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Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling

Statement Detailing the Events of July 6, 2005
On July 6, 2005, at approximately 5:30 pm, I was informed by a former roommate that a protest decrying our government’s foreign policy would
assemble at the statues located at the intersection of Westport Road and Broadway. My girlfriend’s younger brother, Michael, and I resolved to go as independent observers, detached from the crowd, unwilling to be anything more than a concerned citizen.

We arrived at the scene when the demonstrators reached the sloped park area near 42nd Street. Several squad cars and a police van were already present. As I was standing on the opposite side of the street, I witness the police mace the crowd, strike a few of the demonstrators and arrest two youth. Still on the opposite side of the street, standing on the sidewalk, I attempted to ask every police officer for their names and badge numbers. They all refused. One called me “yard bird” and asked me if I wanted to step into the street and teach him the law. I stood silently thereafter until the situation calmed.

As the police began to leave, a woman, Nikki, called out to me from the opposite side of the street. Nikki is an acquaintance I made through performing at a few open-mic competitions. I made it over to her by way of the crosswalk at the intersection of 43rd and J.C. Nichols Parkway, passing directly in front of a squad car stopped at the red light.

Of the two officers in the car, one of their nametags read “Fletcher” and I recognized him to be the only officer who smoked cigarettes openly during the entire ordeal.

I briefly spoke to Nikki, and she invited me to participate with her and the demonstrators as they marched further, their goal being to reach the Kansas City Board of Trade Building in a response to the G8 meetings. I told her that was their thing, and that I preferred to watch rather than get directly involved. She moved along Southbound to catch up with the demonstrators who had already proceeded on towards the Plaza. I maintained at least a 20-foot distance from the crowd throughout the entire demonstration.

The marchers dispersed upon reaching their intended location, agreeing that they should reassemble at 12th Street and Locust to protest the arrests. At this point I decided to go home, so I turned around and headed Northbound towards my residence at 39th Street and Central. Michael accompanied me during most of this time. His sister and I agreed that to view this march was a rare opportunity for him to get a real live lesson in civics.

Upon reaching 39th Street and Broadway, both he and I were stopped by the police. We were told to put our hands on the hood of the car, and we were searched. An officer asked me my name, address, phone number and Social Security Number, also inquiring as to whether I had any warrants. I gave him my information and responded that I had no warrants. He asked my relation to Michael and I told him. He said I was contributing to his delinquency. He asked me why the demonstrators were protesting and I told him to the best of my knowledge. He asked me who organized the protest, and I said I didn’t know. I told him how I came to learn of the demonstration and how the public was informed through word of mouth, the Internet and posted bills. He said he knew something was going to happen tomorrow night, and wanted to know what information I could provide concerning it. I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about. He then asked why I was there, and I told him that I resolved to go as an ndependent observer, detached from the crowd, unwilling to be anything more than a concerned citizen. He said he didn’t believe me and that I was under arrest while handcuffing me. I asked him why, and he said it was because I was coming into this
country to stir up trouble. I said, “What are you talking about? I’m from here.” He then said I was being arrested for leading and organizing the
protest. I said, “But I was behind the crowd the whole time.” He said “Exactly.” As they loaded me into the van, I asked another officer why they were doing this, and he said I had the rght to remain silent, so to be quiet. While sitting in the open van, the original arresting officer
came to me and asked, “So, your name’s ‘BO-DREW’, huh?” I said, “Yes sir, my name is ‘BAH-DREW.’ He said, “Well then ‘BO-DREW,’ why are they
calling you Michael?” He was referring to my girlfriend who had just arrived at the scene. I told him that Michael was the name of the young
man with me. He then asked me if I was Arabic. I told him that I’m Black and White. He then sneeringly laughed at me and asked if it was a
made-up name I’d adopted. I told him it was my birth name. He asked if I’d ever been arrested before, and I responded “No.” He said, “Well, you are now.” I asked him what the charge was and he said my arresting officer downtown would tell me and they proceed to take me to the police
station.

In the elevator on the way to the booking area, they finally told me what the charges were: not using the sidewalk and not complying with the orders of an officer. My bail was set at $2000. I was released after my friends found a bondsman for me. I’ve tried to obtain a copy of the police report on the incident, but I was told at the police station that no such report exists. The officers issued me tickets, but never wrote out an actual report on the circumstances. This is not surprising to me, considering the charges against me were fabricated.

I’m currently organizing a Hip Hop fundraiser to help pay for a lawyer.

I can be contacted at 913-226-1314, if you’d like to help in any way. Since the incident, I’ve had to create a new email address, because my
original account has been suspiciously rendered inactive or shut down for unknown reasons. If anyone reading this could email or forward this
statement to everyone you know, I’d greatly appreciate it. The officer’s name on my tickets is Huth, his Serial Number is 4755 and his Unit
Number is 185. On my tickets he described my ethnicity to be White, disregarding what I told him, (possibly doing this to avoid being held
accountable for the obvious racial profiling that occurred.
 
 

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Re: ~Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling ~

Fucked up man. Racist fucks ya know.

I barely made it out myself becuase they were picking people off of the sidewalk at random probably basing their picks off of clothes or color or both. I had to dodge one who was shining their spot through the park, they followed me up the street where I ducked and lost them.

Anything you need just ask. Kansas Mutual Aid may have some funding left (ask J-Mac) and we may be able to find a lawyer for you.

Keep us updated about this and the dates of the show.

My email is vladamiraaron (at) gmail.com
 

Re: ~Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling ~

Hear Badru tell his story this Thursday, August 4 at 10am on 90.1FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio
 

Re: Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling

Dear Badru,

I heard your story on the radio this morning and you have my sympathies for having encountered our high handed justice system.
Your right a cop watch system must be in place. But I guess you could have gotten the old bag of dope in your pocket deal too.

On the radio you mentioned that the police have additional survailence on you for various other illegal activities. I would suggest that you immediately write the prosecuting attorney indicating you are considering appeal and you need to have a copy of the report testified to. I would suggest you also write the judge indicating you had requested production of documents and they said there were none and then they said there were some in court. Ask the judge if it is appropiate to ask for sanctions against the officer for such activity. Tell the judge that you are proud of your black heritage and that the officer misrepresented you on the report.
Badru, I'm not an attorney but if your not satisified with the outcome of this you need to start to right this situation.

good luck, randy
 

Re: Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling

First, thank you, Dru, for standing up and being vocal and visible about this, and Mike, for making it public. It takes courage to do both, instead of to hide and hope it goes away... I honor you both.

Second, this is an example of why we have got to get our shit together RIGHT NOW if we're to take back any of our Power. We have to immediately put into place a few processes for this kind of harassment--
An immediate contact list, where we are able to let people know what's happening (and I think this needs to include phone calls, not just the effortlessness of email);
A legal fund that people know about--how to contribute ahead of time, how to ask for help from it in an emergency, who to contact, etc.;
A list of attorneys who are willing to stand up for us and their emergency contact numbers.

I've read that Mutual Aid has this in place, but I don't think people know how to participate with that (I'm not sure where to look). And unfortunately, there's a certain "attitude" toward Mutual Aid that needs to be called out and lost! Last year I publicly read Niemoller's quote and added "they came for the anarchists, but I wasn't an anarchist..." to a large anti-war rally. Unfortunately, a year later, the divisions between 'activists' are as strong as ever, and people are mistakenly grouping each other into worthwhile/not worthwhile categories... bullshit! We MUST stand together... ALL of us! They're not harassing only one group of people. It's widespread and people have to quit ignoring it and blowing it off. For instance, I haven't seen (don't know where to look?) follow-up on what happened to the Lawrence NLG Observers who were picked up at the march. Thousands of people should be on top of that, (including me) just as the response to Dru's circumstances should be overwhelming! Last year when Dennis Kyne was arrested at the RNC and had 12 charges filed against him (bogus, of course)because he's an outspoken Gulf War medic, almost no one stood with him! What's up with that? It's time to overcome the fear that's rampant throughout our communities and STAND UP! and demand justice and answers. (Frankly, this has happened in "minority" communites forever and we're/I'm not standing up there, either...)

I don't have the answers to how we fix this... but we all need to start talking about it, and paying attention. Personally, I think the key problem is that we don't even know how to stand up with each other. Unfortunately, thought KC-IMC and community radio are incredibly valuable, the reality is that they reach a small portion of KC. So the first question is how to engage EVERYONE in this. How do we convince people it's their RESPONSIBILITY to engage in this, to risk their comfort, that there are no differences between us and we have a responsibility to each other? ... this is not about organizations or groups--it's about people, each responsible to each other. And then how do we get information to people about how they can take part in creating the changes? No doubt, we have so much oppression being thrown at us on a daily basis it's hard to determine priorities, and what to address first. And a lot of people are working very hard at whatever they've determined is their main priority. I just think we have to make standing up with each other come first... otherwise, all our efforts are useless. And that means refusing to participate in the divisionary tactics that are being so effectively used to keep us down.

Thoughts? Info anyone can share? Strategies to deal with this? Efforts already in place that I don't know about? Thanks to everyone who already sees this and is working on it!
 

Re: Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling

hmmmm
yeah, so i'll being seeing ya'll August 16th at Jilly's to help me pay the fine right? once we get people in one place we can start getting contact info and build... so really, the first step is bringing your body and however many bodies you can to JILLY'S ON 18TH AND BROADWAY, AUGUST 16TH, TUESDAY, @ 8:00, AND BRING 5 BONES.
now that's real talk.

peAce,
dru
 

Re: Local Emcee Victim of KCPD Racial Profiling

Janice, your call for solidarity is much-needed. As a nitpicky factual point, I would like to observe that the legal observers from Lawrence were not associated with the NLG. The NLG does offer, however, trainings for legal observers. If anyone is interested in participating in such a training for the next rally, please contact daretostruggle (at) riseup.net
 

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