Please call! Juanita Young, Oct 22nd Organizer, Beaten and Jailed

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For Immediate Release
Contact: New York October 22nd Coalition, 866-235-7814, oct22ny@yahoo. com

Juanita Young Brutalized and Arrested by NYPD in Her Own Home

On Sunday evening, November 26, an ambulance was called for Juanita's daughter. Cops came to the apartment first before the ambulance arrived. Juanita wouldn't let the cops in and told them to leave. The ambulance refused to do anything and called for backup. Eight cops showed up and started grabbing people. She kept telling them to leave. The cops threw Juanita in a room, and as one of them tried to hold the door shut, others beat her. After she was able to run out of the room, all eight of them jumped on her at once, kicking her in the chest and back as they handcuffed her. Her daughter pled for them to stop, telling them that Juanita has asthma. Juanita was arrested and brought to the 43rd precinct. Because she was having difficulties breathing, she was brought to the emergency room at Jacobi Hospital, under police custody. Since then, she has been handcuffed to the bed, guarded by a cop at all hours, and not allowed phonecalls. Family and friends have not been allowed in to see her.

Juanita Young is a major activist and public speaker in the fight to stop police brutality. She and her family have been targets of police harassment on several occasions, including an attempt to illegally evict her from her home. Her son Malcolm Ferguson was killed by NYPD in March 2000, a week after he was arrested for being part of a protest against the verdict in the Amadou Diallo case. She has been a key organizer of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation since 2000, and has stood with and supported many victims of police violence.

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People can call in to the 43rd precinct to demand to know why they are holding Juanita (in the hospital emergency room) and not allowing friends, family and attorneys to visit.

43rd Precinct: 718-542-0888
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly: 646-610-5000
Mayor Bloomberg's office from NYC: 311
(or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)
FAX: 212-788-2460
EMAIL: http://www.nyc. gov/html/ mail/html/ mayor.html