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The
Thomas Merton Center |
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Drop All Charges and Free an Innocent Man! The Thomas Merton Center supports the energy and advocacy of the many citizen activists involved in the Free Getu Coalition. As a member of that coalition, the Merton Center urges everyone concerned about justice and civil rights to learn about the actions of the Pittsburgh City Police and the Pittsburgh District Attorney's office in the case of Getu Berhanu Tewolde.
Getu, a legal immigrant from Ethiopia, is living through a nightmarish attack on his civil rights. It began on February 1, 2002 when he was traveling by bus from Washington DC to Denver. On that day, he was detained, beaten, and arrested at the Greyhound station in Pittsburgh. For Getu, the trip to Denver detoured suddenly and violently into a six-week solitary detention in the Allegheny County jail's psychiatric ward.
His alleged crime? Getu had bumped into a Greyhound employee while reboarding his bus after a layover. The employee yelled at Getu, the driver ordered the bewildered Getu off the bus, and Getu obediently disembarked. Shortly afterward, a policeman, who did not identify himself as an officer to Getu, demanded that Getu sit. When Getu did not, the officer attacked and hit Getu in the head and face and 'disarmed' him of a pen which Getu had been holding with the nib in his palm.
Getu was charged with aggravated and simple assault, making terroristic threats, and causing and risking a catastrophe. On WPGH Fox 53, Commander William Valenta stated that the police made the arrest based on "the totality of the circumstances". WPXI, Fox News, and the Tribune-Review reported that the FBI's anti-terrorism task force investigated the incident and determined that no basis for federal terrorism charges existed.
Despite an apparent lack of evidence to support the charges and detention, the Pittsburgh Police placed Getu in solitary confinement in a psychiatric unit. There he received no Behavior Clinic examination, but was forced to take psychiatric medications. The solitary confinement lasted until March 15. Throughout that period, he was denied visits with lawyers, and saw one only briefly at a February 11 hearing.
The Free Getu Coalition has courageously and articulately demanded justice for Getu. It has organized pickets and a letter writing campaign to the District Attorney's office. Their efforts have greatly buoyed Getu's spirits, and were instrumental in securing Getu's release from jail. In addition, the D.A. has modified the charges against Getu by dropping the charge of causing and risking a catastrophe and adding a second charge of making terroristic threats. The charge of simple assault was also dropped.
In advocating for Getu's civil rights, the Free Getu Coalition works to protect the civil rights of all. At no time are the protections afforded by our long history of individual rights more important than during criminal prosecution, for it is at that point when zealous prosecution can wreak irreparable injury to one wrongly accused. Please join the Coalition's efforts to have all charges against Getu dropped. The Thomas Merton Center also demands a full investigation into the policies and practices of the Allegheny County psychiatric wards and seeks an end to the detention of individuals in psychiatric wards without a required Behavior Clinic examination.
On a broader level, Getu's case reveals the nascent ills inherent in policies and legislation based on the wave of fear that followed September 11. The legislation that sprang from that fear, the Patriot Act, overtly aimed to increase the powers of law enforcement at the expense of cherished civil liberties. Is fear for our physical safety sufficient justification for overreaching law enforcement and diminishment of civil rights? Perhaps now is an apt time to remember the words of an original American patriot - Benjamin Franklin - who said, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Thomas Merton Center
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"I am against war, against violence, against violent
revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but
nevertheless radical changes. Change is needed, and violence will not
really change anything: at most it will only transfer power from one set
of bull-beaded authorities to another."
Thomas
Merton |
