From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: NEWS:Detroit Cops Indicted for Racist Killing/ww
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 22:16:41 GMT



Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


DETROIT COPS INDICTED FOR RACIST KILLING

By Jerry Goldberg
Detroit

Four Detroit cops were indicted Nov. 16 for the vicious racist
killing of Malice Green, who police beat to death Nov. 5. The
indictments were the result of a spontaneous outpouring of
community outrage.

Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, the cops who initiated the
unprovoked attack on Malice Green, were charged with
second-degree murder with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Robert Lessnau, a cop who joined the attack, was charged with
assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder.
And Freddie Douglas, the only Black cop involved, was charged
with involuntary manslaughter and neglect of duty.

Even in charging these cops, the prosecutor and judge exposed the
inequality of the criminal justice system. All the cops were
released on personal recognizance. Three other cops who were
involved were not charged. A preliminary examination on the
charges, normally held within 10 days of arraignment, is not
scheduled until Dec. 14.

The killing of Malice Green set off a tremendous grassroots
response in the community. The bloodstained site where the
killing took place at Warren and 23rd Streets became a gathering
place where people continue to stop and talk politics. A memorial
to Green was built on the spot and a people's artist drew a
beautiful mural of Green on a nearby wall.

Five days after the killing over 6,000 people turned out to view
Malice Green's body. Two thousand attended the funeral the next
day, where talks condemning racism and police brutality were
fervently applauded. Many demonstrations directed against the
cops and the prosecutor's office have taken place.

For years the reality of daily police brutality and the racist
criminal justice system has been covered up in Detroit. The facts
that witnesses lived to tell about the Malice Green murder and
that EMS workers came forward with testimony seem to lift the lid
off this coverup.

Throughout Detroit, police attack poor people every day. Homeless
people are attacked for "loitering" or drinking beer on the
street. Women standing in line for buses in oppressed
neighborhoods are accused of prostitution and ticketed.

In 1990, the city of Detroit paid more than $12 million in
lawsuits stemming from police brutality cases--$3 million more
than Los Angeles.

Two of the cops charged--Nevers and Budzyn--have a particular
history of brutality and are called "Starsky and Hutch" in the
neighborhood. Nevers is a former member of STRESS, a police squad
that was disbanded because of its notorious racism, brutality and
killings. When they were in the narcotics division, Nevers and
Budzyn were known for planting dope to frame individuals.

Twenty-five complaints have been filed with the police department
against these two cops. None was pursued. The 3rd Precinct, where
these two cops are stationed, has a history of brutality and
oppression in the African American, Latino and poor white
neighborhoods.

In a statement on the murder of Malice Green, William Roundtree
of Workers World Party said: "The fact that police brutality
continues unchecked in Detroit 20 years after the election of an
African American administration exposes one thing. The real power
in Detroit remains in the hands of big business, the bankers and
corporations. It is they who are responsible for high
unemployment, racism, evictions and poverty.

"The cops--whether in L.A., New York City, Detroit or South
Africa--exist to serve and protect the capitalist system and to
terrorize and repress the workers and oppressed people, to ensure
the profits of the rich. It was the response of the people that
forced the state to press charges against some of the police
killers of Malice Green. And it is only the continued
mobilization of the people that will ensure that any kind of
justice is done."


(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
"workers@mcimail.com".)

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