Hundreds take streets to demand justice for Raymond Smoot

On the evening of June 14, hundreds of community activists and youth, African American and white, took over the streets surrounding Baltimore’s gigantic jail complex, which stretches for blocks. They chanted “Tear down the walls!” and “Tell the truth, stop the lies, Raymond Smoot didn’t have to die.”

Baltimore residents take the streets June 14 to demand justice for Raymond Smoot, killed May 14 by guards while awaiting trial for a minor charge.

Smoot was a prisoner in Baltimore’s Central Booking jail, which was built to process the many arrestees waiting for arraignment. On May 14 he was beaten to death by dozens of guards. While no guards have been charged yet with this death, it is considered a homicide. On June 10, eight guards were fired for their activities on the night he died.

Prison authorities are attempting to blame the actions of individual guards, rather than the repressive system that creates these conditions, for the many deaths and injuries in Central Booking.

Baltimore, June 14. Speaking is Minna Reese, sister of Debbie Epifanio, who died when denied medicine at Central Booking in Baltimore.

Following a rally outside Central Book ing, protesters marched for over an hour in record heat and briefly blocked traffic along the busy Greenmount Avenue corridor. They carried coffins and pictures along with banners and signs. Prisoners cheered from behind bars at the Eager Street section of City Jail.

The demonstration was called to protest both the brutal beating death of 52-year-old Smoot and growing police harassment and arrests in the community, along with abusive conditions at all of the city’s jails.

The city has adopted a policy of “zero tolerance,” which translates into mass arrests for the most minor infractions of the law. Police are given quotas of arrests they must meet. In this city of 650,000 people, there have been 100,000 arrests a year. Over the past three years, an average of more than one person a month has died while being held in Central Booking.

Calls for justice and unity

Donnetta Kidd, Smoot’s niece, spoke at an initial rally in front of Central Booking. Close to tears, she explained that the family wanted justice for all the victims. The crowd cheered her and urged her to continue.

Smoot’s family members have been actively seeking justice for the victim and organizing among their friends and the general community. Other relatives of victims of both police killings and of the jail system have come forth publicly to speak and organize. Some spoke at the rally, among them relatives of Joey Wilbon, who was beaten to death by Baltimore city police, and the sister and brother of Debby Epifanio, who died when she was denied medicines.

Daren Muhammad, an organizer for the rally and march and a leader with the Nation of Islam, called for unity. He indicted the system. “If you are poor, you are locked up. Being poor shouldn’t be a crime.” Muhammad is also a radio commentator for the “Final Analysis.”

Andre Powell of the All Peoples Congress exclaimed, “What we have accomplished tonight is amazing. Unity has brought together a diverse coalition of victims of police and jail abuse, their families, young and old, and all of the major community organizations.”

Students from local colleges also attended, along with youth who identify with anarchism, the Green Party, the NAACP and many other groups and individuals.