The Wily Filipino

More on the Racial Profiling Incident.

Lots of e-mail messages going around (my colleague Matthew Shenoda tells me it's nationwide now), but I will instead post some excerpts from messages from Antwi Akom himself, on "evidence of a pattern of racial antagonism, criminalization, normalization of racial profiling that can no longer be tolerated." (To be strip-searched, forced to wear the orange jumpsuit, his hands and feet chained and shackled, and placed into the violent offender ward -- "a jail cell covered with piss and shit with 11 other men who had to use toilet paper as a pillow" -- it boggles the mind.)

I am up at 4:00am. I cannot sleep. Because I am deeply disturbed by the institutional racism that is plaguing our campus, communities, and country.

...

This is straight fuckin' harassment that must be collectively resisted before the campus police seriously injure or kill one of us for simply working in our own offices. We do not live in a police state.

Or do we?

...

I cannot sleep. Those less fortunate than me are still in jail. I cannot sleep. This is so much bigger than me. Institutional racism is straight destroying our youth, our communities, our future. ... The pain and suffering that I witnessed has shaken me to my core. I am a changed person.

And I cannot sleep the same again. I am wide awake.

I thank you all for your support.

But I want to remind everyone:

"This could have happened to any of us...and every day it happens to many of us...."

On behalf of the College of Ethnic Studies, the Dean formally delivered the college's request to SFSU President Robert Corrigan to have the charges dropped -- in essence, asking Corrigan to "encourage" the District Attorney to do so.

Later this afternoon, a memo from Corrigan was released, referring to, with characteristic -- ah, what's a good word -- caution, "a suspension of judgment until a full, clear picture emerges and rumors can be replaced by facts" and stating that he "will take no further action until their review is completed." The said review will be conducted by a two-person team -- former City Attorney Louise Renne and former SF mayor Willie Brown.

Meanwhile, a link to a .pdf file from the ACLU (provided everyone by my colleague Andrew Jolivette) on a racial profiling report, produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, that was buried by the DoJ.

Posted by the wily filipino at October 29, 2005 12:01 AM