Thursday, December 21
12:00 pm
Indianapolis Liberation Center
1800 N. Meridian St., Suite 305
We invite the public to a press conference during which an elderly Black veteran will, for the first time, publicly tell the story of how Marion County Sheriffs Deputies brutalized him as he ate dinner at a hospital before falsely arresting him several years ago. As a result of this incident, not only was the victim subjected to years of court hearings and procedures but, according to his doctor’s records, left with “permanent nerve damage, ie, neuropathy.”
Over four years later, he contacted the Indianapolis Liberation Center after seeing news coverage of a rally organized by one of our member groups. He now has the support, community, and organization allowing him to speak out against one of the two most well-armed and funded gangs in the city.
At the event, he will join a new movement forming around those who most directly suffer the consequences of the police and sheriffs’ violence. That coalition will, additionally, read a statement a statement on behalf of the families of Gary Harrell and Frederick Davis regarding Randal Taylor’s resignation as IMPD Chief.
After introductory remarks, Pastor Denell Howard will read the families’ new statement. Next, we will hear the full story of the victim of the Sheriff’s Department before a representative of the Indianapolis LIberation Center will reveal the course of action we’re pursuing immediately after the conference ends, which will be no later than 1:00 pm.
Compared to the number of surviving victims of this kind of state-sanctioned violence, it is uncommon for one to boldly tell their story to the press and public. The people of Indianapolis are changing that, which is why it is imperative that every person who can attend this conference to show that they, too, stand behind the victim and every other casualty of the war against Black America.
Although the third event in our series, “To and Beyond Mass Incarceration,” concludes the December program on the prison system program, it begins a new development in the growing coalition mobilizing against state violence in Indianapolis.
