#endstateviolence

The morning air in Minneapolis is usually filled with the routine sounds of parents dropping children at school—a universal act of care. For Renee Nicole Good, 37, that routine ended in a tragedy that has left three children motherless and a community demanding answers. While official reports from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often lean on clinical language to describe “encounters,”…

On Tuesday, May 5 at 8:30 am, former Red Bank Officer Mark Kaylor was scheduled to appear in front of Hamilton County Judge Rebecca Stern to face charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and official misconduct for the April 2014 beating of Candido Medina-Resendiz that left Resendiz with a fractured eye socket. Before Judge Stern even entered the courtroom, a series of whispers and nods between attorneys and court employees led to a continuance until June 22. Nonetheless, Concerned Citizens for Justice (CCJ) and community members demonstrated outside before the scheduled hearing and will continue to put pressure on the system, despite the harassment and intimidation of police in response to our attendance and distribution of flyers.  

With a Civil Rights lawsuit over his head, as well as over the City of Red Bank, Kaylor has stated that he feels confident that he will beat the criminal charges he was indicted on. Many of us remember Kaylor’s history of Internal Affairs complaints for excessive force, his notoriety for wrongfully arresting folks on bogus DUI charges, or from the media he and Red Bank’s “finest” received for their beating of Mr. Resendiz and Mr. Anthony Lopez- another Latino man who was brutally assaulted by Officer Kaylor.

We demand justice for Resendiz and all of the Red Bank Police Department’s victims. As we have always maintained, this is not a case of “bad apples,” but of the systemic oppression of Black, Brown, and poor communities. We recognize this case as being connected to the State-sanctioned violence committed against people across the country. We know that the Red Bank Police Department arrests Black people at over 4.3 times the rate of Non-Black people, which contributes to the Black community's over-representation in Hamilton County’s Silverdale Correctional Facility--Black people represent more than 44% of the population in Silverdale, while only representing 20% of the overall population of Hamilton County.

Kaylor’s indictment was a surprise for many of us in a time when State violence at the hands and muzzles of police operating with impunity (ie., without consequence or any measure of justice to the individual victim or their family and community)  is becoming increasingly visible and criticized due to the uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston, and the strategic organizing and hard work of thousands across the country. Consequently, this is also a time in which City Halls and Police Departments are in full public relations mode to distance themselves from the reality of systemic state violence and the unaccountability of their foot soldiers. This instance is just one in a long history that demonstrates the need for a Civilian Oversight Board of the police, with investigative and disciplinary power.

We are not holding our breath for justice from Hamilton County; The murderers of Oscar Grant and Eric Garner were officially indicted as well. In stark contrast to the way the system treats Black, Brown and poor people like Chattanooga’s own Unjolee Moore, Kaylor’s position as a police officer affords him the legal protection of “The New Jim Crow:” access to more experienced attorneys, and a more intimate knowledge of and relationship with the courts. We will be educating, agitating and organizing our communities to fight back and hold cops, judges and elected officials accountable for the violence they perpetrate against our loved ones!