On Nov. 30, approximately 400 people attended an event in support of the San Francisco 8 at Service Employee’s International Union Local 1199’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center.
Four of the San Francisco 8 who are out on bail attended the New York City forum: Ray Bourdeaux, Hank Jones, Harold Taylor and Francisco Torres.
Seven of the SF 8—Ray Michael Boudreaux, Henry Watson Jones, Richard Brown, Francisco Torres, Harold Taylor, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom)—are charged with killing a San Francisco police officer, John V. Young, in 1971. An eighth man, Richard O’Neal was arrested on conspiracy to murder police officers, but was not charged as a participant in the killing. Seven of the SF 8 are former Black Panthers.
Harold Taylor had been previously arrested for Young’s killing, along with John Bowman and Ruben Scott, in 1973. These charges were dropped once evidence surfaced that the police had tortured them to obtain phony confessions. Officials claim that 36 years later they have new evidence against the eight.
The Nov. 30 event featured a Q&A session facilitated by J. Soffiyah Elijah, an attorney and deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard University. During the session, four of the SF 8 gave shocking testimony of the torture they endured while in police custody. Police used electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags, and hot, wet blankets for asphyxiation.
The event also highlighted statements from Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim, who have been in prison for more than 30 years, and are currently incacerated in New York.
Kamau Franklin of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement emceed the event. Speakers included Bruce Richard, vice president of SEIU 1199, and Gil Noble, host of local WABC’s “Like It Is.” The event culminated with a performance by two great revolutionary poets.
The event was sponsored by dozens of progressive organizations including Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, NYC National Lawyers Guild and the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), among others.
The case of the SF8 is yet another example—along with Mumia Abu Jamal, the Cuban Five and the Move 9—of the the U.S. criminal “injustice” system relentlessly trying to criminalize those who represent the interests of the working class and the oppressed.
