Citizens vs Police Brutality/Press Release/Montreal Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - seahorse@odyssee.net Tue May 18 17:33:53 1999 Citizens Opposed to Police Brutality Press Release Last night, Monday May 17th, two members of Anti-Racist Action Montreal (ARA-M) were needlessly arrested. One of these people, who was holding her two year old child at the time, had a gun pointed at her by police officer D. Sentenne of Station 44. We denounce this police abuse, along with the danger posed by both racist and violent "skinheads" and police officers who want to play with their guns at every opportunity. Last night thirty individuals were taking part in an action called by ARA-M. They put up posters and handed out flyers to neighbours of Mathieu Dubois, who lives at 3888 Belanger. Mathieu Dubois is one of the neo-nazis who was arrested last September 17th following numerous violent attacks in Montreal-area bars, where a dozen or so neo-nazis would attack people at random with baseball bats and other weapons. When they were arrested the police seized an arsenal that included assault rifles with silencers and telescope sights. ARA-M had decided to alert the neighbourhood to the activities of M Dubois. The action was carried out peacefully. When people were leaving the police intervened. The father of Mathieu Dubois came out of his house with a baseball bat and started trying to intimidate members of ARA-M. This is when the first arrest was made. When the mother with her child asked officer Sentenne what her friend was being charged with she got a gun waved in her face. The police seemed more concerned by the anti-racist activists than by the father of Dubois who was proudly waving his weapon in the middle of the street! Officers Dupont (#4650), Senechal (#4045) and three offcers who refused to give their badge numbers (Mior, Bovin and Meloche) were present throughout this. It is an infraction against Quebec police regulations to refuse to provide one's badge number. The first woman who had been arrested was brought to the police Eastern Operations Center, and a dozen people followed to find out what charges would be laid against her. The same woman who had had the gun waved in her face had just left the Operations Center when she was arrested by five police officers for the ludicrous charge of obstructing police! As if the violence of neo-nazis was not enough, here we have also become victims of police repression. They will not buy our silence by giving us more reasons to rebel! Anti-Racist Action Montreal Citizens Opposed to Police Brutality For more information call 851-1880 (ARA) or 859-9065 (COBP) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-05.19.99-03:26:10-2864