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The Enemies, Allies, And Accomplices To The Death of Our Culture

Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965. The brutal beatings are indelibly imprinted on our collective memory as a nation. Scores of civil rights activists intending to peacefully march from Selma to Montgomery were seeking to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge going out of town. They were met by a wall of mounted Alabama state troopers, There was a brief stand-off.

Then it happened - the billyclub ( a policemen's nightstick), beatings, the stamping horses, the tear gas, and the frantic, running marchers. Television cameras and still cameras alike forever captured that violent fragment of American history.

The television media played the scene over and over again. The print media decried this unprovoked attack. The New York Times commented regarding the outrage. "The scene in Selma resembled that in a police state. Heavily armed men attacked the marchers. . . If this is described as law enforcement, it is misnamed . . . It disgraces not only the state of Alabama but every citizen of the country in which it can happen." The New York Times, "Incident at Selma," March 9, 1965.

The nation saw it and was repulsed. Rightly so. The unfortunate scene was repeated with slight variations in other cities in that tumultuous, troubling decade.

But when we left the sixties and early seventies behind, most of us thought we had left police brutality behind with them. We didn't. Beatings, kicking, broken arms, dislocated shoulders, cuts, bruises, pain compliance come-along holds and unbelievably, sexual molestation of women - all by uniformed police officers - have resurfaced in our nation en masse.

You mean you haven't heard the media outcry? Maybe it's because there hasn't been one.

In Atlanta the premeditated police brutality against members of Operation Rescue began against nonviolent rescuers.

Major Burnette publicly stated, "We're not going to allow Operation Rescue- as they say - to bring this city to its knees. Somebody's going to be brought to their knees all right, but it's not going to be the city of Atlanta . . . What we've told them, in no uncertain terms, is that they are not welcome to come here and engage in unlawful activities. . . They've had their genteel treatment. We're moving now toward treating them as the lawbreakers they are." Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 2, 1988, 1C.

Susan Jones, named changed, a thirty-five-year-old women who lives with her husband in Philadelphia, states, "[The police] lost control of themselves in the situation and just started throwing people out of the way, picking us up by our waists, dragging us away by our heels, by bending our arms, and by picking us up by our ears. . .

[As I waited on the pavement near the police bus,] I felt a body slammed into my back and looked up and it was father . . . ; and after he slammed into me, the police picked him up by his collar - they were choking him. His eyes were bugged out and it looked like he couldn't breathe as they picked him up and threw him into the bus. There was a woman who has been dragged by her feet to the bus and her blouse was up over her neck and she had horrible scrapes up and down her back.

Reverend Cary almost died from his injuries, but the low point of police behavior came from the man who originated the threats, Major Burnette. There were too many rescuers descending on the Hillcrest abortuary, doing the Atlanta crawl, for the police to keep all of them from slipping under the barricades and making their way to the door. As the rescuers approached the door on all fours, Major Burnette walked in front of one male rescuer and lifted his upper torso so that he sat erect on his knees. He then stepped back and kicked him. From the angle of the video, it is unclear whether Burnette's foot caught the man's face or upper chest. Nevertheless, the major's stand for justice sent the man tumbling backwards.

Major Burnette later commented, "I used my foot on occasion to stop someone who was illegally in the process of assaulting a legally operating business, I make no apologies for that." Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 7, 1988, 1A. John Stossel of ABC's "20/20" responded to Burnette's claims, "Wait, They weren't assaulting your police officers. They were crawling." "20/20," October 28, 1988. Public Safety Commissioner George Napper firmly supported his troops: ". . . overall I think we've done a hell of a job." Gwinnett Daily News, October 6, 1989, 1A.

Neither Major Burnette nor any other officers were disciplined in any way for their behavior. The police never publicly apologized or admitted that they had acted wrongly. No internal investigation ever occurred. So much for justice.

Mrs. Farris, in Brookline Boston, Mass had the joints in her jaw shattered, her shoulder dislocated, and required surgery for a prosthesis implant after Major Burnette took his show on the road to discuss his tactics with the Brookline Police Department. Following the visit of Major Burnette, the Brookline police became absolutely brutal.

Read the complete story, including letters from jail in:

Accessory to Murder, The Enemies, Allies, And Accomplices To The Death of Our Culture, by Randall A. Terry, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publisher, Inc. Brentwood, Tennessee.