their rights. Meanwhile, they admit that it is hard to know what one’s rights are exactly since September 11th, 2001 and the creation of the Patriot Act. K.L. Shannon confided, “We are in a critical situation because they’ve taken so many of our rights away.” She went on to add, “ The country is really asleep because a lot of Americans don’t see what is happening…our government has scared them to the point that they (Americans) will allow them to do anything.”

Overall, the People’s Coalition for Justice wishes to defend the rights of people of colour who are faced with a police force that prioritizes the protection of private property over other rights. It is with conviction that K.L. Shannon told us, “There were so many before us who found their courage and were able to make change. We need to find our courage to stand up to the police department, a lot of us have lost our courage, a lot of us are not willing to stand up.”

People’s Coalition for Justice
c/o AFSC 814 NE 40th St.
Seattle, WA 98105
Voicemail : 206-632-0662
e-mail: klorganizer@yahoo.com