CRITICAL MASS ALERT / Police Muder of Martin "Fred" Cotton in Eureka, CZ

[Iolm...@cs.com]

Idriss Stelley Foundation (ISF)
Law Enforcement Accountability Direct Services
4921 3rd Street, SF CA 93124
(415) 822-4732 office
(415) 595-8251 24HR Bilingual Crisis line REPORT POLICE BRULITY
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://www.myspace.com/ISFOUNDATION
________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Redwood  Curtain Copwatch Comrades,
Dear Friends and Allies

Please forward far & wide !

26 yr, Manic depressive homeless brother
Martin "Fred" Cotton II
was  beaten, pepper sprayed, hooded, handcuffed and brought into custody,
where he died, screaming for 15 minutes,
beaten to death by multiple  custodians,

The official version is that Cotton "

banged his own head to death". They obviously cannot claim 'Excited Delirium" in this horrible case, due to witnesses accounts, and the extent of Cotton's injuries.

To Redwood  Curtain Copwatch staff :

Please encourge the family and friends  of  Mr. Cotton to call our 24 HR bilingual Crisis line at (415) 595-8251 for emtional support and legal referrals,

My own, only child,   23 yr, AfriKan American teacher was murdered by SFPD on 6-13-01,

"MANIC DEPRESSIVE", 48 bullets, 9 "Peace Officer", during a "5150", (crisis intervention), while my child Idriss"E" Stelley sat alone in the back of an emptied theater at the SF Sony Metreon Theater.

Accioding to Jeff Adachi, head of SF Public Defenders' Office. Idriss Stelley's PD' assassination  is at the root of the SFPD 40 HR Mandatory Mental health training, ratified in 2002, and Prop H  Police Reform (Restructuration of the SF Police Commission), that passed by a substantial margin on the 2003 ballot, in spite of considerable outreach and financial support from the Police Officers Association to defeat it.

ISF would be happy to set up a "Justice4Fred website" to grow the family support, and a Justice4Fred petition online.

We manage  and moderate 76 related welsites for social ad racial justice, most being  support tools for families impacted by police brutality,

In doing so, we seek no credits, and would follow the lead of Mr. Cotton's family, and Redwood  Curtain Copwatch, we only wish to be of service as or if  you see suitable , and helpful to gain Justice for Mr. Cotton,

We also hope to be in touch with Red Curtain Copwatch to share our resources and related list serves, as well as hints on strategic planning  around this horrible case  with you and Mr. Cotton's family,

You might want to get in touch with Leroy Moore as well, Disabled adbocate and reporter at Poor Magazine,
sfd...@yahoo.com,
http://www.leroymoore.com/
Brother Leroy and I facilited the Mental health, disability and police abuse workshop at the first National Copwatch Conference at Laney College in Oakland last June , along with Mental Health and Police Accountability Trangender Sister Dekphine Brody

and Marlon Crump, also reporter at poor, also client of ISF, lives in an SRO hotel and recovering  from PTSD due to his own assualt by SFPD, Brother Marlon's case  goes to Federal trial (filed In Pro Per) on 2-19-08 in San Francisco, on Racially Biased Policing and police misconduct
marli...@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marliniumn/

and Caz (Justin), disabled Gay Activist
justind...@gmail.com,

You might also get in touch with my Godchild Sgt. Delacy Davis, founder and president of Black Cops Against Police Brutality
DELA...@cs.com
www.b-cap.org

You may want to check on the following
related  websites set up by Idriss Stelley Foundation,

(disabled or mentally "ill"victims and survivors,
Family Support,  Cops Roid Rage, :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E_SUCKS/
End Steroids Use by CKopS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/E_PAST/
Stop Police Abuse against SRO Tenants.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EFAPO/
Empowered Fanilies Against Police Abuse
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4CRAIG/
Craig Holden, 21, Black, disabled (severe asthma, dioed in custody in SF qithout his life sabinng medecine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/National_FAMLE/
Danny Garcia's website, President of national Families Against Muder by Law Enforcement.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Mahdi/
Mahdi Gallespie, Black, Homeless with mental health issues, severely beaten by SFPD and offered a bribe for his silence
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justice4richard/
Richard Tims, diabled with AIDS Dementia, killed by SFPD
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4SHANE/
Shane Hayes, suicidal, killed by San Diego PD
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/melvin4justice/
Melvin Hodges, Black, homeless with Mental Health issues, repeatedly brutalized by SFPD and Homeland Security, Borther Melvin does a weekly show on SF_Village_Voice Community Radio, 100.5 f.m., hosted by Idriss Stelley Foundation
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/PTSD_PoliceAbuseSurvivors/
Post Traumatic Stress Survivors fighting Police Brutality
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RememberClarenceRayAllen/
Clarence Ray Allen, 76 yr. disabled  Elder Shoktah  murdered by Ca. State in San Quentin
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaveLashaun/
Lashaun Harris, Black, Youth w/ schizoprenia, now on suicidal watch  in custodym facing a possible life sentence instea of placement in a maximum security psychiatric facility, with adequate medical assistance.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SPAAMI/
Stop Police Abuse Against the Mentally ill

In Unity and Respect
meshá Mongé-Irizarry, Idriss' Mom

Director of :
*    `Idriss Stelley Foundation
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
*     Education not Incarceration SF Chapter
*     SF_Village_Voice Community Radio, 100.5 f.m.
Host of :
*     SF AACPRB (African American Community Policing Relations Board, South East Branch)
*     SF Bayview CEDP (Campaign to end the death penalty,and Save Kevin Copper Campaign)
Member of :
*     YEFAB (Youth Empowerment Funding Advisory Board, SF)
*     Hurricane Relief Board
*     BlackBrownUnity National Movement
*     Bay Area Racial Justice Brigade
*     We_Are_The_Ones_We-Have_Been_Waiting_For Movement  (honoring
     a 1000 Women who  
     make a substantial difference in our Peaceful World, spearheaded by Dorinda
     Moreno, Mother of the Xicano Moratorium).

SF Bayview National Black Newspaper reporter.
________________________________________________________________________________

In a message dated 8/26/2007 4:29:28 AM Pacific Daylight Time, copwa...@riseup.net writes:

Subj:[copwatchla-announcements]

Police continue to Kill behind the Redwood Curtain
Date:8/26/2007 4:29:28 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From:    copwa...@riseup.net

Redwood Curtain CopWatch (in Coastal Northern California) asks you to
forward this widely.  Please contact us if you want more info, and if you
can offer useful information, legal ideas, direct action ideas, further
exposure, national pressure... even recording equipment.

Below is an update (we wrote on August 20th) that we are trying to spread
locally-- and far and wide.

---------------------------------------------------------

Man  Beat To Death by Police
in Eureka, CA  August 9, 2007

MARTIN "FRED" COTTON II
IS THE 6TH PERSON TO BE KILLED BY POLICE
IN EUREKA

IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.

The five other victims were shot by the Eureka

Police.

None of the police involved in the killings have been prosecuted

or fired.

Martin, a 26 year old houseless man, was brutally beat by cops

in downtown Eureka, directly in front of the 'Rescue Mission' (homeless shelter). Protests regarding Martin's death and accelerated police brutality have since occurred in the downtown area.

UPDATE FROM REDWOOD CURTAIN COPWATCH
Contact: copwatchRWC@ riseup.net


(707) 633-4493.

Since Redwood Curtain CopWatch learned of the Thursday August 9th death of
Martin “Fred” Cotton II, we have spoken with many witnesses and other
community members regarding the events leading to Martin’s death.
Immediately after the Sheriff’s Department sent a press release (on the
afternoon of August 10th), local papers wrote ‘stories’ simply parroting
the police account and criminalizing Martin. People’s reports to Redwood
Curtain CopWatch and to ACLU members share many common threads; facts and perspectives that stand out starkly against the police account.

Martin was pepper sprayed and then beaten severely by the Eureka Police
Department [EPD];

a sack was thrown over his head and he was taken to jail. There, we believe he was further beat by Sheriff’s and possibly also
EPD officers. The man next to the cell where Martin died witnessed
officers dragging Martin, who was hooded and handcuffed, into a cell.
Multiple officers (but no medical staff) then went into the cell. After 15
minutes of intense thumping and moaning coming from the cell, the officers exited. No further noise came from the cell. The man in the adjacent cell was soon released. According to the Sheriff’s Dept, Martin died two hoursafter booking.

Martin, known to be manic-depressive, was involved in a confrontation at
the Eureka Rescue Mission on Aug. 9th, just weeks before his 27th
birthday. Rescue Mission staff called the police, who arrived after
Martin, unarmed, had already been ejected from the Mission. The EPD
officers, whose names continue to be withheld by EPD, immediately pepper sprayed Martin, kicked him, beat him with night sticks, and punched him with fists—for up to 20 minutes by many accounts. EPD pummeled Martin all over his body, including heavily attacking his kidney area and his legs

while he was

face down on the concrete. Each witness with whom we have separately and independently spoken regarding the attack by EPD has said
at least five officers inflicted the beating, with several more present at the scene.

Not one such witness observed Martin threatening or attacking

the police. Many people present explicitly stated that Martin never reached for an officer’s baton. All witnesses have expressed trauma at
watching what they explained as an

unwarranted, long-lasting, and deadly beating.

EPD officers intimidated people attempting to photograph the public
incident; one woman trying to take photos on a cell phone was reportedly
told to “put that f---ing cell phone away!”

Eureka Mission House Manager, Bryan Hall, ordered some of the men who
reside at the Mission and were witnessing the brutality to go inside after
several minutes of the beating.

Bryan, who made the call to police, was

the only person from the Mission to attend the so-called "Town Hall meeting" featuring EPD Chief, Garr Nielsen, on Thursday August 16th. Bryan defended the police and told a very different story than we have heard from all other witnesses. It is our informed belief that the men who stay at the Mission were not allowed to attend the meeting to share their stories. Additionally, many of the witnesses, who already suffer from police
harassment and abuse, are fearful of retaliation if they were to step forward.

On the 16th, Chief Nielsen admitted that he hadn’t read a report from the
incident, yet since his very first interview on the matter he has insisted, without a doubt, that ‘his’ officers were warranted in their actions. At the same time he has consistently criminalized Martin and justified the killing with speculations of drug use, even going so far as to

blame Martin for his own death.

At the Thursday meeting Nielsen spoke

of a Sheriffs’ film showing Martin banging his head on the walls of the jail. Nielsen repeatedly expressed relief stemming from his conclusion that

Martin banged his own head to death, rather than being killed by officers. Two days after the meeting, Nielsen admitted that he had not seen such a film. Throughout the “Town Hall” meeting, (actually occurring in a private restaurant owned by the mayor), the chief seemed far more concerned with EPD’s public image than with the tragic death of another human being.

Martin is the 6th person killed by the hands and weapons of local police
officers (all involving EPD) in the past 2 years.

Martin’s death was

perhaps the most brutal. Lawsuits have been filed against the City of Eureka by 3 other victims’ families. The District Attorney and the police
have, regarding each incident, claimed that the force used by officers was
justified.

A former cop and 28-year forensic ballistics expert explains:

with the thousands of police involved shootings that have occurred, there are few where the officer or department has admitted a mistake or error in judgment; the department usually investigates its own shooting incidents and clears themselves and the officer of any wrongdoing.”

We have no faith that justice or accountability will come from the closed
circle of the EPD, DA, Sheriff’s Dept, and Coroner.

EPD is hoping for a toxicology report* that will indicate some drug in
Martin’s body, so as to further criminalize Martin and distract from EPD
officers’ behavior---behavior that is unacceptable and unwarranted under
any circumstances.

Meanwhile, no officers involved in the deaths of Martin and others have been tested for drug or steroid use.

Although Martin was severely injured from the cruel and undeserved
beating, EPD took him directly to jail to die, rather than immediately
bringing him to the hospital. Neither Nielsen nor any jail employee
(Sheriff’s Dept) has indicated that Martin was seen by medical staff while
in their custody, until he was dead. This is unacceptable and adds to the
outrage that we feel.

Even if one were to ignore the deadly beating inflicted by police in front
of the Mission and accept Nielson’s ‘theory’ that Martin banged his own
head to death, the police would be responsible; Martin was ‘in their custody.’

Martin was houseless... And he is someone's son, grandson-- and a brother
and friend to others. We are tired of community members dying at the hands
of police. Killing by EPD cannot be seen as a mistake-- it is EPD’s modus
operandi, and it must stop.

Redwood Curtain CopWatch believes that as a community we can work towards creating real justice that heals and transforms rather than destroys and
erases. Police violence does not make us safe. The police, as a structural
component of our society, have not outgrown their long legacy of
protecting the rich ‘from the poor’; and have accelerated their practice of further marginalizing the people most trampled by our socio-economic system.

We have experienced, documented, and heard stories about the consistent
abuse of people who have mental health issues and of people who are homeless.

These targeted populations are integral parts of our

neighborhoods and families. (Martin was one of

3.3 million people in the U.S. diagnosed as manic-depressive.) People who are in crisis need help not violence.

The police believe they can treat many of us like we are ‘scum’, like we cannot feel

pain--our bodies and lives worthless, can be exploited and violently disposed.

In contrast, Redwood Curtain CopWatch

wants to create grass-roots support networks that

respect, nurture, and heal the community; exploring true conflict resolution that has nothing to do with the police.

Please help us imagine creative alternatives to the violence of police. Let's work towards justice that is nourished by knowing our neighbors, taking care of each other, and relating to each other as dignified human beings.


*a few days after this was written, the coroner, local cops, and media are
claiming that a toxicology report may suggest that Martin had potentially
lethal amounts of LSD in his system.  A scientific impossibility.