Heavily Armed Police Brutalize the Community and Target and Arrest Copwatch Monitors

It is a Mexican community tradition to non-violently celebrate Cinco de Mayo in peace and safety; and it is also a police tradition on Cinco de Mayo to brutalize and terrorize the community. On Friday evening 5/5/06, there was a public and peaceful Cinco de Mayo music and spoken word event held on the corner of Story and King which was viciously attacked by riot police.

Community Volunteer video monitors were at the event, to help maintain the safety of the community and document the atrocious decade's long pattern of brutality by the San Jose Police Department against the people of the Eastside.

The San Jose Police Department, true to its own barbaric tradition and history, attacked both the community and those who had put themselves in harms way by monitoring San Jose Police behavior with video cameras throughout the duration of the Cinco de Mayo weekend. The attack was caught on multiple video tapes.

Six of these community volunteers were victimized, harassed, assaulted, beaten, arrested and their footage and property seized at this peaceful, legal gathering on private property by the San Jose Police: Brian (age 27), Victor (age 23), Jake, Carlos (age 24), Jose (age 22), and Elsie (age 38). These volunteers were participants and organizers in this peaceful, non-confrontational event attended by people and their families; men, women, and children from throughout the community, with the support of the local businesses and the permission of several of the onsite San Jose Police Department officers in attendance, prior to the acts of unprovoked intimidation, terrorism, violence and attack that were perpetrated by heavily armed, riot clad, club wielding, and fist swinging officers of the San Jose Police Department against these volunteer monitors that night.

We, the All Communities Defense Committee, on behalf of the Eastside 6, demand:
-The immediate and unconditional release of all these volunteers
-The complete dropping of all charges against them
-The immediate formation of a grand jury inquiry into the actions and patterns of terror of the San Jose Police Department and an immediate moratorium
-And that the community is allowed to safely celebrate Cinco de Mayo without being terrorized and victimized by the San Jose Police Department or anyone else

We hereby encourage and declare that:
-Our Volunteer Community Monitoring shall continue throughout the Cinco de Mayo weekend, and until such time as the San Jose Police cease and desist their brutal, racist and violent tactics of repression and intimidation against our community, and that the WHOLE COMMUNITY is encouraged to come out in numbers with video cameras of their own - as is their right - to record and document the ongoing violence, hostility, bad-attitudes and uncontrollable behavior of the San Jose Police against our community.
-Lastly that we shall be issuing shortly video evidence of this entire Cinco de Mayo encounter, as well as several other encounters from throughout the city that night.