NYPD Down on Jazz

[Ian McColgin]

If you want to join a campaign against police repression:

8.16.12 - 2:46 PM - CommonDreams

Nothing But Bullies: Jazz and the NYPD (Again)

by Abby Zimet

A campaign is growing in support [1] of*longtime Harlem activist Joseph Jazz Hayden, 71, stopped last December by New York police who illegally searched his car and arrested him on a felony weapons charge for the pen knife and commemorative mini-baseball bat they found - retaliation, [2] says Hayden, for his several years of videotaping racist profiling and illegal police stops under the city's egregious stop-and-frisk policy [3] that has seen 700,000 people, 90% of them black and Latino, get stopped. Hayden's Harlem/NYC Copwatch [4] documents many of those instances. His attorney in the case, which could see him serve up to seven years in prison, is Sarah Kunstler, daughter of William. There's a*petition [5].

1. http://freejazzhayden.wordpress.com/
2. http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/13...012-08-15.html
3. http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-02-...D-jazz-hayden/
4. http://www.allthingsharlem.com/
5. http://www.change.org/petitions/manh...tm_term=541389

[johnw]

When baseball bats are outlawed, only outlaws will play baseball. Mini-outlaws.

[Kaa]

What exactly is he charged with? I don't think it's illegal to have knives and baseball bats, mini or not, in your car. Is it a parole violation?

Kaa

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

That's not right.
I'm signing the petition.
Thanks for the info Ian.


You should see how the local police treat homeless people?
It's harassment plain and simple.
Not all cops are bad but plenty are.

[Gerarddm]

Where's Mayor Bloomberg on this?