Jeremy Marks, an 18-year-old African American high school student, was
arrested in May 2010 and charged with felony “attempted lynching” by Los
Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley. What did Marks really do?
Marks witnessed and recorded video of an incident on May 5 involving a Los
Angeles Unified School District Police officer and a 15-year-old African
American student near Verdugo Hills High School. The police officer, Erin
Robles, beat the student, pepper sprayed him and brutally smashed his head
through a bus window because he had allegedly been smoking a cigarette. Many
other students witnessed the incident.
Marks quietly recorded video of the incident. The L.A. District Attorney’s
office claims he yelled, “Kick her a–,” and that amounted to trying to “incite
a riot during an attempt to free a suspect from police custody.” The charge is
baseless. Bystander videos of the incident show he said nothing.
Marks’ mother, Rochelle Pittman, explained to Liberation why she is fighting so hard
to win justice for her son: “If any of you have seen the video you, see that
Jeremy didn’t do anything wrong. I couldn’t stop there because they’re trying
to set my son up for something that he didn’t do.”
For recording video of the officer beating a student, Marks was thrown into
adult jail and left there to rot for nearly nine months. Although most of the
young people who witnessed the incident were arrested, only Marks was held
because he was on probation at the time. Even the student who was personally
involved in the incident with the officer was released immediately.
Marks’ bail was set at $155,000 after the D.A. falsely claimed that he was a
gang member. He was only able to get out of jail in late December after his
parents and supporters fought tooth-and-nail to get the word out and won
support. The outrageous nature of the case compelled a Google engineer to put
over $50,000 toward his bail.
Speaking about her son’s time in jail, Rochelle Pittman told Liberation: “Every time we go to court
there has been something different. First, the police officer did not write her
own police report. Then, they failed to appear in court two times. Then, they
continue the case for a month or two. It was a total nightmare. Jeremy was in
jail. All of this was new to us. He had just turned 18 three months before this
took place.”
Now, Marks is facing up to seven years in prison—all for catching
the police beating a student on camera.
Guilty of nothing
It is an outrage that Marks is facing any criminal charges whatsoever. The
case has delayed his education and had a tremendous impact on his family. Marks
did nothing wrong. He is guilty of nothing. In fact, he was absolutely right
for trying to guarantee accountability by recording the police.
Pittman told Liberation: “You
don’t do that to someone when they’re trying to do something right. You don’t
just take their schooling from them and throw them into an adult jail system.”
This case illustrates the deeply-rooted institutional racism of the U.S.
criminal “justice” system. Black
and Latino youth are faced daily with police harassment, racial profiling and
criminalization.
Prosecutors and police are also trying to “make an
example” of Marks so that people will stop videotaping police
brutality. Video recordings of police brutality have caught dozens of incidents
of police beating and, in some cases, killing people. Oscar Grant’s case became
known initially because cell phone footage showed the transit cop shooting him
in the back while he was lying on the ground. It is our right to hold police
accountable for their actions.
Community and progressive organizations are stepping up the fight for Marks.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation has been working with the ANSWER
Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) to support the case and demand
that all charges be dropped immediately. ANSWER members spoke at a press
conference hosted by the Congress on Racial Equality on Dec. 23—the day Marks
was released from jail. This followed the dedication of part of a 50-mile march
against the criminalization of youth to Marks by the Youth Justice Coalition.
ANSWER is also circulating a petition to demand all charges be dropped. And
more protests and press conferences are being organized.
Pittman’s tenacious spirit continues to shine through: “They’re afraid, and
they need to be because we’re not giving up and we’re coming straight at them
and we’re going to fight this.”
